It’s been more than a year since I have been away from this blog and writing, generally. Words seem rusty and disused, and the world outside has twisted and contorted itself in ever more lexicons of cruelty.
Humanity has been turned into soundbytes and fleeting visual catastrophes that seem to lead to no impact with regards to change for the better.

Obnoxiousness is the measure of success in most fields and finance and politics lead the way! The pretext of social democracy is stripped bare and we are living on a planet in which billionaires have replaced politicians in decision making and interference in geopolitics.

The rights of women and trans individuals alike have been trampled in the United States, the country that brays the loudest in telling the rest of the world about human rights. Clearly the definition of human is derived from a patriarchal white supremacist view of the world when it comes to the U.S’ domestic and international policies.

Amidst this backdrop of human havoc, the very nature of this part of the cosmos has been devastated to a point of quantum change , the very ice packs and glaciers are cracking and melting, the deforested land collapses without the nerve centre of trees and mangroves to hold it up and in, the sky is littered with junk for profit and the overseeing eyes of Big Brother which we also rely on for our internet and telephone services.

Chemicals have permeated every aspect of the elements around us from toxic wildfire smoke to polluted soil and waters. Plastics have choked the seas and are found inside our own human bodies. This time of deep loss and transformation of the world around us for the worse, can make hope difficult, ephemeral, and elusive.

But the very nature we destroy gives us a sense of the space time continuum. In looking back we are seized with nostalgia but in looking forward we are imbued with questions— questions about whether the future, like our planet, will be habitable?

In the midst of uncertainties, art, writing and music continue to give pause for thought, exploration, and delight. Today’s piece offers us a smorgasbord of visual art from a wide variety of sources. I hope to share more art, and culture on this blog again after my hiatus. Thus, my title for today’s blog come from the poem:

¿Con qué he de irme?

¿Nada dejaré en pos de mi

sobre la tierra?

¿Cómo ha de actuar mi

corazón?

¿Acaso en vano venimos a

vivir,

a brotar sobre la tierra?

Dejemos al menos flores

Dejemos al menos cantos”.

How should I go?
I will leave nothing behind me
on earth?
How should my heart act?
Have we come in vain to
live,
to spring up from the ground?
Let’s at least leave flowers!
Let’s at least sing!

from Nezalcoyotl, who Wikipedia tell us: (April 28, 1402 – June 4, 1472) was a scholar, philosopher (tlamatini), warrior, architect, poet and ruler (tlatoani) of the city-state of Texcoco in pre-Columbian era Mexico.

Thanks for your patience and welcome to any new readers who are putting their ears to the ground with me! My next blogs will celebrate nature, music, social justice and the beauty of the written word!