I was thinking of working on this Let's Make Art journaling project and think about text I might include if I made it a two-page spread. Of course, I thought of Frost's "Nothing Gold Can Stay," which I love but wasn't feeling for this. Someone in the Facebook group used Mary Oliver, a good choice.
Anyway, the Googling led me to "Arbolé, Arbolé" by Federico Garcia Lorca. (And, hey, I just figured out how to do accents in Blogger.) I haven't read it before, and I really like it! It's romantic; the lyrics could be a folk song. (I don't know Spanish, but I like the rhythm of the translation by William Bryant Logan. I have to image "Come on over, muchacha" sounded a little less skeevy when originally written/translated, but I think the hint of skeeviness still works--after all, we know what those riders and bullfighters and flower-bedecked travelers are after.) I don't know enough about Lorca and Spanish history to know if the "dry and green" olive tree landscape represents a different region of Spain from those represented by the men, or if the pretty girl is a more general figure for Spain. On the personal or non-figurative level, I like a girl who doesn't need a man to entertain or define her: enjoy the single life, muchacha.
I might have to read some more Lorca, either after I finish Best American Poetry 2020 or interspersed with that reading.
Other poetic Googling: on the theme of "impermanence," there just aren't too many flowers are quickly here-and-gone as the wisteria. It's still lovely, but what I see along the road has already faded from the hues of a few days ago. My research turned up some interesting poems, but I think my favorite is "Extreme Wisteria" by Lucie Brock-Broido.
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