O rio que corre no teu jardim
não tem lugar algum
no mundo dos teus sonhos
que é a tua casa.
É por isso que não sabes nunca quem tu és
ou que memórias nele correm.
O rio que corre no teu jardim
é um espelho da minha face distante
dos meus sorrisos que nunca foram
dos nossos suspiros de criança.
Como um desejo secreto
um portal escondido
um tesouro perdido;
o rio que corre no teu jardim
tem o meu nome
e por isso está sempre ali
tão perto e disponível
o som da água por entre as pedras
o cristal fresco feito de pedaços de azul
e o mundo inteiro para atravessar,
à espera que um dia
o teu olhar desperte e tu descubras
que há um rio que corre no teu jardim
só para ti.
Friday, 17 October 2008
Existence
Às vezes não há mais nada para além do silêncio. E da escuridão. É talvez aí que nos encontramos e nos perdemos ao mesmo tempo. Num lugar sem espaço, num momento para além do tempo. Às vezes olho em redor e não vejo mais do que a solidão que nos rodeia a todos. A inevitabilidade que desesperadamente - ainda que sem o admitirmos ou nos apercebermos - tentamos combater. Numa ou em muitas outras pessoas, num objectivo material, numa experiência espiritual, numa realidade monetária ou sexual. Lutamos, e por vezes fazêmo-lo com tal ímpeto que quase chegamos a acreditar que há um sentido, um rumo, um caminho. E a vida sabe bem.
E, ainda assim, por mais clara e simples que seja a estrada que percorremos, assim que olhamos para algo para além do exacto local que estamos a pisar, algo de desconcertante sucede. Como uma visão do passado e do futuro numa mistura heterogénea mas ainda assim única, ao mesmo tempo que a vista em nosso redor nos mostra pedaços de todos os caminhos alternativos - da vida que nunca poderemos viver mas que, ainda assim, parece estar ali tão perto.
Sós e incapazes de nos conhecermos ou saber para onde vamos, isolados numa realidade material que não nos deixa compreender sequer o que somos, e que, no fim de contas, separa-nos, mais do que nos aproxima, de tudo e de todos.
E, ainda assim, por mais clara e simples que seja a estrada que percorremos, assim que olhamos para algo para além do exacto local que estamos a pisar, algo de desconcertante sucede. Como uma visão do passado e do futuro numa mistura heterogénea mas ainda assim única, ao mesmo tempo que a vista em nosso redor nos mostra pedaços de todos os caminhos alternativos - da vida que nunca poderemos viver mas que, ainda assim, parece estar ali tão perto.
Sós e incapazes de nos conhecermos ou saber para onde vamos, isolados numa realidade material que não nos deixa compreender sequer o que somos, e que, no fim de contas, separa-nos, mais do que nos aproxima, de tudo e de todos.
Wednesday, 15 October 2008
The Book
Can you still remember the sweet gentle surface of the book we used to read? We swore we would never finish reading it. Each word as the most precious gift, each sentence as the most valuable jewel: we would read each piece of it like it was the last thing we would have ever read. And that's how we imagined it: you, me and our book, together, page by page, year by year, we would face eternity and live forever. Until one day we read the last page. It was yellow. And old. Most of all: we did not notice it - how could we ever suspect that we were actually getting to the end of it, that our eyes would soon rest in the words "the end" just to realize that nothing really lasts forever - not even the book we once started reading together. And so it was. You, me, and the last page of that old book that told us so many stories about the world and life and the universe. Stories of men and women, of lives and dreams and cultures. But in that moment, when our eyes met and our voices said it, "the end.", it was like those words were more powerful than anything else - like they could, by themselves, wipe out all that we had read.
The truth is those words didn't erase anything at all. All the moments, smiles and comments, all our attention towards each single word and punctuation and all the times our voices were one when sailing through the mystery of that book - they are all still alive in the world of memories. That's what "the end" truly means: the beginning of forever.
The truth is those words didn't erase anything at all. All the moments, smiles and comments, all our attention towards each single word and punctuation and all the times our voices were one when sailing through the mystery of that book - they are all still alive in the world of memories. That's what "the end" truly means: the beginning of forever.
