You can hear my just-posted new reading of my Unsung Heroes six-part poem free at https://anchor.fm/victor-d-lopez or through your favorite podcast app.

This free verse piece is inspired by one of my earliest and still my favorite short story, Eternal Quest. I wrote the original version, largely unchanged but for some light editing, when a freshman in college. There are layers to the story--unrequited love, friendship, philosophy, human frailty, and the duality of the human spirit--that were beyond my years and are still central to the core of who I am today.  I am older but not much wiser than my former young, old soul grappling with what it means to be human and to learn inconvenient lessons we prefer to ignore. You can hear me read cold reading of about half of this short story/novelette in one of my podcasts at https://open.spotify.com/episode/6c9kOS2skPxzNJaYtquQKR?si=-DFvQA6gTHW61H5RKWnzuA (a professionally produced version by voice talent Dale Wilcox is also included in the audiobook version of my short story collection, Mindscapes distributed by Audible and Amazon).

This poem echoes a main theme in my most disturbing and perhaps prophetic short story, "End of Days." A little knowledge is a dangerous thing! It was posted first at AllPoetry in response to a prompt to create a new word, define it and use it in a poem.

Translation of my poem "On Success"

From Of Pain and Ecstasy: Collected Poems

I've completed my first novel. It deals with themes that have hit too close to home. The bittersweet pain of so many could-have-beens come to the surface in fiction that too closely emulates life. If only we could rewrite our own lives--make different choices, walk through the many doors that remained open in our youth that we ignored blindly trudging on what we mistakenly believed to be the right path. What would I give to be able to rewrite the novel that is my life and find happy endings for myself and all I've touched? What would I give to unring bells that should never have been rung? To undo pain to loved ones brought not by malice but by misguided good intentions? That may well be a future novel in itself--I've already explored the theme and one imperfect technological solution in a novella. We do not have a reset button in life. Thank God we have the power of words and the solace of poetry. They are often the only sword and shield that can stave off despair.

My maternal grandfather was a supporter of the failed Republic before and during Spain's Civil War. He never took up arms as he hated violence, but he wrote and delivered speeches in his home town of Sada, in Galicia, Spain. He also translated news from the British and U.S. newspapers as he had lived in New York City (Number 10 Perry Street in the Village)  with my grandmother from about 1918 until I believe the early 1930's prior to the start of the Civil War in Spain. Although he had good friends among both the Republicans, monarchists and Franco's supporters, he was an outspoken critic of fascism and ardent supported of the Republic. He was eventually imprisoned, tortures and sentenced to death. He spent some time in this castle turned military headquarters during the war and was held there awaiting execution in La Plaza de Maria Pita where he was to be shot with others by a firing squad for treason--read, opposing the fascist forces. I don't know whether his remaining friends who supported Franco, including a judge  who prized my grandfather's friendship and integrity above their opposing political beliefs, politics intervened or paid off one of his military jailers or whether the jailer may have been a Republican sympathizer not yet excised from their ranks, but he was set free by his jail door being unlocked in the middle of the night and  his being told to swim to shore despite his bad physical condition. My grandmother always claimed he swam more than a mile across the bay to freedom, though I doubt he would have had the strength and think it more likely he swam ashore closer to the city but away from the surrounding area of the castle--perhaps 100 yards or more. The castle itself is accessible from the shore as it is only a few meters into the water, though he certainly would not have been able to walk out the foot bridge as one does today. I've written about this and his prior and subsequent life in my "Unsung Heroes" longest ongoing poem about my grandparents and now my parents who have also passed away--all leaving behind the treasure of their noble examples that is my legacy and which I prize above all that I own, am, or will ever be,

You can hear me read a lengthy preview of one of my longest short stories about humanity's heroic efforts to forestall extinction with two years' warning of an unavoidable massive asteroid strike. The podcast link is https://open.spotify.com/episode/2K6dDI5bOek1dokvEiw5BR?si=mJFreM2PSU6lytT8PvjE0w

This is a teaser for my short story by the same name. You can hear me read the entire short story free of charge through in my podcast--direct link: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4PHC2O2OJI7FH7fryQ5d3q?si=FAjS_UjMTFaAiL2q9ktGiA

Translation of my poem "Fading to Black"

It has been an incredibly stressful and busy time for all of us of late. I hope you are all doing what you can to remain centered, and finding joy, distractions, purpose where you can. Stay away from the news 24/7--it will drive you insane. Trust me. Find solace in friends be it by phone, Skype, email or any other available means to stay connected. Embrace movies, music, reading, writing, singing, playing an instrument if that is a talent--or one you'd like to develop. Dance like nobody is looking. Rediscover your library card--the local library may well be closed, but not the virtual lending library where you can borrow ebooks, videos, audiobooks and other electronic media. Visit your library's home page--you may be surprised at what they still offer. Read a good book--or even a bad one. To that end, I've made most of my own indie books (fiction, poetry, etc.) available for free through April 20 through Smashwords. (I can't do that as easily through the other retailers that sell my books. Nor can I do that with my traditional publishers.) Other independent authors have done likewise. Check them out. Lots of free books on Amazon for their Kindle reader too. You can find my free offerings (including my first book of poems) here: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/VictorDLopez (scroll down to see my books).

Whatever you do, please stay safe and help your loved ones to do likewise. I bid you peace.

You can hear my reading of these two poems on Spotify at
https://d3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net/staging/2024-4-23/378581701-44100-2-3cdc0822fa1ac.m4a

Teaser haiku encapsulating my short story Justice. You can hear me read the entire short story (the shortest in my Echoes of the Mind's Eye collection at https://open.spotify.com/episode/7oEx2bqyLeKqlPCwm25XMe?si=3ig4obSwSwO4P07UzlhdGg