f i s h o u t o f w a t e r

hmmmm

Ana it's been two years already today when you decided to go. I remember you, Ana.

i never had the chance to go to tinggo. but im sure you are diving with threshers, dolphins and perhaps mantas.

elegy to the finned traveler

“so how do you say goodbye
to someone you haven’t met?”,
asked the man in the open window,
and it dawned on me that i, too,
was lost for words and ways
to bid adieu to you, soul-stranger,
for we’ve never met but by the wayside;
you see, i have learned to adore
the reason and rhyme, and melody
of your copious overflows.
i got entranced by the images
of your endless sea-adventures--
ah, how you captured them, wonders,
every time you plunged deeper home,
in wing-fins of child-wisdom;
and how you made moments freeze
every time you waxed with the waters.
perhaps it was wanderlust
that impelled your restless fins
for the ultimate quest: dive-path least traveled,
thus you weaned us of a model
who loved to lay on surf's edge
cradled and tossed by the waves;
who fathomed the depths, and relished
blurring the diving-drowning divide;
who stoked her flame with waters
to self-burn, (to get re-born?),
who rode in crests and troughs
of her underwaterworld

barefoot

you didn’t seem to think of anything
but the glory of escape-adventure
when the chance to choose came:
07/07/07
perfect time to end old games
of sink-and-swim with god-muses
(did they personally come
and swam away with you,
seeing that you are already ripe
for the next grand sea-journey?)
you gave us a priceless gift:
a rare glimpse of the great fusion
between darkness and resplendence
that only occurs where you have gone;
in this the wake of your final ebbing
i shall not be asking the whys
for it is pointless to try to understand,
in the end, choosing to swim away
into the dark light of the great beyond
is simply poetry at its best---
it should not mean, but be…

I did my first deep dive at tingo yesterday... yeah clear waters, but no... no thresher sharks for me. I saw something though that touched my heart... there, silently resting on the sand beneath a coral overhang 38 meters underwater, a stone on which were inscribed... Ana Escalante Neri...finnedtraveler... at one with the sea... at last... home. I knew you, not as a diver, but as the lady of whose labor my then 2 1/2 year-old boy's first words were borne. For that i'm forever grateful to you. Hovering over your memorial, i couldn't help but wonder what could have pushed a beautiful person like you to such deep despair. But i can only pray that - where you are right now, you'll find what you must have loved about the sea so much... the peace that seemed so elusive to you in this life. goodbye and Godspeed, Ana.

Mrs. B

you will forever be in our thoughts and prayers, ana. rest in peace... go with God.

Tapas Lounge ART NIGHTS presents SAY IT ISNT XO? featuring XO? Art Performers
Poetry Reading, Art Performances, Musical Performances (also features the music of
Juress and Cattski) "celebrating the life and the works of ana escalante-neri"
July 25th Wednesday 8pm. Be there.

hello sweetie. it hardly seems fair, doesn't it? and very upsetting. we're still dealing, a lot of people are. the public comments on your other site shed a lot of light. i'm sorry, ana.

so much love. so much life. hard to believe you took your own life. this heart bleeds as it tries to understand. amour à toi, mon bel ami.

sad to say that we are too late in saying we care, we miss you and we love you...who will read these? a lot of people, but not you ana.these words could have meant a lot, could have eased your pain, could have given you hope only if they were said sooner...if only we do things with the sense of urgency...we could have been a better friend to you ana...let's not make the same mistake with the people we love who are with us....let us learn from this loss...and keep ana in our hearts and in our prayers.