Tuesday, August 20, 2013

The Barcelona Inside Me


The Barcelona Inside Me
  by Robin Becker
Give me, again, the fairy tale grotto 
with the portico-vaulting overhead. 
Let me walk beneath the canted columns
of Gaudí's rookery, spiral 
along his crenelated Jerusalem 
of broken tiles, crazy shields. 
Yes, it's hot as hell and full 
of tourists at the double helix,
but the anarchists now occupy
the Food Court, and the arcadian dream
for the working class includes this shady
colonnade cut into the mountainside.
I've postponed my allegiance to
the tiny house movement, to the 450
square feet of simple, American maple 
infrastructure and the roomy 
mind suspended like a hammock
between joists. Serpents and castle
keeps shimmer, and a mosaic invitation
to the Confectionery gets me a free
café con leche on the La Rambla,

where honeycombed apartments bend 
on chiseled stone and host 
floating, wrought-iron balconies. 
I think I'll move into Gaudí's dream
of recycled mesh, walk barefoot
on his flagstone tiles 
inscribed with seaweed
and sacred graffiti 
from pagan tombs. 
O, Barcelona of chamfered corners!
And chimneys of cowled
warriors! From Gaudí's Book 
of Revelations, I invite the goblet
and the stone Mobius strip 
to a tapas of grilled prawns and squid. 
Gaudí's book of Revelations.


About This Poem
"Visiting several of Antoni Gaudí's masterpieces challenged my attachment to minimalism, occasioned some reading about Spanish architectural and cultural history, and led to unfamiliar, descriptive language. I tried to make the poem's line turns and diction shifts reflect the speaker's surprise at the city's delights. Into the architect's fantastical creations I plunged, a tourist with a dream of staying on."—Robin Becker

About This Poet
Robin Becker was born in 1951 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She earned a B.A. and M.A. from Boston University and taught for seventeen years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.


I am dedicating the posting of this poem today to a dear friend of mine who will be traveling to Spain next month, and I wish him safe travels.  I hope he will have a wonderful time.

3 comments:

silvereagle said...

The words paint a picture as beautiful as the city presents in real life! Amazing!!!! And also amazing that your posts are so filled with information we would not see elsewhere!!! Thanks ::-)

Anonymous said...

I might just have to hitch a ride in his luggage! BEAUTIFUL POEM! First time I've ever felt a tug to visit Spain. More for the bucket list.

Peace <3
Jay

David Jeffreys said...

I would love to visit Gaudi's cathedral, but won't wait for it to be finished! Poor old Gaudi was mistaken for a homeless man and died on the street after being hit as a pedestrian. His design and concept continues on though. The pictures of the nave are fantastic.