Sunday, 8 June 2008
Dust to Dust - a proto-song
from gas to light
from light to life
we have traveled through time
in bodies and shells
so much older
than ourselves.
from life to love
from love to hope
we were strangers
with nothing to say
until our paths crossed
and in each other's eyes
we found the way.
from hope to distance
from distance to strangers
we flew so high
among the stars
but then we fell
and grew apart.
We ran away
without even knowing
we were throwing
away...
all we had.
from strangers to lovers
from lovers to one
and then there was only silence
endless nights
burning spears
and unspoken tears.
from strangers to lovers
from lovers to one
we lived it all
shining as stars
but soon all we shared
were memories and scars.
...
And though the light we shared
has now been lost
and though our ways
will never cross
Deep inside I know
that one day...
you will shine
again...
from light to life
we have traveled through time
in bodies and shells
so much older
than ourselves.
from life to love
from love to hope
we were strangers
with nothing to say
until our paths crossed
and in each other's eyes
we found the way.
from hope to distance
from distance to strangers
we flew so high
among the stars
but then we fell
and grew apart.
We ran away
without even knowing
we were throwing
away...
all we had.
from strangers to lovers
from lovers to one
and then there was only silence
endless nights
burning spears
and unspoken tears.
from strangers to lovers
from lovers to one
we lived it all
shining as stars
but soon all we shared
were memories and scars.
...
And though the light we shared
has now been lost
and though our ways
will never cross
Deep inside I know
that one day...
you will shine
again...
Sunday, 25 May 2008
The flying man
He had always considered himself a flying man, though he had never had the pleasure to be one. Sure he had travelled by plane across continents and oceans. He had even piloted a couple of them. However, for Guilmar, flying was much more than just being on the air, supported by some sort of structure. Flying was the ultimate freedom that one could only experience by himself.
Thus, since Guilmar made that inner discovery, he had worked towards accomplishing it. Sure he knew it was impossible, but since when is that a reason for giving up? However, aware of how crazy his aims were, he kept every single detail to himself. His dreams, his hopes, his thoughts. And though that meant he would never have a friendly voice, whispering him that he could do it, encouraging - or simply helping him facing the real world - he knew it was the only way. The road to heaven had to be walked alone.
Every night, when all were asleep, Guilmar would go out, silently, and head on to the shore. He didn’t know why, but he was convinced that the answer to his dream was there, in the freshness of the sea breeze. It was as if he could hear the voices of his own dreams whispering to him, pointing him towards the sea. The seagulls seemed to agree with it, specially when the sun started to rise and their wings started opening to the fresh morning air in grace. It was a vision that had always left him speechless.
However, even after years and years of meditation and searches, Guilmar wasn’t able to find the answer. Flying was still as impossible as it had always been. Only beings such as seagulls would ever be able to fly free on their own...
Thus, on one particular night, when Guilmar reached the shore, he knew that would be the last time. He would never come back there seeking for an answer that did not exist at all. Not there, not anywhere. That’s why he opened his arms, just at the limit of the cliff, feeling the fresh drops of ocean being thrown at him by the strong wind, and said no more. No more would he do that. Reality was upon him, and it was too strong to resist.
And yet, when he was about to turn his back on the world he had always searched for, something happened. All of a sudden, he felt... Free. As if the stronger and stronger wind, blowing from west, was enough to guide him to the clouds and beyond. So he faced the sea, once again, and he knew. The answer had always been there for him to listen. But he was deft, he had always been deft, because he was trying too hard.
On that night, Guilmar knew. He felt it with his entire mind, flowing through his body. Flying. It was possible after all. He just had to let it go. Leave it all behind. Just like the seagulls. And he did. At the sunrise, with the lives that had became his own brothers and sisters, Guilmar opened his wings and jumped alongside with them. He flew, and while reaching the clouds, he knew. He finally knew, and it was worthy. Even if it was the end.
