Part of my summer reading – the collected poems of Federico Garcia Lorca
Having traveled to Granada last fall, I decided to become acquainted with Spain’s most famous poet, who once lived here
As Christopher Maurer describes in the introduction, “At times Lorca’s symbolism grows so private, so opaque, that only the will to speak poetically–and to show the inadequacy of language–has any meaning.”
He further tells us “Life and death, speech and silence are the cardinal points of his elegiac world. Life in the shadow of death, speech in the shadow of the unknown; the natural mystery that seems inaccessible to speech and to reason.”
My Travels to Granada and southern Spain
Last fall we explored the southern Spanish landscape. How can one become more deeply absorbed in a place that we are just passing through? Memories remain with me of course, and as a result there is a desire to continue this mental journey into the character of the land and people, in this case by opening a window through the poems of Federico Garcia Lorca.
I have my sketchbook open, and ponder the drawings I made during that time, as if they can somehow illuminate the poems in some unknown way. Or perhaps as a reminder that I actually was there in Granada, the place that Lorca spent much time in.
SketchTravel
