Poetry lives somwhere in the unclear borderland between words and life. It’s recognized only by the feeling.

The words tore down
the fence around my heart.
As free
as only words can be
they were scattered by the wind

They wild-sowed
a beautiful thought
and flew further

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This poem will take part in Poetry Street, which forms a part of Östhammar’s Festival of Words 2014.
Bilden tog jag i Dubai 2011

Juan had his favourite phrase, which he used in almost all situations. However, although he had lived many years in Sweden and spoke Swedish fluently, this phrase was in Spanish. He didn’t feel right about using it in another language.

I heard the phrase for the first time when the neighbours son was learning to ride the bicycle and just hit the ground for the third time:

“Inténtalo otra vez pero diferente” – Try one more time, but differently.

Yes, it was that easy. If you really want to achieve something, but don’t succeed, stop for a moment, think about what you were doing and how you could do it in a different way, and then – try again!

The neighbour’s son managed the bicycle. Of course he got his share of bumps and bruises, but I’ve got a feeling that he saved many tears, compared to other children. Somehow you just don’t need to cry that much when you calmly note the fact that you’ve just fallen another time and are busy figuring out what you could change for next attempt.

I heard Juan whisper the same words to himself when he just lost his job… and when his thin pancakes came out as an overfried and gluey mess.

But it turned out that his wisdom not only was applied to disasters. When the company he had started had such a success that it was acquired and he got so much money that he could have retired at the age of 45, he said exactly the same thing “Otra vez pero diferente”! He already nurtured ten new ideas and was thinking which one would be most interesting to turn into reality as his next project.

When he turned 50 I gave him a couple of specially designed cuff links with the letters O.V.P.D. that he was wearing whenever he had an opportunity. Not for that long, though, since his illness took over.

But I believe we’re going to see more of him. As he was lying in his bed during his final stage of life, he looked so calm and settled that I was almost immediately convinced that our souls are reborn and he somehow knew about this, when he winked at me and pronounced what turned out to be his final words:

“Otra vez pero diferente!”

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The image was generated on http://www.jjchandler.com/tombstone/
PS! Juan is a fictive person, just as much as the image was generated.

(This text isn’t too easy to translate, since I make use of some double meanings. But I’ll try to give you something better than an automated translation, at least. 🙂 )

On you your birthday, you not only complete another year
You make decades
months
and days more complete
by filling them with life
joy of life
meaning
and energy

You not only complete another of your years,
you comple years of other people
days of other people
other peoples’ lives
with direction
with strength
with meaning
with … life.

You not only complete another year today
You make life more complete
… every day

We choose our life ourselves.
The tricky thing – and the big opportunity –
lies in that we make this choice every second –
through our thoughts, feelings, reactions etc.
But often we do this unconsciously.