Thus, since Guilmar made that inner discovery, he had worked towards accomplishing it. Sure he knew it was impossible, but since when is that a reason for giving up? However, aware of how crazy his aims were, he kept every single detail to himself. His dreams, his hopes, his thoughts. And though that meant he would never have a friendly voice, whispering him that he could do it, encouraging - or simply helping him facing the real world - he knew it was the only way. The road to heaven had to be walked alone.
Every night, when all were asleep, Guilmar would go out, silently, and head on to the shore. He didn’t know why, but he was convinced that the answer to his dream was there, in the freshness of the sea breeze. It was as if he could hear the voices of his own dreams whispering to him, pointing him towards the sea. The seagulls seemed to agree with it, specially when the sun started to rise and their wings started opening to the fresh morning air in grace. It was a vision that had always left him speechless.
However, even after years and years of meditation and searches, Guilmar wasn’t able to find the answer. Flying was still as impossible as it had always been. Only beings such as seagulls would ever be able to fly free on their own...
Thus, on one particular night, when Guilmar reached the shore, he knew that would be the last time. He would never come back there seeking for an answer that did not exist at all. Not there, not anywhere. That’s why he opened his arms, just at the limit of the cliff, feeling the fresh drops of ocean being thrown at him by the strong wind, and said no more. No more would he do that. Reality was upon him, and it was too strong to resist.
And yet, when he was about to turn his back on the world he had always searched for, something happened. All of a sudden, he felt... Free. As if the stronger and stronger wind, blowing from west, was enough to guide him to the clouds and beyond. So he faced the sea, once again, and he knew. The answer had always been there for him to listen. But he was deft, he had always been deft, because he was trying too hard.
On that night, Guilmar knew. He felt it with his entire mind, flowing through his body. Flying. It was possible after all. He just had to let it go. Leave it all behind. Just like the seagulls. And he did. At the sunrise, with the lives that had became his own brothers and sisters, Guilmar opened his wings and jumped alongside with them. He flew, and while reaching the clouds, he knew. He finally knew, and it was worthy. Even if it was the end.
The Past
It never goes away. Even when we are too busy to remember it. To feel the memories. Who we are, who we were. Where we came from. The past haunts us every second of our existence, from the moment we are born up until the end - whatever that is.
And still, life is tasty, it's wonderful. Hope all around, with or without the sun, the light or the gentle breeze.
And still, life is tasty, it's wonderful. Hope all around, with or without the sun, the light or the gentle breeze.
Time traveling
He had discovered a way to travel through time. Back to the past, without any machinery. The low-cost time-machine, one could call it. And though no-one had ever done it, he knew it was possible. Actually it just happened to him. All of a sudden.
Music, memories, happiness, transcendence. All or any of those have kept the key for time traveling for a long, long time. The secret is the emotion, and we humans need something to invoke it, to stimulate it. However, once that happens, the resemblance between emotions and moments gets us so rapidly, that we don't even feel the change, the time-traveling distance.
Music, memories, happiness, transcendence. All or any of those have kept the key for time traveling for a long, long time. The secret is the emotion, and we humans need something to invoke it, to stimulate it. However, once that happens, the resemblance between emotions and moments gets us so rapidly, that we don't even feel the change, the time-traveling distance.
Sunday, 27 April 2008
A Cell Called Earth
Does anyone know what is the purpose of all this? Why do we struggle for survival whenever something threatens us? Does any living creature understands the nature of its own life and death, or of life itself? The answer, as far as we can tell, remains unknown.
From the moment we are born, in a biological point of view, something changes. The Universe changes. As if there was some sort of physical process that can literally give a life of its own to a set of non-living components. And though we are not born with a conscience, neither in a biological, nor in a more conventional point of view, the truth is, human life does not depend on it. Consciousness, many say, is one of the deepest mysteries of the human nature, something that - as far as we can tell - clearly separates us from most of "the others". Some - or maybe the majority - of the most preeminent minds would even say without a blink that, in fact, we are intelligent beings. Free-willing, creative, innovative. Nevertheless, is it really true? Do we really control our lives, our options? And are we really creative and free-willing as we often believe, or are we just well treated slaves, who will do all the work without even knowing (do our cells know what they are?)?
