I Saw–I Lived

I saw loves arriving,

I saw loves departing,

I saw passions that ended,

I saw passions that never ended.

Were they not passions?

I swam, I played, I sailed

and I loved,

I won and I lost,

I left and I was left,

I fell ill and recovered,

I traveled and returned,

I went and I came back,

I worked and I produced.

Stopping, I never even tried.

I have laughed, and I have cried,

I heard silences,

I heard acts of malice,

I heard acts of kindness,

I heard lies,

I heard truths,

I heard people speak just for the sake of speaking,

I heard excuses and I heard blame.

I heard music and delighted in it.

I heard noise and was bothered by it.

I heard people speak with conviction,

I heard people speak without conviction,

I heard people speak out of conviction,

I heard people speak simply because they could not remain silent,

speaking to the walls,

speaking to the wind.

I tried to change myself,

I tried to change others,

I tried to change the world.

Was it only imagination?

Sometimes I was a coward,

sometimes I was brave,

sometimes I arrived at the wrong time,

sometimes at the right time,

people lied to me more than I lied,

literally and poetically,

Not everything I saw, I lived.

There are things I only heard.

I heard, I remained silent, I spoke, I shouted, I made mistakes, and I got things right.

I saw seeds sprout and I saw roots,

I saw leaves turn green,

I saw stems grow thicker,

I saw flowers and I saw fruit.

Then I saw it begin again!

When faced with choices,

I was daring.

I saw Him, always present.

I saw friends, men and women,

old friends and new,

some I no longer see around here.

I saw children and grandchildren. Adorable!

I hope more will come.

The journey has already been worthwhile.

I lived.

Miguel Fernández y Fernández, engineer, chronicler, and columnist, member of the National Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Engineering # written in 2025-2026 R2020jan25 Ri, 1.200 characters