Thursday, February 15, 2018

Joy V. Sheridan writes

A Stranger Tale 

Blooms in magnolia trees make satin flowers 

Amidst the twilight hue 
And let me pin a flower over your gypsy life 
In caravan on pony trap – see the journey’s 
Plotted route to where you are going 
Along an invisible road –

Oh! To hamlet, to town on thoroughfare 

To cottages and willows 
Grown aside a castle needing repair.

Oh – can you throw a posy to the wind? 

Will you speak of trials – 
Not knowing where to begin?

Oh look: there is a handsome stranger 

With flashing nocturnal eyes, 
In his cloak and sombrero – 
Know you not him in disguise?

And with a jaunty tap,  

He pulls up in his trap, lets pony breathe. 
And now he plays the Master 
With accomplished ease –

Come: will you kiss him,  

Who may have all bliss – 
That gypsy rover, from whom you steal 
A kiss.

Now, with a part-smile of lowered eyes 

You gaze at him,  
As though he were your prize, 
But hearken! In his whistle is heard

The singular word, 

And to total freedom this man moves away.

He has all the world 

But nowhere to stay 
No! You cannot keep him 
Who forever roams;  
He is the gypsy traveler 
Whom no-one may own. 
But oh! His smile will a souvenir stay – 
That was his goodbye, 
He who would not stray, 
Feeding you now the handshake of relief

Oh! Let him go, for he may only bring you grief. 

Smile a hand-wave, a pucker from the lips 
Beware this traveler,  
Who speaks with a foreign lisp. 
Goodbye! Oh – Farewell, Au Revoir – 
It is now all over:

Joy mixed with sorrow, the final pause 

Is to roam forever – this perfect traveler 
Whose aim one can never tell.

Now, down the lane, the highway of hope, 

Leaves the traveler 
Who revives for a different scope: 
See – he is now but a shadow 
On the breeze: he has the magic 
To do as he please

Wave, oh wave, and farewell bid – 

Like a Spanish warrior – he is El Cid. 


Image result for el cid painting
El Cid -- Victoria Powers

1 comment:

  1. Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar was a Castilian military leader who became regarded as Spain's national hero after his death. He 1st rose to prominence in king Sancho II's wars of unification against his brothers Alfonso VI of León and García II of Galicia and in his conquest of Muslim territories in al-Andalus. After Sancho was deposed by Alfonso and his sister Urraca, Alfonso succeeded to the throne and exiled Rodrigo. Already known as "El Campeador" (the Champion), Rodrigo the served under the Muslim rulers of Zaragoza, defending their lands against Aragon and Barcelona. After Alfonso's 1086 defeat by the Berbers known as the Almovravids he recalled Rodrigo to his service. (The Al-Murabitun had founded Marrakesh in 1062 and formed an empire in North Africa and Spain.) Rodrigo used the opportunity to establish control over the Muslim city-state of Valencia and later established independent rule over it. He died during an Almoravid siege, but his widow dressed his corpse in armor and mounted him over his horse Babieca to bolster his troops' morale in a successful charge against the Muslims; nevertheless, the city fell and was not retaken by Christians for another century and a quarter.
    He was not known as "El Cid" (from the Old Spanish "Çid," derived from the dialectal Arabic word sîdi or sayyid, meaning “Lord” or “Master”). It was not until a century after his death that he was called "mio Cid el Campeador."

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