Despite all the claims, and the enormous excitement in the XX century in explaining the origin of life, the truth is that, at the moment, we have absolutely no idea of how to create it, what it really is, if anything, or why it happened. We can only tell that it should be quite easy to begin - to get. Mainly due to the fact that it started really early in our own planet - almost as soon as it cooled down enough. Many still believe in a progressive and continuous path from complex molecules to life, but the evidence, despite the claims, is far from convincing, and, in most cases, purely speculative.
While it does seem reasonable to sustain that there was a certain logical path, the incapacity to recreate it in the lab should at least make us reconsider. Maybe we got it wrong. Completely wrong, or maybe just part of it. It is a fact that complex molecules could have formed in the primitive Earth. In fact, they are almost everywhere in the galaxy, mainly in the interstellar medium (which we don't really understand why). But life, well, that's really something else.
If the subject was something else, scientists would have already moved on. Trying different approaches and alternatives is a must when one is determined in knowing the answer to some particular question or questions, though the sensitivity of the subject seems to be pushing everyone back. But what if there is an answer?
We do know particular things about life: it can resist even in the most bizarre conditions - the extremely hot or cold, or even in the most "toxic" environments. Thus, if we want to explain the origin of life, and if we do believe that we need i) enough energy ii) a lot of carbon and other atoms to make molecules, then what IF life is, in fact, created in stars? Maybe it can only be created as a side-effect of a supernovae explosion. Or maybe it can only happen in some sort of strange conditions and space, and it is then spread.
Furthermore, why does life points in a direction which doesn't look random at all? It is not a novelty that, at the moment, just like it happened in the past, life is auto-regulating the entire planet. And it has done so for a long, long time in the past. Without life, Earth would definitely be different from what it is now. No oxygen, no water, probably as dry and hot or as dry and cold as any other random planet orbiting its star.
However, for some reason, life seems to have a point, a purpose. It does take its time, and, sure, when we look at the individual efforts, at the individual lives, it almost seems like there is no pattern, no sign of design, of inherent intelligence behind it. All that changes when we start looking carefully, and doing so in larger and larger time-scales - and in larger space-scales as well. as far as we know, life on Earth began with the simplest cells, similar to bacteria. For a long, long time, they lived on their own. Until something else happened, besides starting to be able to get most of their energy from the sun: complexity. If life is random, and has no purpose, why would it tend to a higher and more complex organization? It is not "natural" to achieve a greater complexity than the one that sustains the minimum energy possible. So why would bacteria, or simpler cells like it, start building a society big enough to male it a living being on its own: an eucharyotic cell? Was that what happened in the first place when the first bacteria were "created"? Random molecules tending to such a complexity that they became ONE?
However, that would be just two lucky events, right? Yes, life has to be random, how could we explain it otherwise? So why did cells, which were made of cells, started becoming cells of something larger, ultimately building new beings, like us?
Slowly, like a virus or a tremendous infection, life has conquered the planet, and made a slave of it. Controlling it. Regulating it. And today, if we would dare to look at the mirror, or from space, maybe - just maybe - we would be able to see that life is not stopping. Life won't stop in its quest for complexity. For growth. For expansion. Actually it is getting more effective. Faster and faster. Greedy, one might say.
Thus, while we are too busy living our free-will lives, the truth is we have failed to see that we are no longer the living beings which some sort of cells give life to: we are already the cells of a much larger living being. Something that is already bigger than our own planet.
Will it ever stop?
From the moment we are born, in a biological point of view, something changes. The Universe changes. As if there was some sort of physical process that can literally give a life of its own to a set of non-living components. And though we are not born with a conscience, neither in a biological, nor in a more conventional point of view, the truth is, human life does not depend on it. Consciousness, many say, is one of the deepest mysteries of the human nature, something that - as far as we can tell - clearly separates us from most of "the others". Some - or maybe the majority - of the most preeminent minds would even say without a blink that, in fact, we are intelligent beings. Free-willing, creative, innovative. Nevertheless, is it really true? Do we really control our lives, our options? And are we really creative and free-willing as we often believe, or are we just well treated slaves, who will do all the work without even knowing (do our cells know what they are?)?
