Poems Out of Bogota

25) “Catedral de Sal”
(Zipaquirá, Colombia)) by Bogotá))

Colossal pillars gleam,
At their insuperable posts,
Who guard the holy Cathedral
(hundreds of feet blow—in the deep
salt mines of Zipaquirá).

And flames in a silent cross’s
Deep in the dominion of the dark,
Tremble forth its inviolable
Breast,
Remote in solitude
—it rests…;

Ere…everlasting twilight;
A heritage of fates!...
The Cathedral de Sal—:
The grandest Cathedral of Today
…near the mountain city of Bogotá!...

Note: Some have thought this to be a legendary church underground, in the outskirts of Bogotá, but it is real, as real as the earth above it. Written after visiting the church, 11/4/2005; #918. The Church took four years to build; is close to 100-feet underground, or 570-feet deep, or 187-feet receding. It can hold 8000-people at any given time.

26) The Donkey Men of Bogotá

The Donkey Men, walk up and down, Bogotá’s streets; joystick in hand, tin containers bobbing along—, along the sides of the donkey…pulling them along, from café to restaurant, from restaurant to café: picking up bits and pieces, leftovers, ‘remains,’ to feed their pigs another day. Happy they seem with the simplicity of things.

Notes: A way of life in the old city of Bogotá, (meaning: ‘Fertile Valley’), are the Donkey Men, let’s hope they keep their old customs, it gives me chills to see such cities carrying on with old traditions, something America has almost completely lost. 11-5-2005, 6:00 PM; written in the evening, after seeing the Donkey Men.

26) “The Legend of El Dorado of Guatavita” (1200 AD, Colombia)

The Legend is of the chief (cacique) in the village of Guatavita— In, A nearby lake, he, the chief is covered with gold-dust, on a wooden craft— in the solitude of the lake: celebrates his good fortune to the earth, by giving back to the waters, a ting of gold and emeralds—hence, for a future date.

Note: The legend and the story I just wrote is well known in Colombia, although I picked it up in Bogotá, at the Gold Museum, where I witnessed the golden raft (24kt gold); most beautiful. 11-5-05 #920 (Written in the evening after visiting the museum and an emerald store, and talked to a tourist guide, trying to get the correct story on the legend, by all three sources).

It should be mentioned, the people of Bogotá are most accommodating, full of life and warm.

Three Poems written while in
Flight from Lima to Bogotá

The Wine of Madness

27) The lost Road

He walks the road, hour after hour
With all its splendor and gold:
A strange road, round road, cracked road:
All covered with blood and stones.

A bleached road, carved with thin bones;
A fools road, that winds and winds—.
But it’s the only road he knows—
And it’s the low road that leads to hell.

Note: written while in flight, from Lima, Peru, to Bogotá, Colombia; #914, 11-4-05.

28) “Howard’s Wish”
(Dedicated to Robert E. Howard))Poet/Author))

How now is Hell, little swine?
Who wrote his little Hellish rhymes!
How now is Hell, bellied-slave,
Ye have nothing more to say?
Fare dead, in your Hellish grave.

Note: #915, in-flight to Bogotá, Colombia, 11/4/2005

00) To my Brother

Of irrecoverable days…
Now memories with tireless sight:

What love shall wake thy gleaming eyes?
What love shall wake thy yearning feet?

As one that, hopeless, longs to hold
Hold perhaps the paths that wait thy feet…

Are the paths hidden too deep, too deep?
The winds of Eden now long gone…;

The gardens strange now have come—.
Lost isles, where youth once belonged

Now is dark with woeful grounds—
Now memories with tireless sight…

Note: Written while in flight to Bogotá, Colombia; #916, 11-4-2005. My wife asked why I wrote such alarming and strange bits of poetry while in flight. I said, “It just came out of me,” what more can a poet say, or an artist, or a musician? I call these three poems in flight, “The Wine of Madness”