Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Stairs



This staircase on Ibiza lures me.  What is at the top, and down the little alleyway beside?

I am writing a mystery story set on Mallorca, with a detective who comes from a hilltown in Ibiza and writes ghazals (see this interview with poet Robert Bly for a discussion of the form).

One of Bly's ghazals takes us into far, wild places—

Some love to watch the sea bushes appearing at dawn,

To see night fall from the goose's wings, and to hear
The conversations the night sea has with the dawn.

If we can't find Heaven, there are always bluejays.
Now you know why I spent my twenties crying.
Cries are required from those who wake disturbed at dawn.

Adam was called in to name the Red-Winged
Blackbirds, the Diamond Rattlers, and the Ring-Tailed
Raccoons washing God in the streams at dawn.

Centuries later, the Mesopotamian gods,
All curls and ears, showed up; behind them the Generals
With their blue-coated sons who will die at dawn.

Those grasshopper-eating hermits were so good
To stay all day in the cave; but it is also sweet
To see the fenceposts gradually appear at dawn.

People in love with the setting stars are right
To adore the baby who smells of the stable, but we know
That even the setting stars will disappear at dawn.
 




image:  Staircase in Elvissa, Hans Bernhard

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