Friday, February 18, 2011

Talking through the Door (1)

Patio de los Arrayanes, The Alhambra
Granada, Spain
Photo from Wiki Commons


You said, Who's at the door?
I said, Your slave.

You said, What do you want?
To see you and bow.

We talked through the door. I claimed
a great love and that I had given up
what the world gives to be in that love.

You said, Such claims require a witness.
I said, This longing, these tears.

You said, Discredited witnesses.
I said, Surely not.

You said, Who did you come with?
This majestic imagination you gave me,

Why did you come?
The musk of your wine was in the air.

What is your intention?
Friendship.

5 comments:

Ruth said...

Open the damn door!

:-)

Lorenzo — Alchemist's Pillow said...

The Alhambra has a special chamber, built nearly 1000 years ago, in which two people in opposite corners of the rather large room can turn their backs toward each other, and face into their respective corners and, when thus positioned, they can murmur softly into the wall and they will hear each other as clearly as if whispering directly into one another's ear. And even though, thus arranged, they are as far from each other as possible in that room, no one else in the room will hear them, even those standing practically next to them. There are no doors in that chamber.

I know there is a simple mathematical and acoustical engineering explanation for this delightful phenomenon, but when I experienced it, I preferred to think it was the musk of wine in the air. I still recall it as a magic chamber and, I must add, the Alhambra is, to me, perhaps the most magical place I have ever been in.

The Solitary Walker said...

I loved that, Lorenzo. I agree the Alhambra is a special place - though unfortunately I've never been there without an accompanying phalanx of shouting (not softly murmuring) tourists.

Lorenzo — Alchemist's Pillow said...

Yes, Robert, I apply hefty doses of olvidium to forget such things as tourist mayhem. Don't let the facts get in the way of a good memory, I always say.

who said...

I don't recall ever physically visiting it (unless it is the private school is Canyonville OR, less than 150 students: the similar in appearance place, in Canyonville, I have physically visited)

Alhambra, not physically that I know of, but 3-5 years worth of nightmares, I remember it there. I was the same age in my nightmares as I was physically, but in my sleep tortured. Tortured as in I could not escape. But everyone else did.