Hello everyone I'm Rafael and welcome to the 75th episode of my poems podcast, where I read poems, talk about them, and try to demystify the art of poem writing. 

News bit: This week I bought some new TV shows and HD movies on itunes, so I'm currently watching those.       

This week's poem is called "Stars in the eyes" that was inspired by myself and people around me. The guest poem is called "A thousand whales" that was inspired by a dream, from http://brucedreamer.deviantart.com. Now I'm going to read my poem then the guest poem, I'll talk a bit about both, how I made mine, and a few tips and tricks for those of you who would like to start writing poems but find that too scary or mystical to even dare to try.

Stars in the eyes

Everyone is born,

With stars in the eyes,

Millions,

Then thousands,

Then only a few,

Then nothing.

Everyone is born,

Without knowing anything of the world,

These million wonders,

These thousand horrors,

Who shed,

These few tears,

Then nothing.

Everyone is born,

Different,

But on the same star,

Million others surround us,

But not in space,

But in the eyes of the observer which,

Thousands of thoughts later,

Are only some white spots without interest,

Then nothing.

Let's save the stars,

In the eyes of people,

So that nothing,

Bad comes,

So that from a few,

We go to thousands,

Then to millions,

Then with the re,

Birth of the dream,

That keeps us awake,

That allows us to advance,

To find another end.

Here I really wanted to tell a story, and to do that let's start by the start. 

Everyone is born with stars in the eyes. Just like the "everyone is created equal" saying, this one shows that when you're born you have that kind of glint in your eyes that makes you innocent, curious, wanting to discover the world and learn from it. 

Now the next three lines are an accelerated view of birth, adulthood, and death. First you have millions of stars, then you have only thousands as life's hardship start to get to you, then you have a few, as you get old and embittered, and finally you have none as you die.

I wanted to start with the same sentence, because I wanted to tell the story 3 times over, and 3 times differently. Just because each people has a different life, I wanted to show at least 3 different views on it. 

So everyone is born without knowing anything of the world. Well that's obvious that when you're born you don't know anything, and you start to learn to walk, to talk, and so on and so forth. He or she will also discover the million wonders of the world, but also the thousand horrors. I'm an optimistic guy so I said that there was more wonders than horrors in the world, which makes me feel better about it. I also finished the paragraph with the same sentence, to emphasize even more the start and end of everything. 

Everyone is born different, which is exactly what I've said before, it was just more subtly done, here I really wanted to make it clear. But on the same star, as saying planet would have been too common. Million others surround us, which is true, you could even say billion others. Now to be completely honest with you, I cannot remember what I really wanted to say with those next sentences, it's been a while since I've written this poem. What I think it means it's that the beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, but even more than that, after some time (a thousand thoughts later), people are not interested in the others anymore, but only on themselves. 

So the last paragraph is more a call for help, but also of course the end of the story. So let's save the stars in the eyes of the people, so that nothing bad comes. So that we reverse the tendency and we go from a few to thousands and then millions! Then the humanity will be reborn from a dream, a beautiful one non the less! But it's a dream that's keeping us awake to allow us to advance and find another end, than the one which is currently planned by every prophet! 

So this week's guest poem is called a thousand whales, and I found the title really original, and the poem really sweet and well done, so let's get to it.

Oh my old love!

abandoned,

A thousand whales rushing to you.

My hand stretched to the air.

Quiet storm, indifferent face.

An injured whale can be seen ashore,

So my love can be found at your feet.

A tear drowned in the vast sea,

so my love disappeared with the wind.

Another grain added to the beach.

To start, it certainly starts strong, with something like an ode to his old love.

A thousand whales rushing to you, that certainly can be a scary sight, or a beautiful one, depending on how you see things. My hand stretched to the air. Here I would imagine that he's in a boat and that by doing that he's trying to find out from where the wind is coming. A quiet storm, that's certainly some kind of contradiction, but that's what's making it all the more interesting and intriguing. Indifferent face, well just like the storm, it's quiet but indifferent. An injured whale can be seen ashore. Stranded and being unable to go back into the water by itself, as well as injured, that's a bad turn of events for this animal, but for us the reader, it's great because it makes the poem all the more interesting, as we're starting to wonder what is going to happen to this whale. 

So my love can be found at your feet, that's a great image that can be interpreted with the meaning that this guy is kneeling at the feet of the girl, just the way you'll do when you're in love with someone. A tear drowned in the vast see, that's certainly a powerful comparison that shows that no matter how much he cried it wouldn't make any difference. So my love disappeared with the wind, it's another comparison I like, as I can totally see the wind coming and taking all the love from you and carrying away. Another grain added to the beach, same comparison as the tear with the ocean, it's nothing special, it's just another grain added to the beach. 

So that's all for today good folks for this week's episode of my poems podcast, where I read poems talk about them and try to demystify the art of poem writing. So I hope you still have some stars sparkling in your eyes, if you don't then you need to go and find them again. I also hope your love is not like this whale stranded on the shore, but more like a balloon flying high. 

I wish you all a very good week, and lots of nice things, see ya!