October 6, 2024 7:21 am

Meeting Bench

LIE AND TRUTH – Poetry, by Pornpen Hantrakool

LIE AND TRUTH There was a mysterious land; its long southern parts extended to the great sea. No one knew much about it. People in the land had a strong belief that they lived in a unique land of peace and wealth. So, ever happy they were and they had a positive habit of smiling. This beautiful myth misled them …

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IN THE LAND OF DON QUIJOTE DE LA MANCHA – Travel to Consuegra, Spain

If you have planned your trip to Spain, remember that there is a path – the ruta de Don Qujote – which retraces the places described by Cervantes, that is, the ability to linger just off of each of the twelve mills (all arranged on the rocky Colle Calderico, all baptized with names extracted from the work of Cervantes). Coming, …

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WHEN A BRANCH CROSSES OVER THE WALL – Poetry, by Jung Kut-byo

WHEN A BRANCH CROSSES OVER THE WALL When a drooping willow branch crossed over the wall, it may not have been her work alone. If the distant root, whose face she hadn’t seen even once, and the flowers and leaves–who had put their flesh together and washed their hands of each other, hadn’t supported her as one body, the branch …

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BETWEEN FRIENDS – Poetry, by Friedrich Nietzsche

BETWEEN FRIENDS Beautiful is silent together, even better is to laugh together, under the silk cloth of the sky, down into the moss, bent over a book, laughing loud and friendly between friends, and find out the whiteness of the teeth. If I have succeeded, we remain silent. If I failed, we laugh about, and we do still worse, worse …

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LETTER TO A FRIEND – Poetry, by Ah Xin

LETTER TO A FRIEND Let me tell you about these sheep. In many ways they are like the ocean creatures you know so well: in the benevolence of the creator, they bear children, each has a face of a lad or an old man. These days they are on the hills, a tight flock, a warm flock, with a thin …

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PARADISE IN MINIATURE – Koufonissi, Greece: falling asleep, listening to the wind

A Paradise in miniature, is a place hard to forget. One of the most beautiful Greek islands, with only 4 square kilometers of surface. It is a quiet island, no traffic, but with many beautiful beaches (and an elegant nightlife for those who do not sleep). The inhabitants have always lived by fishing, but they do their best to refurbish …

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CATFISH IN THE WOODS – Poetry, by Yoko Danno

CATFISH IN THE WOODS My dog suddenly runs off, slipping the leash startled by a wild beast. Without blowing a conch, the giant fish-god tosses and turns, in the deep ocean bed, heaving his bloated belly in his millenary sleep. The mischievous catfish plays dirty tricks, belching out muddy billows over homes, rice paddies boats, cars, nuclear plants, guzzling them …

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FREDERICK CHILDE HASSAM (1859/1935), AMERICAN PAINTER – A pioneer impressionist painter, whose work always retained a definitely native flavor

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THE DISEASE OF HASSAM – As soon as he could, Hassam entirely devoted himself to painting

FREDERICK CHILDE HASSAM 1/4 – Of the many ways to express the visual art he knew those of oil and tempera paintings, watercolors and pastels, but he was also an engraver, designer and illustrator. His career, however, began with an illustrator and watercolor painter. He will also go to Paris to follow courses in painting and drawing of human figures, …

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EAR – Poetry, by Shiraishi Kazuko

EAR Pretending to hear, nothing her earlobe, is sleeping, all the world is far away now. It does not reach       as far as her ear, a thin fairy of pleasure, parched like a honey bee, on the woman’s earlobe       sometimes, completely stops hearing sounds. Suddenly captured by a thick lip, she squirms in a sea of torture, of cruel teeth, …

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