October 17, 2025

Video from a garden in Peru. Who knew I'd be here? Not me!

Last time I was here: twenty years ago at the start of adventures, leaving cities behind + the story of a poncho from the Altiplano and dancing in a store in Pisaq....plus Inca sites, parrots, eucalyptus trees and broken words. The phrase: 'shab e safar, ye raza' keeps recurring, the mystery of journeys into nights of not knowing.

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is what I once wrote about India

but it applies here too

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On Peru, Colonization & the Fire of Story

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The impact of the Spanish colonization in Peru.

I’ve seen reverence, celebration for indigenous peoples.

And heard people speak of the mockery they've experienced.

Also Quechua not being taught in schools.

Also a self and collective shaming.

I’m on fire with possibilities of stories I want to share and engage with... Soon!

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For now, here's one new creative experience that has taken shape. I call it:

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Write the Wild Unknown

Write what you’d never say out loud.

To go somewhere you’ve never been.

Get lost.

Be found.

Fall into the crevasse —

and instead of climbing up, go down down

into the heart of story

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What you write might anger someone or delight someone else.

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It might be raw, sharp, messy — and then transform.

Rant. Story. Refusal. Memoir. Speech. Idea. Or Shake things up for the sake of shaking things up and Speak out loud in the dark.

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Give it voice.

Give it words.

Bring it to the page.

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Enough Already

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Enough with being polite.

Enough with working language to death.

Let’s give the raw a new life

Be still.

Be flow.

or be the stone that blocks the story —

until you press against it and push.

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Here in Peru…

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I think of José María Arguedas,

who didn't want to call his work “poetry.”

he was done with Greco-Roman roots.

That word didn’t fit who he was, the mystifying mix of

Quechua and Spanish roots and something else, something true

Instead, he called his creative expressions:

haylli taki — triumphal chant, victory song.

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Break the Rules. Make Your Own.

It might come out messy, broken, and then turn into something astonishing.

Let’s find out.

Let’s write something wild.

Let’s go somewhere new-together.

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The experience is a mixture of One on One Sessions to generate new writing and feedback for what is written/will be written. Group experiences also possible.

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Interested? Write to me and say so. Say, you're ready for the writing wilds and I'll send a PDF with details. info@shebanacoelho.com

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in the end There are a few ways to say thank you in Quechua, the ancestral language of the Incas but my favorite is URPILLAY SONQOLLAY which means "a dove flies from my heart to yours." Lovely, no? But that double L is a helluva twist for my tongue so I can't promise that dulcet dove will get to you in one piece. but it will try and fly....!

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yours in faraway-ness, also close:

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Shebana Coelho​
Creator of Faraway is Close

info@shebanacoelho.com