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Fernando Pessoa and his Heteronyms: Alberto Caeiro Fernando Pessoa is a melancholic Portuguese poet and writer who created heteronyms (alter egos with different personalities and writing styles) to express his thoughts  in his writing. Fernando Pessoa created a total of 80 heteronyms but the three who have the most extensive body of work and that are most fleshed out are Albert Caeiro, Ricardo Reis, Alvaro De Campos. I am currently reading "A Little Larger than the Entire Universe" which is a collection of Pessoa's poetry. I want to share some of his work with the world so I will be highlighting his poetry as well as the poetry of the three heteronyms mentioned above.  This is an appreciation post- I want to appreciate Pessoa and I want to share writing that has helped me cope through these difficult times. His poetry is peace for me. Alberto Caeiro's Beautiful Lines  Today we start with Alberto Caeiro a self proclaimed "naturalist" he stated ...

Book Destiny I'm beginning to believe that books are meant to be read at a certain moment or time. A decade ago a friend gifted me Blindness by Jose Saramago but it was too dark and depressing so I refused to read it. I like happy endings specially back then because my real life seemed tragic enough or so I thought. The book remained with me for 10 years, untouched. Yes I know I'm really good at saving things- specially books. Anyways I digress, one day I found myself doing my first solo trip and the destination was Portugal. My goal was to see beautiful things, eat and drink delicious things, learn  history and have new experiences but specially to read and write. Somehow the thought came into my mind that I ought to read a book by a Portuguese author. A way to pay respect to the place, read from an author of that place to understand the culture and its people better and to appreciate and celebrate their literary achievements. This is now a tradition actually. I beg...

                Afterlife On April 4th my father passed away from complications due to coronavirus. I rushed to New York driving alone for 11 hours to be here with family. To make sure that he would be laid to rest one way or another and to be there for my stepmom, brother and my younger siblings.  After a painful ordeal I am now living with my stepmom and my younger siblings.  I dream about my father and I share the dreams and I connect them to who he was and my relationship with him. Last night I dreamt we were dancing salsa. I suck at dancing salsa and I was afraid to do it in the dream but my father told me to try that it would be fine. We struggled but nailed every step. See my father was the one who taught me how to dance. Ironically not salsa of which I still only know the basic steps but merengue, tipico and bachata. Then I analyze his every word and action and wonder if there's a message. Maybe he's telling me...