Kenia's Wednesday Challenge

When Shawnacy interviewed me for the Real Toads and asked where I found inspiration for writing, I remember quoting darling poet Manoel de Barros:

All the things whose value can be

disputed over a long-distance spitting challenge

are good subject for poetry.

A man who only owns a comb

and a tree

is good subject for poetry.

And I thought it was about time to introduce  you to another remarkable Brazilian man of letters!

Manoel de Barros is a 94-year-old contemporary Brazilian poet (yes, he lives!). People often refer to him as ‘the poet of small things’, though he is the owner of a big work and amazing smile. He was born in 1916 in the wetlands region of the country (Pantanal). He received Brazil’s highest literary awards and his life and work were the subject of Joel Pizzini’s 1989 short film O Caramujo Flor (Snail Flower).

But what I really wanted to show you is the magnificence of his poetry. His surrealist worlds invite people to reinvent themselves and their relationships with all living creatures and inanimate objects.

Man's biggest wealth
is his incompleteness.
With this I am wealthy.
Words that accept me the way
I am—I don't accept.
I can't stand being just
a guy who opens
doors, who pulls valves,
who watches the watch, who
buys bread at 6 in the afternoon,
who goes out there,
who sharpens the pencil,
who sees the grape, etc., etc.
Forgive me.
But I need to be Others
I intend to revitalize man
by using butterflies.

  

Portrait of the artist as a thing: butterflies

They exchange trees for me.

Insects develop me.

I can already love flies the same way I love myself.

Silences practice me.

Mid afternoon a gift of old cans gets stuck in my eye

But I’m predominantly  lilies.

Plants want my mouth to grow over.

I’m free for the birds satisfaction.

I’m kind toward the vultures.

Frogs want to be like me.

I want to christen the waters.

I can already see the smell of the sun.

My world is small, Lord.

There is a river and a few trees.
The back of our house faces the water.
Ants trim the edge of Grandmother’s rose beds.
In the backyard, there is a boy
and his wondrous tin cans.
His eye exaggerates the blue.
Everything from this place has a pact
            with birds.
Here if the horizon reddens a little,
            the beetles think it’s a fire.
Where the river starts a fish,
                        river me a thing
River me a frog
River me a tree.
In the evenings, an old man plays his flute
to invert the sunsets.

Manoel de Barros's poetry in English can be found on Amazon.com 

Challenge: 

Most of Manoel de Barros's work reflects his indeliable bond with nature around him. Fauna and Flora are recurrent themes in his poetry, plants and trees gain feelings, responsibilities and a voice in his poems, animals lives are entangled to men's all through his writings as if they were one. Today's challenge asks of you to write about this connection of men and nature, about how you connect with the pulsing life around you. Even if you live in a concrete jungle, you're still invited to write. When you're finished, please link your poem below and don't forget to link back to the Real Toads. Happy writing!

Nature will bear the closest inspection.  She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf, and take an insect view of its plain.  ~ Henry David Thoreau