Despite all the claims, and the enormous excitement in the XX century in explaining the origin of life, the truth is that, at the moment, we have absolutely no idea of how to create it, what it really is, if anything, or why it happened. We can only tell that it should be quite easy to begin - to get. Mainly due to the fact that it started really early in our own planet - almost as soon as it cooled down enough. Many still believe in a progressive and continuous path from complex molecules to life, but the evidence, despite the claims, is far from convincing, and, in most cases, purely speculative.
While it does seem reasonable to sustain that there was a certain logical path, the incapacity to recreate it in the lab should at least make us reconsider. Maybe we got it wrong. Completely wrong, or maybe just part of it. It is a fact that complex molecules could have formed in the primitive Earth. In fact, they are almost everywhere in the galaxy, mainly in the interstellar medium (which we don't really understand why). But life, well, that's really something else.
If the subject was something else, scientists would have already moved on. Trying different approaches and alternatives is a must when one is determined in knowing the answer to some particular question or questions, though the sensitivity of the subject seems to be pushing everyone back. But what if there is an answer?
We do know particular things about life: it can resist even in the most bizarre conditions - the extremely hot or cold, or even in the most "toxic" environments. Thus, if we want to explain the origin of life, and if we do believe that we need i) enough energy ii) a lot of carbon and other atoms to make molecules, then what IF life is, in fact, created in stars? Maybe it can only be created as a side-effect of a supernovae explosion. Or maybe it can only happen in some sort of strange conditions and space, and it is then spread.
Furthermore, why does life points in a direction which doesn't look random at all? It is not a novelty that, at the moment, just like it happened in the past, life is auto-regulating the entire planet. And it has done so for a long, long time in the past. Without life, Earth would definitely be different from what it is now. No oxygen, no water, probably as dry and hot or as dry and cold as any other random planet orbiting its star.
However, for some reason, life seems to have a point, a purpose. It does take its time, and, sure, when we look at the individual efforts, at the individual lives, it almost seems like there is no pattern, no sign of design, of inherent intelligence behind it. All that changes when we start looking carefully, and doing so in larger and larger time-scales - and in larger space-scales as well. as far as we know, life on Earth began with the simplest cells, similar to bacteria. For a long, long time, they lived on their own. Until something else happened, besides starting to be able to get most of their energy from the sun: complexity. If life is random, and has no purpose, why would it tend to a higher and more complex organization? It is not "natural" to achieve a greater complexity than the one that sustains the minimum energy possible. So why would bacteria, or simpler cells like it, start building a society big enough to male it a living being on its own: an eucharyotic cell? Was that what happened in the first place when the first bacteria were "created"? Random molecules tending to such a complexity that they became ONE?
However, that would be just two lucky events, right? Yes, life has to be random, how could we explain it otherwise? So why did cells, which were made of cells, started becoming cells of something larger, ultimately building new beings, like us?
Slowly, like a virus or a tremendous infection, life has conquered the planet, and made a slave of it. Controlling it. Regulating it. And today, if we would dare to look at the mirror, or from space, maybe - just maybe - we would be able to see that life is not stopping. Life won't stop in its quest for complexity. For growth. For expansion. Actually it is getting more effective. Faster and faster. Greedy, one might say.
Thus, while we are too busy living our free-will lives, the truth is we have failed to see that we are no longer the living beings which some sort of cells give life to: we are already the cells of a much larger living being. Something that is already bigger than our own planet.
Will it ever stop?
Thursday, 13 March 2008
The Observer
Destined to watch and observe. Knowing every single detail of the earth and the heavens, but always forbidden to intervene. Only watch he could. Passively, hidden. And, once in a while, full of the deepest fury.
Tuesday, 5 February 2008
Into pieces
I break myself into a million of pieces
Rolling along the waves
Flying across the skies,
And whenever I try to put myself together
I realize
There’s no-one here.
Rolling along the waves
Flying across the skies,
And whenever I try to put myself together
I realize
There’s no-one here.
