Raquelaria

A short film centered around a poem that attempts to capture the feeling of loneliness that has enveloped many of us during the pandemic crisis.

Raquelaria tells the story of a chair that falls into a deep emotional crisis spurred on by prolonged isolation. It was created in April, during the quarantine in Lisbon, Portugal, with friend and director Tiago Angeja.

He wanted to make a short film, around a poem that captured the feeling of loneliness that became all too familiar during that period. The poem itself is also part of an ongoing series called “Incidental Poems” which are written on subjects requested by friends. The poem Loneliness is below. The subject was chosen by my friend Vera Faria.

Loneliness

I have trouble at times staying the course along this barren road

falling into the cavernous depths of what remains.

It should be that the walls remember each last touch glanced across the surface

turning back, wanting to know you were there.

This lost highway of empty neon pulsates hypnotically into obscurity

as the same lamp post illuminates the same pavement

with painful regularity. The whiteness of the lines flicker by,

circulating back around with the will to exist just once more.

I remember your last touch beneath the surface

with eyes that could fill an entire chamber. They stared firmly into mine

through the blood, rushing forward, of my will to love once more

wanting so badly not to fall into tears, knowing you were there.

If only I could fill these chambers again where the road extends as far as the emptiness echoes, inadequate in solitude