to observe and have fun

last weekend i saw a magazine about cuba.  such publications are abundant now that u.s. and cuba relations are normalizing.  i thumbed thru the mag in the check-out queue of the grocery store wondering if one of the profiles featured in the mag would be the poet omar perez.  nope.  but i thought someone or organ of the u.s. press would find perez and ask him about the changes in cuba.  lo! PBS found him.

below is a profile of perez that was broadcast on PBS a few weeks ago under the title 'cuban evolution'.  perez is -- if you didn't know by now [i have posted two videos of perez reciting poetry here] -- a favorite poet of mine.

the title of this post comes from perez's definition of the role of the poet.  to observe and have fun.  and then comment on what you have observed.  fun is what i think we forget to have.  at least i sometimes forget that, yes, life is pain, but it is also great good fun.  i think writers are observers and are happy to stand on a street corner and simply observe life around him/her.  we would like to be invisible.  we are happy to stand on the periphery.  but having fun is supremely important and i believe we forget that life is also a hell of a ride.

so here is omar perez in his home in havana interviewed by an american journalist about how the cuban times are a'changing.