Barcelona Poetry Week (Jocs Florals, 2021)

 

Jocs Florals

Barcelona is celebrating its Jocs Florals 2021, a celebration derived from the ancient Roman games celebrated to honor the deity Flora (ludi floreales).

Barcelona Town Hall’s website has information on this in Catalan and Castilian. This brings up the difficulty of translation, of course, but it seems to me interesting to point up the fact that the website (this year, in any case) includes a selection of the poems that were presented to the competition for last year’s event. Obviously those who read Romance languages will have an advantage here, but my suggestion is that, if interested, once you reach the website (at  https://www.barcelona.cat/barcelonapoesia/ca/jocs-florals

) you might want to scroll down or in-page search for “llibre dels jocs florals 2021” without the quotes. This will take you to the event’s book (llibre or libro).

You can then search inside the book for “selecció de poemes any 2020” without quotes. The poems there were chosen by Ingrid Guardiola, who also introduces this section of the book. The poems will speak for themselves of course. But personally I find many interesting surprises in the lines chosen. Enjoy!

Seafields

 

An August 15, 2015 photo (below) titled Seafields, taken at the Giant’s Causeway, Ireland. That is the date it was first published on this blog. Once it becomes safe to do so I want to go back to this amazing place.

 Meanwhile, it is at least considered safe now for us to move around our own county (comarca). So new views of the Mediterranean coast will be possible again, something I’ve also greatly missed during these months. I’ve had my first vaccination dose with the Pfizer vaccine and I am scheduled for the second in May.

 Yesterday we walked up to the Park Güell, extending the tour to keep from arriving too early at the restaurant for lunch. We ended up walking more than 12 kilometers in the end. Happy to be in shape at least for slopes that aren’t very steep. Also something to be said, I think, for a gentle stroll on level ground…

World Book Day 2021

 

 Running words through your fingers, as Book Day takes the torch from Earth Day:

“Another sort of reading matches better with the morning hours. This is not the time for foraging and rummaging, for half-closed eyes and gliding voyages. We want something that has been shaped and clarified, cut to catch the light, hard as gem or rock with the seal of human experience in it, and yet sheltering as in a clear gem the flame which burns now so high and now sinks so low in our own hearts. We want what is timeless and contemporary. But one might exhaust all images, and run words through one’s fingers like water and yet not say why it is that on such a morning one wakes with a desire for poetry.” Virginia Woolf, from her essay “Reading.”

Happy World Book Day to All!

Viladrau

Planning a new trip.....Viladrau flowers seen (from notes) Dandelions in seed and flowering; nipplewort; violets; something like coltsfoot. Some tiny white flowers. Also some beautiful scrubland with Spanish broom and what I think is gorse. Trees to revisit: Holm oak, cork oak, innumerable firs, pines, birch, hazel. 

Hoping the sunny weather holds (and pandemic restrictions permit travel).......

Happy world poetry day

 May poetic creation in all its many forms continue to shine a light.

Glass vase in sunlight

 

 

 

Glass vase in sunlight

 

I can’t stop looking at the long stemmed rose we bought,

the petals so red against the green leaves.

expansion

 

expansion 

down binder steam, cloud,

today shouts powder dram,

musician-bright wedge

in steam panels—chipped

yellow rust, finely minnow.

akimbo, tick tock way

chaff fast one two or