[Duncan Ryder] Postcard from Spain

[Duncan Ryder]

a wedding today

in the plaza mayor

grooms with shy smiles

black suits

white orchids

 

yet lorca haunts me

through madrid

street to narrow street

a dove in his outstretched hand

 

i am brave

not because i dare

to love a man

but because i dare

to love at all

[Tiger]

That's a beautiful poem, Duncan. I love those last two lines.

[Former Member]

Wow that is really awesome!

[Cynical Romantic]

Great poem. I also love the line about daring to love at all. To love is to let someone in, and that is possibly the most courageous thing anyone can do.

 

Whose wedding was it, I wonder? Were you a guest, or just passing by? I have always loved encountering random weddings in idyllic places when I travel. I always wonder about the people getting married; their stories, their histories, who they have with them or why they have so few people with them, what led them to get married in that place. There's a story behind each and every one.

 

Hope you enjoy the rest of your trip!

[Former Member]

I loved the last stanza. As a whole, it really was beautiful.

 

I hope you are having a relaxing and fun vacation.

[Gandalf]

Wonderful poem. Evokes Spain as well as the universality of our lives. Hope you had fun in Chueca. Pax Steve

[wildone]

Great poem Duncan.

 

I too liked the last stanza. It says so much, yet in not so many words.

 

I did also notice that you mention 'grooms', yet no mention of brides.

 

Is there something you're not telling us? Or at least not flat out.

 

Hope you are enjoying your time away.

 

Steve

[Duncan Ryder]

Great poem Duncan.

 

I too liked the last stanza. It says so much, yet in not so many words.

 

I did also notice that you mention 'grooms', yet no mention of brides.

 

Is there something you're not telling us? Or at least not flat out.

 

Hope you are enjoying your time away.

 

Steve

 

There was no bride Steve. Gay marriage is legal in Spain. My partner and I were sitting at a cafe in the square on a Friday afternoon when the weddings happen...we noticed several with no brides. And the couples weren't all Spanish...the couple in this one was two sweet German guys. The poem is playing on the irony of such a wedding in Spain, the idea that people are coming for civil rights to what was a facist country until just 33 years ago, on the death of Franco. I can't help but hope that if Spain can get there, the rest of the world can too....

 

Lorca is one of my favourite poets (well, in translation, I don't speak Spanish).. He was a great Spanish poet (and recognized as such in his lifetime though he was only in his thirties when he died). He was murdered by the facists at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War in 1937 and dumped in mass grave. He was gay, and that played a part in the brutality of his death.

 

There is a statue of Lorca in Plaza de Santa Ana in Madrid; he is holding a dove in his outstretched hands. To give you an idea of how political Spain is, to this day every morning the left ties a red scarf around the statue's neck, and every morning the right takes it off. Lorca was front page news when we were in Spain because a judge ruled while we were there that they would dig up to mass grave he was dumped into....

 

This is one reason why despite the fact that Spain was fabulous and we had a fabulous time, I had this underlying sense of sadness the whole time we were there...

[spanishreader]

Pity you don

[TracyMN]

A beautiful poem, indeed, Duncan. Those very powerful last two lines say all there really is to say, and as others have said, it is not who we love, but that we love, that

matters.

 

Thanks.

 

Tracy

[kiso]

Thank you for sharing that with us.

 

When I visited Madrid, the splendors of Plaza Mayor slightly diminished when my friend reminded me that executions and autos de fe were performed right where I thought was the most beautiful place in the world at that moment. I nearly spat out my chorizo sandwich.

 

How incredible it must've been to see same-sex couples being granted the rights they deserve in that same square with all its history of persecution.