The document is a poem that discusses the fleeting yet impactful nature of life's moments and experiences. It describes lovers dancing, children smiling in their sleep, and the ability to simply feel emotions. While happiness cannot last constantly, reveling in feelings and the places one has been can create balance. The experiences of the past, from stories told to lying to escape into nature, shape who we become, for better or worse.

1. There isn’t a night that doesn’t sing.
by Jessica Flores
There isn’t a night that doesn’t sing. At this very
moment there is no chaos on this street, but I cannot
speak for the next. Lovers are dancing, spirits are
awakening, and there are children smiling in their sleep.
...And I cried. Not because I was sad, not because I was
happy, but because I can simply feel. I feel. & to not
dwell on a feeling - that’s bliss. I thought I had left my
passion in the abandoned corners of my home town
- the definition to my perfection.
I will not be selfish and search constant happiness. El Grullo, Jalisco, MX, 2006
For constant, pure happiness will cause that state to
become my normal & will no longer deliver it’s purpose.
One cannot exist without it’s opposite.
Tomorrow morning the child won’t remember their
dream and the lovers will wake up to thoughts of
what it is to not be a child, but that spirit will continue
haunting them all. & I will revel in my existence of the
feelings I carry and the places I have been. For those
who chose to join me and leave me, the places I’ve left
and arrived to, have created my balance.

2. Raul Flores, Bolinas, CA
Muir Beach, CA
The stories they told that
influenced mine.
Back when we got along & walked
whatever the distance.
Robert Stover, 2008
It was the way we’d sit on dusty
floors for hours, listening to
bands we knew were no good.
The manner in which we
lied to escape towards
the hills.
El Grullo, Jalisco, MX

3. The countless times I invisioned what
I wanted to make out of myself, for
myself, within myself.
Ayuquila, Jalisco, MX, 2006
All the reasons that influenced
us to shuffle our feet around
and run with wide open arms Ajutla, Jalisco, MX 2006
to reach our embrace.
“... And I will leave. But the birds will stay singing: and my garden will stay, with its green tree, with its water
well. Many afternoons the skies will be blue and placid, and the bells in the belfry will chime, as they are chim-
ing this very afternoon. The people who loved me will pass away, and the town will burst anew every year. But
my spirit willl always wander nostalgic in the same recondite corner of my flowery garden. ”
-Juan Ramon Jimenez
Ajutla,Jalisco, MX 2006