It was love at first sight. I remember arriving in Miami and seeing the city and the water. I have always loved Miami, having spent years at the University of Miami Hospitals as a Doctor and then visiting here on a regular basis while my places of residence changed from Kingston, to London to Havana .. I may have spent other short periods in other places and other countries.
On that fateful first visit in which I fell in love with Miami, I remember meeting some wonderful people, I am not in touch with any one of them, but they all shared a passion for life, including my hairdresser with an unpronounceable name, Ptschelinzew. A young mathematician with a PhD from Yale who looked more like a student than a teacher. So many faces.. thank you.. and a song from that time stuck in my head… it would rise to my head now and then..
Here are the Lyrics
If you want me to stay,
I'll be around today,
to be available for you to see.
But I am about to go,
And then you'll know,
For me to stay here I got to be me.
You'll never be in doubt,
That's what it's all about,
You can't take me for granted and smile.
Count the days I'm gone
Forget reachin' me by phone
Because I promise I'll be gone for a while.
Let me check if I can find a video of this song as I would love to listen to it again.
I was able to find a video with lyrics and two powerful singers.
When you are falling in love with someone, before she gets under your skin, you want to resist, in between the delirium of giving all of yourself away, and stealthily walking away .
Just about this time when I heard this song, I became aware of Pablo Neruda who has never left my life.
Why is that POEMS never leave you but PEOPLE do ..
As Kahlil Gibran noted: the very same well that once gave joy now gives you tears..
Pablo to the rescue.
Ahora bien,
si poco a poco dejas de quererme
dejaré de quererte poco a poco.
Si de pronto
me olvidas
no me busques,
que ya te habré olvidado.
Si consideras largo y loco
el viento de banderas
que pasa por mi vida
y te decides
a dejarme a la orilla
del corazón en que tengo raíces,
piensa
que en ese día,
a esa hora
levantaré los brazos
y saldrán mis raíces
a buscar otra tierra.
I am
Feeling so good
I do not ask where these feelings come from
But it is there
Someone or other is opening a nice bottle of wine
In the distance one can hear the waves that come to kiss the earth in my beloved Havana..
You cannot miss anyone
You cannot miss anything
If you carry it or them in your heart ..
In this social isolation, what I am carrying is the tenderness
If One day is long then 52 days are pleasantly long..
What has happened to you, asked a cunning man, plotting his next nebulous adventure
I see him receding as I move into another world
There is a world of magic
In which some celestial magician pleased with two insignificant people on the surface of the earth
In his cauldron of tenderness, mixes music and words and wind and softness
It all happened one evening in Miami
The very same Miami where I descended that many moons ago as a student
My world then was Australia and that tunnel vision of a world which gave me a lesson
Thank you, all of you, who has added to that cauldron a spoon of your own brand of tenderness ..
Now this magical mountain in this land of no mountains
So much music that one discovers in the course of just one afternoon
I have shed tonnes of tears for my acquaintances from travels, who now sit at home with no work as they were in an industry that has collapsed. Right now that seems behind me , below me …
I have always loved Miami, now I am isolated here , during this pandemic
So I should end up with yet another song ?
Yet another classic song ? I have got you under my skin…
I've got you under my skin
I've got you deep in the heart of me
So deep in my heart,
That you're really a part of me
Yes, I've got you under my skin
Under my skin
I've tried so
Not to give in
I've said to myself this affair
Never will go so well
But why should I try to resist,
When baby will I know so well
That I've got you
Under my skin
Under my skin
Yes, I've got you
Under my skin
Under my skin
I would sacrifice anything come what might
For the sake of having your near
In spite of a warning voice that comes in the night
And repeats, repeats in my ear
Don't you know you fool
You never can win
Use your mentality
Wake up to reality
But each time I do just the thought of you
Makes me stop just before I begin
Because I've got you
Under my skin
Under my skin
Yes I've got you
Under my skin
Under my skin
Under my skin
Under my skin
Under my skin
Under my skin
there is a version of this by. Ben L'Oncle Soul, who is French
which is incredibly touching and lleno de Saudade..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaddLBnHJSA
