I wrote this poem on a warm and balmy Christmas Eve from the balcony of the Hilton Hotel in Puerto Rico. I sat, pensive, as I overlooked the vast and seemingly neverending ocean moving through the night. Its white-crested waves crashed against the remains of a small fort-like structure in the dark—the faint lights of Coronado in the distance. The warm ocean air filled my lungs as she slept soundly in my bed not far behind me. What I had planned to be a short visit to re-find myself turned into a love affair I will never forget.
This poem, originally published in a poetic compilation, Whispers of The Waters, won several awards for its impactful phrase:
“To dance is to live, to live is to love, and to love is to die. But to die of love is to live forever.”
My Appointment with El Diablo
by Tamassia Martins
To she who taints my conscious,
I sit idly in truce, pensive, tranquil, without suggestion
I mind not, but can’t help my weakness, for I fall frail to beauty.
Her red dress kidnaps my eye as she hypnotizes my soul.
I look but my heart dares not think, for one thought and I am dead
I cannot help but see,
Her charm, elegance, her unexplainable passion, the attraction
Without hesitation she dances, she conquers me
With courage I should have misplaced, yet I poses it, I dare
To dance is to live, to live is to love, and to love is to die
But to die of love is to live forever
So we danced, so we lived and so we loved.
She who taints my conscious,
She lives forever in my mind the moment I leave Puerto Rico
For her name I did not ask and so I do not know
She will always be a color-full memory in my dreams
But if in my dreams she will appear, I will wake with a smile
Because I will have met her again
Again we will have danced, again we will have lived, and again we will have loved.
So life is, intertwined moment, ever lasting memories
Memories that make us who we are