Or if you want, life can be something different (O si queréis la vida es de otro modo)

Here is a poem that reflects my Dad’s very practical view on life and death.  I don’t remember him ever being afraid of dying.  He actually wrote a lot about his own farewell and spoke about what he would leave us after his departure.  From his book Under the shadow (Poesía de urgencia).

Or if you want, life can be something different (O si queréis la vida es de otro modo)

Because we cannot talk about ‘one life’
when there are so many different lives,

because the word ‘life’ does not only express
what should be firm and strong,

because your life is yours and nobody
should have to know how much it weighs you down, 

because mine, for example, gives me joy one day
and hurts me the next one,

because even the innocence of my verse
does not transcend the sadness of so many people,

because in front of me I have someone who asks life for
the gift of death

now, immediately, in any way,
violently or pleasantly,
faster,

I reiterate my concept of life
as something that each possesses
and loves or detests or simply wears
as a hat or a tie,
and one day takes them off forever.