Stars
For eternity we’ve dreamed
Stared.
Seeking light.
Purity.
Stars as Gods.
And an eternity it took
To realize
Purity, god, light and wonder
Are no more
Than the Hellest Hell.
Stars.
Stared.
Seeking light.
Purity.
Stars as Gods.
And an eternity it took
To realize
Purity, god, light and wonder
Are no more
Than the Hellest Hell.
Stars.
Looking without our eyes
There is so much out there that we cannot see. Wonders. Phenomena that we can only imagine. And it's all because we have always lived here, surrounded by the light of our sun, struggling to adapt and survive on this planet. Nevertheless, nothing can stop us from imagining how it would be if life was something that was happening in a much broader region of space, instead of being limited by a planet. What if life was struggling to survive on an entire solar system - or even in a galaxy (or in a large portion of the universe? Sure we could come up with a huge amount of arguments that would clearly show that this hypothetic scenario is, at least, non-sense. However, if by some way, life could evolve and become a solar-system, galactic or a universal phenomena, then it would have to adapt "its creatures" to the extremely "weird" environment. Beings which could only see visible light would definitely be eliminated rapidly (unless they somehow could come up with a smart "external" solution, like human beings). Thus, multi-wavelength vision would be highly important, not only to search for points of interest, but also to probe some of the biggest dangerous along the galaxy. What other changes would have to take place? Will they ever happen?
Monday, 28 January 2008
The beginning
And so there was energy and matter in a gracious dance. Turning into one another. However, nothing lasts forever, and the excitement and joy ended up increasing distances, cooling the environment. And energy and matter were no longer connected as they were in the beginning. Nevertheless, there was a different dance now. Nuclei, and then, all of a sudden, electrons started pairing up with them. And there was a flash, when all the photons became free. And so they flew in all directions, in a loudly joy, singing songs of the very beginning - something that nothing could remember clearly now.
And then it was like time was running faster and faster, while the mysterious dark matter was shaping the distribution of matter that would eventually ended up forming the first galaxies. Those, getting bigger and bigger, formed the first stars, huge amounts of gas, giving up an unimaginable quantity of energy, specially in the ultraviolet domain. Nevertheless, such intensity can not last for long - and they died almost a moment after they were born. But they did not left without leaving their mark. Forever. With their enormous explosions, they created the first metals, and triggered star formation in all the nearby regions. Soon, a new generation of stars would be born, in a much richer environment. Some would even form planets. Us. Living beings.
Is it over already? Or was it just the beginning?
And then it was like time was running faster and faster, while the mysterious dark matter was shaping the distribution of matter that would eventually ended up forming the first galaxies. Those, getting bigger and bigger, formed the first stars, huge amounts of gas, giving up an unimaginable quantity of energy, specially in the ultraviolet domain. Nevertheless, such intensity can not last for long - and they died almost a moment after they were born. But they did not left without leaving their mark. Forever. With their enormous explosions, they created the first metals, and triggered star formation in all the nearby regions. Soon, a new generation of stars would be born, in a much richer environment. Some would even form planets. Us. Living beings.
Is it over already? Or was it just the beginning?
Hard times
It's hard to overcome all the problems and difficulties that life loves to offer us all the time. However, when we are determined enough, there will always be a way. A solution. A hope. No matter how impossible the task might seem, or how tuff it looks for the people around you. The secret for life is the secret for your own success: learning to defy the deepest and most fundamental laws of physics, by using them against them.
Sometimes
And it all comes down to the moment when you look at the sky and figure out that somehow you last track of your own life. Your past. And how can you paint the future with your hands when you don't even know where you came from? How to set the route when you have no idea of your birthplace?
Wednesday, 9 January 2008
Star dust
And so it began. It was created. Just like all the other things that we are familiar with in this planet we call home: Earth. And no matter if it is a human emotion, art, poetry, music, technology, life, or dreams. Because they all come from the same Mothers: stars and their violent, energetic and amazing explosions as supernovas. We are more than just souls stuck in bodies made of star dust: we are stars' suns and daughters.
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