Long Iberian Poems

Resistance On The Iberian Peninsula

“Liberté, égalité, fraternité (Liberty, Equality, Fraternity),”
Scream French revolutionists as they guillotine monarchists heads, 1
Then crown Napoleon Bonaparte Emperor of France, 2
Who commands the French forces in wars raged across Europe.

The Grande...

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UNQUOTABLE QUOTES: XLVIII - Tongue Teasers

If the « Yellow Race » could have invented the alphabet, they wouldn’t still be seeing « Images » when they close their eyes. Picasso, Dadaism, Surrealist and Abstract painting...

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Alber’s Tamale Pie, Australian Meat Pie, Apple Pie, Amish Country Strawberry Pie,  
Bacon Pie, Bean Pie, Boston Cream Pie, Butterfinger Pie, Banana Cream Pie, Blueberry Pie, 
Chicken Pot Pie, Crunchy Carmel Apple Pie, Chocolate...

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RECIPE: “Poulet Roti” French Style - Ballade Le Chant Royal 6

(NOTE: This French “ballade” is being composed on permutations of the number ONE repeated twice, I.e., 11. Eleven syllables to the line in iamb or...

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something stirred in this place, long, long ago
  presence lingering
  half-hidden haven on the crowding hillside
  enchanted enclave
  Iberian portal still open to a time confused
  dreams drifting on through

...

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(this written about a baker's half-dozen years ago)

this then stunning lithe oldest teenage niece, daughter of
my younger sister epitomizes a tall drink of water
(similar to the mother at same age)
What with her willowy young woman...

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I stood on the tip of the top of the cliff and looked down,
Though valleys seemed colorful, scenes deep down were grey and brown;
A few freshwater streams were springing from filmy fountains,
Lo, why these ants-colonies...

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Our Castilian castle,
an Iberian stronghold 
affixed onto clay shores
destined to be capsized
by tragedy’s
tidal waves

Our steeple’s lips grazed 
the crystalline expanse, 
before turquoise shards, 
released from 
the horizon’s tether, 
tumbled upon our 
red brick duvet, 
our...

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Auto-da-fé at Plaza Major



Sixteen-Eighty was brutal on saints and their hissing cats.
A turgid June, thickened as it was by an immature sanguinary wine
that failed to quench the civil mob.

Above the birthday cake façade, the pink...

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I've heard it said that if all the people 
who ever lived and died, were buried together, 
it would fill the size of Spain.

No gazpacho, no El Greco 
No Flamenco and no Bolero
Just row upon...

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But then, how am I to say it ? Translation of Carlos Bousono’s poem : Pero como decirtelo

(To those who are familiar with the Bhakti religious outpourings in the Hindu tradition, in 
certainly all the...

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Sixteen-Eighty was brutal on saints and their hissing cats.
A turgid June, thickened as it was by an immature sanguinary wine
failed to quench the civil mob.

Above the birthday cake façade,the pink and cerise porticos,
the heavenly-frocked casements,...

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this stunning lithe oldest teenage niece, daughter of
my younger sister, epitomizes a tall drink of water
(similar to the mother at same age)
What with her willowy young woman body
brimming with budding potential for breath-taking beauty
enhanced by...

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One-hundred percent Italian descent:
   four grandparents crossed the ocean, went
through Ellis Island, from Italy sent;
   my Italian roots, one-hundred percent.

But  D N A  samples now tested, ruled-
  ...

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It snowed last night, first fall of the year.
Taking out the trash,
there I am, dozing in a garden swing set
deep within July.

Mother of pearl eyes
above the clouds…it could be another year.
July in a London park
lying...

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The Fight for Freedom 

Another art exhibition, paintings of naïve art decorated on ancient doors 
and window shutters, most of them about harvesting of olive and carobs. 
And of course there were mules and donkeys...

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The Flamenco Dancer and The Bull

The acoustics of your snuffle
 is an absolution 
of a descending staccato 
in an E chord.
Behold, my lancing third, 
an urgency to trick you 
with my jalapeño-colored capote,
to mask the...

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We drive breakneck over hot roads.
Churches, big as cathedrals, rocket
from pocket villages.
Castillo's cast their campanile on the baking earth.

The Great Mosque of Cordoba,
the green Alhambra shades us
through a preaching dust.

The Giralda; its Christianized minaret
stretched like...

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It snowed last night;
taking out the trash,
there I am, dozing in a garden swing set
deep within July.

It could be another year.
July in a London park
lying next to her,
wisps of gentleness in a public place,
dandelion seeds...

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Dream on, don't stop
for your reality is in shatters.
Your life has lost its essence,
There’s no logical fluidity in your actions,
so just dream on, don't stop,
your misery will soon end:
aren't your dreams so luminescence?
 
And just...

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A émigré`s Dilemma 


I have lived in this foreign country long, longer than I should
Many seasons I have seen, my hair is gray and brow wrinkled
seeking an understanding of a life that makes no sense....

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Huldra 

In the green valley 
Near lake blue and pink salmon 
Lived a huldra 
Beautiful in human eyes 
But trolls had rejected her
Ugly in their eyes  
I heard her desolate song
Saw her shimmering 
Blond...

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Rolling down the contours of Iberian Peninsula
the picturesque highlands of lofty Andalusia
fringe the landscape of the great plain of Spain,
cradling the ancient cities of Madrid and Segovia.

In the frenzy arena horny bull charges as if...

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Huldra

 In a green valley near a blue lake
where pink salmon swam lived a Huldra.
She was beautiful as seen by human eyes
trolls found her ugly and rejected her.
I heard her desolate song
Saw her shimmering blond...

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