Azores

By Millicent Accardy Poet Michael Garcia Spring, the author of five books, lives in Southwest Oregon where he works as a martial arts instructor.

And the food and wine! A: Yes, more often now than before I traveled to Lisbon and the Azores. With the circus it’s projection and perhaps stepping into the imagination, with martial arts it’s experiential and stepping into the imaginal. I got to walk the landscapes of my ancestors! When I arrived in Ponta Delgada, he introduced me to José Carlos Oliveira Frias of Livraria Solmar and they gave me a tour of São Miguel – the Green Island! I like the smell of salt in the air and to watch the commercial fishermen and women wrestling crab pots and containers of fish. I stayed on Faial where my grandfather and grandparents were born, and then took a ferry to Pico where my great-great grandparents and numerous other ancestors were born. There’s such splendor in the light of the harbor with the sound of the ocean surging. Because I identify as a Luso-American, and I’m a poet, I seek publication in the Lusosphere. Outside of workshop activities, I attended several music events from experimental Jazz to traditional Fado in the Alfama district. My mom and I haven’t yet dug up clams and ate them on the beach, not yet! I’ve had the opportunity to enter the ocean with him in the Caribbean where he had a gig teaching scuba diving.