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Bellavista Y Neruda

Like a wise owl
Pablo came to me later,
after the Inca dancing and the fiesta of tables
al fresco along the pulsating street.

Youth like party lights,
girls expecting pleasure,
made for the night
with the beer bottles big and the men smoking.

We visited his house but that wasn’t important,
maybe it was auto suggestion
but what's past, incerro?
The wind rustling unseen leaves in Santiago,
in the plazas, les calles,
fountains like a refuge
dusty, desert weather with the Andes silently high
all around us.

Editing stage: 

Comments

Love the poem ... but before I got the reference to
Neruda (Pablo) the first line threw me, what I got was
some creepy uncle and my first read was all but ruined,
probably just me but referring to him as a warm uncle
didn't work for me, the rest of the poem does though,
quite well actually and my second read was much better,
although I still don't like the "uncle" reference.

thanks

Richard

do you have a problem with uncles?? haha, I really had this feeling of his presence in my room, but as i said my imagination is always on overdrive. If others feel the same I'll edit it. thanks for your comment, I've been in Santiago for 5 days now and luckily my son's girlfriend is Chilean and is showing us all the interesting places. Amazingly big fast exciting city where poverty rubs shoulders with sophistication and cobbled coutyards sit next to monumental high rise buildings.

author comment

it's funny, I have some great uncles so I don't know why I got
the creepy uncle thing, although it is something we hear about
enough. My wife watches all the "real crime" shows, maybe I'm
tainted (lol).

I'm jealous and raising my 2nd cup of coffee to you and yours
to have a wonderful time in Santiago ...

Richard

Santiago is about 7 million, so a huge cauldron of extremes, wealth/poverty, Indian/old world spanish, spirit of the Junta and liberdad of the young,

author comment

but- lol - i too question the 'uncle' reference
it did throw me in that first line
- 'Pablo came later with gentle animus/ genius/ insight '? or some such thing perhaps?

i really see the descriptive, and feel the different culture
and i so envy you your experience
have a great time
love judy
xxx

'Each for the joy of the working, and each, in his separate star,
shall draw the Thing as he sees It, for the God of Things as They are.'
(Rudyard Kipling)

a bit of a whirlwind here, with night rambles and big Chilean bar-b-q's, conversations that are a mix of english and spanish and a lot of miming. Santiago is mostly Indian, with families having one spanish ancestor, people are very kind and patient as blond turistas are unusual.

author comment

Very good poem. I, up to this point, am not familiar with Neruda. What impresses me is the exacting choice of words used to paint a vivid panorama of imagery. I can see it when I close my eyes. Great work!

Ron

BlueDemon77

Blue Demon77

"What I want is to be what I was before the knife,
before the brooch pin, before the salve, fixed me in this parenthesis:
Horses fluent in the wind. A place, a time gone out of mind."

The Eye Mote-Sylvia Plath

there's a great reading of one of Neruda's poem , in english by madonna, on youTube, I think its called 'if i forget you' I havn't read anything either but he was a huge influence in the spanish speaking world.

author comment

Hi Ross,

Liked the sounds and images.."youth like party lights"...what a brilliant line! Always wanted to visit places like Santiago, been to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, Spain. That was all cobbled streets, bars & Roccoco architecture!

Ells

Santiago is a mixture of very old spanish architecture and then right through to the latest glass and steel high rise buildings, there are many areas with old world charm, but its the sudden extremes and monumental architecture that is awsome, mind you the whole place is a bit run down and there are very poor areas and shanty towns. A strange mixtureof first, second and third world living, Is pretty safe and food is good and you can drink the water.

author comment
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