CAMELOT FANTASIES

Sometimes Mysteriously



 by Luis Omar Salinas

 Sometimes in the evening when love
 tunes its harp and the crickets
 celebrate life, I am like a troubadour
 in search of friends, loved ones,
 anyone who will share with me
 a bit of conversation. My loneliness
 arrives ghostlike and pretentious,
 it seeks my soul, it is ravenous
 and hurting. I admire my father
 who always has advice in these matters,
 but a game of chess won't do, or
 the frivolity of religion.
 I want to find a solution, so I
 write letters, poems, and sometimes
 I touch solitude on the shoulder
 and surrender to a great tranquility.
 I understand I need courage
 and sometimes, mysteriously,
 I feel whole.

 Luis Omar Salinas is generally considered to be one of the very best Hispanic poets to write in English, with good cause. "Sometimes Mysteriously" is one of those mysterious poems that sometimes makes us feel a special kinship with the poet.