The Hitching Post of the Sun

The Hitching Post of the Sun

A Poem by JohnL

 The Hitching Post of the Sun

 
Oh with what delight I wander the mountains of my mind
 Wings outspread on the thermals of Andean peaks
     Clawing the sky
        Shredding clouds
      Swooping, looping whooping
 In the joy of life
Above places of ancient ceremony,
 Astronomy,
      Sacrifice,
      History;
    Where masons locked together fine-cut stone,
 Cut for loving intimacy,
                 +
 Where they terraced hillsides,
Channelling natural springs
   To sing the heart-song of the Incas
       Whose plantings still survive.
 
       Here, inviolable, untouched by Spanish invader
   Standing, beyond the reach of
  Scavenging soldier,
 Purloining priest – evangelist of death,
    The Legendary City,
       Of Macchu Picchu
              +
   High over it
Floats,
Hovers,
   Rides and swoops
          In magnificence of nature,
              On gravity defying radii                  
                     The Condor,
               Whose spreading,
           Feathered frame
     My dreams inhabit,
 +
     While lesser mortals ride only 
            A crawling,
                          hairpinned,
                                    Earthbound,
                                 Tourist
                              Bus
                         Which wends its weary way
               Upwards,
           To
                Release ants with cameras
              Flashing at aeons of Andean rock.
                    Do they know, I wonder
              That the sun has flashed
        Nay, hitched
                 Equinoctially to Intihuatana,
        To the very stone
Upon which their feeble,
         Flickering
                Lights will reveal
                       Their great Andean adventure to
                                   Bored
                                      Stay-at-home friends?
                       GO! - - - SHOO!  - - -Get back in your ant carriers,
            Ride back on your noisy bus
     Down the disfiguring scar
 Carved now and forever on a once beautiful mountain. 
     As the sun sinks behind Pumasillo. 
          Get you gone - ere the Puma's claw descends upon you,
                   Leave this most sacred mountain
                               To the dark, star-escent Andean might
 
                       While from this Condor’s nesting site,
                          Our spirits guard the high places.
 
 
Recommended reading:
The Heights of Macchu Picchu   Pablo Neruda. Cape Poetry Paperbacks
.
Macchu Picchu is sometimes spelt with a single c in Macchu. Picchu always has two.
 
One of Machu Picchu's primary functions was that of astronomical observatory. The Intihuatana stone (meaning 'Hitching Post of the Sun') has been shown to be a precise indicator of the date of the two equinoxes and other significant celestial periods. The Intihuatana (also called the Saywa or Sukhanka stone) is designed to hitch the sun at the two equinoxes, not at the solstice (as is stated in some tourist literature and new-age books). At midday on March 21st and September 21st, the sun stands almost directly above the pillar, creating no shadow at all. At this precise moment the sun "sits with all his might upon the pillar" and is for a moment "tied" to the rock. At these periods, the Incas held ceremonies at the stone in which they "tied the sun" to halt its northward movement in the sky. There is also an Intihuatana alignment with the December solstice (the summer solstice of the southern hemisphere), when at sunset the sun sinks behind Pumasillo (the Puma's claw), the most sacred mountain of the western Vilcabamba range, but the shrine itself is primarily equinoctial.

© 2009 JohnL


My Review

Would you like to review this Poem?
Login | Register




Featured Review

This is FABULOUS! Five star writing here my friend! I have read some of Pablo's writing. He has a very warm and personal style that transmits through all his writing; an endearing commodity to be sure. He deserves his place of respect in the literary world. I like very much that you give some deeper insight into the meanings of the poem with a post text, it helps bring the words to life. But the words, they way they fall and flow here can stand on their own merit, a personal favorite. Great work.

This review was written for a previous version of this writing

Posted 15 Years Ago


1 of 1 people found this review constructive.




Reviews

oh, I felt like I was flying. It is a widely known secret that sometimes I straggle in late to work cause I've gone driving up the nearest hills. It is as near as I can get to feeling like that condor I believe.

Posted 15 Years Ago


I am indeed overjoyed that I decided to return the favor and read your writings...this is a masterpiece! I love to be pulled into it...the body of a work! Thank you for the journey!

This review was written for a previous version of this writing

Posted 15 Years Ago


1 of 1 people found this review constructive.

This is FABULOUS! Five star writing here my friend! I have read some of Pablo's writing. He has a very warm and personal style that transmits through all his writing; an endearing commodity to be sure. He deserves his place of respect in the literary world. I like very much that you give some deeper insight into the meanings of the poem with a post text, it helps bring the words to life. But the words, they way they fall and flow here can stand on their own merit, a personal favorite. Great work.

This review was written for a previous version of this writing

Posted 15 Years Ago


1 of 1 people found this review constructive.


Share This
Email
Facebook
Twitter
Request Read Request
Add to Library My Library
Subscribe Subscribe


Stats

362 Views
3 Reviews
Added on January 28, 2009
Last Updated on February 6, 2009
Previous Versions

Author

JohnL
JohnL

Wirral Peninsula, United Kingdom



About
I live in England, and love the English countryside, the music of Elgar and Holst which describes it so beautifully and the poetry of John Clare, the 'peasant poet' and Gerard Manley Hopkins, which d.. more..

Writing