Mi poema para mi clase de español

Not that my Spanish assignments are necessarily the most exciting things, but I think this one qualifies as content -- and not just because I need to post something!

By the way, my last post where I basically couldn't find a quiet spot all day and didn't get anything done was, thankfully, just that day. Now that I have my office to myself -- and more space, too! -- everything is so much easier and I am very busy once again! In fact, I am sitting in my office right now, reveling in the quiet, determined not to leave until something forces me.
` Of course, I've been so busy catching up on other, more important things I need to do that I haven't worked on my upcoming post at all. However, I do have this poem.

The subject of our poems is supposed to be what some part of nature means to us. Of course, I look up, because most of nature is far from Earth, and so I chose the stars.
` Also, this isn't really a 'poem' in the usual sense, because it has no rhyme or meter, plus it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense -- so, let me explain:

In particular, it refers to how I've had to change my perspective on life several times in order to see the worth of other people (because seemingly most people prominent in my life so far have been abusive, crazy, loserish, substance-addicted, incredibly ignorant, stupid, etc.), as part of my maturation as an adult.
` After decades of torment and torture, and lack of education and social skills, I had to really push myself to figure out how to connect with other people. This has been a many-years-long struggle, and now that I have the worst people out of my life (and house!) I'm finally doing pretty well -- and I'm only just about to turn 30!
` What does all that have to do with stars? Well, astronomers have long been cataloguing the various planets and other objects that are seen forming around and orbiting other stars. If connecting with nearby human beings was difficult for me, then how much more difficult would it be for all of humanity to do a similar thing; that is, find another planet with life forms on it, even civilization, and connect with that in some way?
` As many hundreds of thousands of years that might take, I think about it all the time from my own "spaceship of the imagination" -- especially since having seen Cosmos with Carl Sagan. If people somehow managed that, however, that would be a whole new stage in the maturation of humanity. So, aha, there's kind of a parallel going on here.

However, I claim no artistic merit, only a demonstration of my grasp of the Spanish language, particularly focusing on the future and conditional indicative and the present subjunctive -- and if I messed up somewhere, I would appreciate correction.
` This poem is called 'Reaching for the Stars' by me, Spoony, or as it is said in Spanish:

Alcanzar a las Estrellas
por Espoony

Por las noches con cielos despejados,
On nights with clear skies,
Yo suelo mirar a las estrellas que nos rodean
I habitually watch the stars that surround us
En nuestro planeta minísculo
On our miniscule planet
Y soñar con alcanzar unas de ellas
And dream about reaching some of them
En una nave espacial de la imaginación.
In a spaceship of the imagination.

La tierra, vista desde arriba,
The earth, viewed from above,
Es como cualquier planeta que tenga vida (yo creería)
Is like any planet that has life (I would think)
No se pueden ver pruebas de civilización
One cannot see signs of civilization
Son escasos, sin embargo.
They are scarce, anyway.

Busco un planeta donde habrá vida
I search for a planet where life might be,
Tengo que adivinar lo que voy a encontrar por casualidad.
I have to guess at what I'm going to find by chance.
Espero que la parada proxima tenga algo
I hope that the next stop has something
O alguién con quién pueda hablar.
Or someone with whom I could talk.

Creía que quería estar sola,
I used to think that I wanted to be alone,
Y me di cuenta de que será porque
And I realized that it must be because
Yo he perdurado por tiempos raros y traumáticos
I have endured through times bizarre and traumatic
Al extremo.
To the extreme.

Necisitaría una nave que pueda pasear
I will need a ship that can travel
Por el vacío entre las estrellas
For crossing the void between the stars
Y para echar el ancla en las orillas del otros planetas,
And for casting its anchor on the shores of other planets,
Los que, por lo visto, tendrán vida,
Ones that, apparently, have life,
Y si yo tenga suerte, inteligencia.
And if I'm lucky, intelligence.

El deseo para soledad
The desire for solitude
Seguia empujando contra mi misma,
Kept pushing against myself,
Quise ver lo que sería el dolor,
I tried to see what the pain might be,
No quise mirar al problema
I refused to look at the problem,
Hasta estuve oprimida por el aislamiento, y se me ocurrió:
Until I was oppressed by the isolation, and it occurred to me:
Mi calidad de vida está basada en mi hallazgo
My standard of living is based on my discovery
Que averiguar mis creencias es el camino
That verifying my beliefs is the path
Cuando no hay nadie para preguntar el camino
When there is nobody to ask directions
Y aún cuando sí.
And even when there is.

Vivimos en los alrededores de la Vía Láctea,
We live in the outskirts of the Milky Way,
Y todavía nunca visitamos nuestros vecinos.
And still, we never visit our neighbors.
Somos ingenuos porque estamos aislados,
We are naive because we're isolated,
Pero, eso es porque estamos verdes,
But, that is because we're "green" (immature),
Y eso es porque somos seres que son pasajeros en el mundo.
And that is because we are fleeting beings in the world.

Nos parecemos un caso perdido,
We seem to be a lost case,
Para encontrar el significado en el universo,
In finding meaning in the universe,
Sólo en nuestro planeta.
Only on our planet.
Pero lo que descubrí es que
But what I've discovered is that
La voluntad que nos exigimos a nosotros mismos
The will we demand of ourselves
Hace que la vida importante para nosotros.
Makes life important for us.


This is going to be interesting when I read it on Monday -- I hope I didn't screw up too much! (If I did, corrections are welcome!)

Anyway, my below-office roommate has come home and blasted me out of the office, and I am now in the living room, being accosted by people, and so must go.

But before I do, I have something for anyone who was disappointed by my "poem" -- some of the amazing music that Vangelis did for the Cosmos series, along with some colorful and interesting visual representations of various shiny things that can be seen when looking up.

That, at least, rarely disappoints! Makes me want to record my own music -- it's much more inspiring than my Spanish "poetry"! In fact, I found it while looking for 'background music' for my poem -- as many of the people are doing -- but it's just too awesome!

Anyway, I need to get going to the gym, while there's still time!

Edit on Monday:
Just bumbling around on the interwebs, I found this related video -- I actually used it while I was reading my "poem", pointing to the earth (viewed from above) and the milky way at those points as I was reading it, because they were in exactly the right places! When it ended, that was when the galaxies were receding and the screen turned white!

Strange how things match up like that, but they do -- I've noticed this when I used to have a video editing program. (That's another project I need to start up again....)