Plural: Workshop of Collective Poetry

By

The text: Rules to live in Buffalo is a collective poem created in one of the sessions of the Plural: Workshop of Collective Poetry in Multiple Languages organized by the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures at the UB. The departing point of this exercise was the poem from the Portuguese author Fernando Assis Pacheco: “Dez regras para vivere m Campo de Ourique” (Ten rules to live in Campo de Ourique). The main idea of this collective text was to think and recreate Fernando Assis Pacheco in the city of Buffalo. The text was written in English and Portuguese by Colleen Culleton, Ricard Miguel Godinho, Diego Espiritu Chávez and Angela Chen

Rules to live in Buffalo

  1. Help your neighbors to shovel their sidewalks.
  2. Share your tools.
  3. Wave to everyone
  4. Enjoy the wild amongst the domestic.
  5. Learn the names of the dogs on their leashes.
  6. Communicate.
  7. Keep warm and don’t panic.
  8. Cook soup for people and give them scented candles.
  9. Listen to the laughter with a friendly heart.
  10. Hang twinkle lights for the darker times.

Sê limpo e cristalino como o céu de uma manhã de verão (de Buffalo)

Vive inteiramente

Vê os outros não como outros

Desfruta das diferentes texturas da vida (como a crocância das Buffalo wings)

Saboreia os pequenos prazeres e momentos (tal como a pequena “summer street” de Buffalo)

FATE MAY HAVE BIG ANTLERS:

JUST LEARN THE RULES OF THE GAME

If a moose ever crosses you at night

while walking on Main Street & Bailey

             —big black eyes fixed in a frenzied gaze

                       beneath marigold leafs/

don’t run/ stay still:

               let your body go gently into the cold

                                            and melt.   

 Give a helping hand to strangers in need

Show your gratitude, especially for acts of kindness that usually go unnoticed

Let yourself be as you are, showing your true emotions to help others understand you

When times feel difficult, try leaning on the communities around you, support is just a

conversation away

Being a noble person will gain you the respect of those around you

Always treat others the way you wish to be treated

Take time to care for yourself, as you can’t fill others’ cups before you fill your own

It can be the smallest kind gesture that can change a person’s day

Make time for the people you care about

 Indulging in childish antics every so often can bring back cherished childhood memories,

as well as create new ones

Colleen Culleton, Ricard Miguel Godinho, Diego Espiritu Chávez, Angela Chen

BUFFALO

October 18, 2024

Regras para viver em Campo de Ourique, by Fernando Assis Pacheco. in in ”Jornal de Campo de Ourique”, n.º 4, Novembro de 1977