catalonia

the barcelona 

women

long legged

their tunics flowing

my new

catalan friends

crying

smoking

eating the last of the

anchovies

in the fallout

shelter

 

sour

the dank stone sewers

sweet

the roasted coffee

the towering spires

glass

light

laughing children

taxis

buses

scooters

and wondering

why we are

here 

at all

Reviews

[Eilis]

This poem makes me think of a dance. The high notes and low notes of music. The spin and dip and scuff and pause to wait for the rise again. I feel a sort of pessimism but admiration that is maybe just a healthy way of looking at the world. If we become too enamored, the truth becomes translucent and we look through it to see only what is stirring or angering or beautiful on the other side. But, a tempered mind, perhaps, can see that the notion of perfection is itself flawed. Perhaps perfection is more like the ability to see the less favorable as part of a fathomable whole that offers the stinks of sewers alongside the rise and vision of Gaudi, and understand that all things come together to make experience what it is. I felt a certain sense of nostalgia alongside frustration here. It felt like a sense of the dullness of realization alongside the fascination of curiosity explored. It’s a lovely dynamic in a poem. I enjoyed the slide show trip of it.

[Kenneth The Poet]

Because they are keeping the Spanish nation just above insolvent whale s**t and I find that reprehensible. That's probably why they are acting as they are but that's my opinion.

[Country boy183798]

Beautiful and well written. Really enjoyed reading it. Thank you and keep on writing

[Nisreen]

This is quite a wonderful piece
has movement and i feel like i can relate to it
With all the motion going on
one always sits in silence wondering how did i get here ..... a form of appreciation

this is lovely

[M.E.Lyle]

It's a crazy mixed up world out there. Things going on around us, noises, people, things. It does give us reason to wonder, what are we doing here.
I enjoyed this very much. It flowed easily across the page.

[. serah .]

-- ah... an intricate journey... rendered matter-of-factly... but with such an incisive eye on details and contradictions... -- this sketch almost reminds me of my country... (india)... and how lost we are sometimes... despite all the baffling kinds of colours and cuisines... searching for an identity/purpose or nothing at all... just being in the moment and observing... trying to look beyond poverty and failing... and still trying to survive/live with whatever culture exists in our psyche... -- i guess if we can hear children laughing... then we can be anywhere... but that could just be something i keep telling myself...

[...]

I have never been out of the US. I always dreamed of traveling, but I prefer the unspoiled countryside. I would never travel just to see a man made structure or unforgiving city. Here in the states I love the great lakes and the surprising fact that Lake Superior is still blue :)

[Annie Gryphon]

i never noticed that the Barcelona women are long-legged ... haha, maybe it was in Amsterdam or Utrecht? Anyways i like how you let it flow, take me with you to your Catalan friends with their laughter and their eating habits. Something down to earth, something so daily that we normally forget to appreciate. taxis, buses, scooters, roasted coffee. Life can be so easy.

[kmartell]

ah, like "frank ohara" "found" words dobbed implosions, of downward correct and sincere posture hitting the page, going their way and leaving the reader knowing how if not dreampt at least how accurate yr own view of the universe has become...