Travel Terrific

Literary

SPANISH LOVE
Three inspiring poems by renowned poet and author, Seymour Mayne.

"Spain is a country of imposing features," says Seymour Mayne. "Nowhere can one fail to notice the architecture of earlier eras and the stories of its past, which the informed traveler will take in along with the bustle and vitality of contemporary life.

"Over the years, during various trips, I could not help but respond in the form and concision of poetry to the Spain that I discovered and explored as a visitor.

Madrid Evening draws on the historical resonances of the city, especially of the period during the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). The Casa de Campo is the large park just below the Royal Palace and the downtown area. It was the location from which the artillery of the Nationalist forces bombarded the capital during the siege of the city.

La Laguna Beauty and Constitution Park were written in La Laguna, capital of the island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands. La Laguna Beauty is a tribute to the beautiful young women of the island. Constitution Park celebrates the indigenous "dragon tree" and the supremacy of nature in this most "political" of nations.

MADRID EVENING

The madness of the sun's heat
once split open
this smouldering earth like a pod.

Now it sleeps again,
wounded
for another hundred years.

LA LAGUNA BEAUTY

What secret pain and softness
do you hide?
A man could throw
half his life away
just to hold you in his arms
one night through
to the hastening dawn.

CONSTITUTION PARK

The thick dragon trees
inch upwards year by year
toward the crystal sky,

their wide trunks clipped
by season
the leaves spread out
as if readying for flight.

Where are the fruit,
where's the giving?

They simply cleanse
       the night air
and filter through the sputter
       of cars
yet remain impervious
       to the clouds
and passing politics of men.

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