Diego Llisebir

Songs for Kings and Sparrows Diego Llisebir

AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION As a child and teenager I was entranced by the beautiful words of many classic Spanish poets, like Juan Ramon Jimenez, Gustavo Adolfo Becquer, Gongora and Rafael Alberti. I have also been moved by the poetry in song of Juan Manuel Serrat, Pedro Guerra and Silvio Rodriguez. More recently I very much enjoyed the poetry of Jewel Kilcher. I have great respect and admiration for these and many other artists who have in many examples of their work expressed wisdom, a sense of magic and an appreciation for the beauty that can be experienced in our world and in our humanity through the eyes of a child and through the eyes of an artist. Any person can perceive life in this way and good artists help us to do so. When I decided to write poetry myself in my new country, I felt I needed to reach a high level of expression and refinement in the English language which was very difficult to reach for someone who spent the first twelve years of life in Spain. So I started on this project that took many years of reading, studying, writing and rewriting. I wanted to create poetry that was real, easy to read and inspiring to the reader. I also wanted this poetry to be my own. I have in this first book achieved a collection of poems which I enjoy reading and which I consider relevant to people's lives. I have divided these poems into twelve sections according to the particular subject matter I had in mind when I wrote them. And in the hope that you may also enjoy them and find them meaningful, I am sharing them with you now. Over the years I have formed my own very definite perception of what is good art and desirable meaning, according to my own taste. In the creation of my poetry I have used these values as a filter and have carefully written and rewritten many of these poems to reach their present final form. I believe poetry should be a higher form of expression than normal dialogue. I believe that poetry should at the very least give a clear expression of the artist's point of view to the reader. It should be able to establish a sense of understanding and common experience between the artist and the reader. And I believe that poetry should inspire hope in the creation of a better reality, the ideal reality that lives in each person's imagination. I like to express my perception that love can be strong and not fade, that there are sincere friendships which are stronger than any adversity, that material possessions are only supportive and subordinate to a person's happiness and one's involvement in the activities one considers enjoyable and worthwhile. And I think it is important to express that there are people in this world who have good intentions and people who have bad intentions and that this fact shows in their actions and the results of their influence much more clearly than in their words. On many occasions in my life I have been inspired by the words of other artists into a better solution, a better understanding or a more peaceful state of mind. I am grateful to them for their work. If I can create any of these good effects on others through my art, I will consider my work to be worthwhile and to be achieving its purpose. I will be happy to receive my reader's impressions of this book through my websites www.ingeniousmusic.net or www.ingeniousbooks.net. Diego LLisebir