Primavera arrived this week with her sun-golden hair, azure eyes, and fragrance of flowering cherries. She lit my heart. Today, however, she has withdrawn, hiding her countenance behind the overcast sky, shedding cold rain-tears, and silencing her voice of robin-songs as the wind howls the tale of enduring winter. I took a walk in the … Continue reading Shelley: If Winter Comes?
We welcomed the New Year on the shores of the Bosphorus. The fireworks' explosion of color and sound startled the flocks of seagulls that flew overhead. The late night fog swept in from the water into the land, enveloping the people's happiness, and ours, as if in a veil of mystic rapture. That was one … Continue reading Rumi: A Stringed Instrument
Istanbul thrives on its engagement with the Bosphorus, the natural strait that joins the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara. It is an intensely used waterway, both for the navigation of cargo ships and for public transportation. Istanbullus, the city's residents, travel by boat between various neighborhoods on the European and Asian shores of … Continue reading Navigating the Bosphorus with Orhan Pamuk
Mi primer recuerdo de un Campeonato Mundial de Fútbol es de la final de Argentina 1978. El tiempo regular terminó empatado: Argentina 1 - 1 Holanda. Pero en tiempos extra, la Albiceleste anotó dos veces y venció a la Naranja Mecánica. Niño desconsolado, lloré mucho, pero por motivos que solo tienen sentido para la niñez. … Continue reading Luz
Hoy me desperté de madrugada y me quedé dando vueltas en la cama, entre el sueño y el ensueño. En vez de azuzar el avispero de la mente y sumirme en la pensadera, esta vez recordé una imagen de reflejos en las aguas de Prospect Lake que vi durante una caminata reciente. Al contemplarla en … Continue reading Reflejos de otoño
I have been biking to the piers at Sunset Park to read Siddhartha while facing the upper bay of the Hudson River's estuary. I knew that Siddhartha's encounter with the river would be the tale's most moving chapter for me. I wanted to prepare for it by contemplating, as I read, the ebb and flow … Continue reading Siddhartha by the River
I welcomed April by visiting the Brooklyn Botanic Garden on a cool, sunny day. Nature then blessed me with the gift of daffodils. My friends and I were cutting across from the Native Flora Garden towards the Shakespeare Garden when we came upon Daffodil Hill. To our exhilaration, the hill was covered by white, yellow, … Continue reading Dancing with the Daffodils
As I discuss Ralph W. Emerson's Nature with my students, I have been pondering the rocks at the southeast point of Playa Colonia, in Costa Rica's Parque Nacional Marino Ballena. The central question Emerson poses in his seminal essay—the cornerstone of his philosophical vision—is: "To what end is Nature?" This is a question of final … Continue reading Sea-beaten Rocks
Musa morada en la enredadera oculta: ¡Sal! ¡Ven!
Para un ser peripatético, una lesión en la planta del pie es una vulneración grave de su vitalidad. Desanima al caminante. Por ello he estado pensando: "¿Por qué esta dolencia?" Una respuesta me llegó anoche, al ver el filme La Novia (Paula Ortiz, 2015), basado en la obra Bodas de sangre, de Federico García Lorca. … Continue reading Lágrimas de mis raíces
Daniel G. Campos 