The Ekphrastic Review
  • The Ekphrastic Review
  • The Ekphrastic Challenges
    • Challenge Archives
  • Ebooks
  • Prizes
  • Book Shelf
    • TERcets Podcast
  • The Ekphrastic Academy
  • Give
  • Submit
  • Contact
  • About/Masthead

Upon Reading Federico García Lorca in a Spanish Children’s Bookstore, by Mary McCulley

8/16/2017

1 Comment

 
Picture
Twelve Poems by Federico Garcia Lorca, illustrated by Gabriel Pacheco (Mexico). Contemporary. Click image to visit artist site.
Upon Reading Federico García Lorca in a Spanish Children’s Bookstore

We stepped from the rainy Madrid streets
Into a magical spell
Where miniature worlds
Spilled across bookshelves.
Some universes embroidered with scarlet trees,
Others gilded with golden leaves.
There were watercolour washes
Of cadmium and cobalt 
Circling beneath a collage of cutout vellum.
Cherubic faces
Dipped in dark Art Nouveau ink
Were kissing cheeks 
With otherworldly urchins.
It was a bricolage
De lugares mágicos--
Not of your high tea Wonderlands and Neverlands and Narnias…

Together we read twelve
Poetic fictions fashioned 
Through a surreal cerulean horse,
Tethered by conch shells,
Floating through the grainy ethereal portal,
Nuzzling the blind boy who extends a solitary candle
So that we might see 
What we do not see.
From within the pages,
We hear a mother singing Lorca’s lullabies
To wide-eyed children
Who cry, 
Mamá, bórdame en tu almohada.
And so 
she sews 
Los ojos 
de sus hijos
Into a sleep 
of haunting Spanish love lyrics and magical meters.

And I wonder--
What is a child?
I see in your eyes
An answer
Down the winding tunnel 
Dropping past your earthly age
To a kernel
Not yet popped 
Into material form with pigments and papers
And Spanish conjugations--
A world in a seedling
Still unfolding, bordered and borderless. 
 
Mary McCulley
​

Mary McCulley is a native Texan who currently teaches composition and literature courses at a small private school in the cornfields of Ohio. She is particularly fond of children's illustrated books and impressionistic art. Website. 

1 Comment
Kitty Sabelman link
6/21/2024 01:27:37 pm

Your piece transports me to hours spent with my daughters immersed in the colors you describe in a public library. When the world outside was grey and unfriendly, my little ones were nourished by the artwork called illustration in the stories that I read to them. We laughed and cried for the characters and drew courage and hope from the words.
Thank you for your words. Excuse my poor grammar.
Kitty

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    The Ekphrastic Review
    Picture
    Picture
    Current Prompt
    COOKIES/PRIVACY

    This website uses marketing and tracking technologies. Opting out of this will opt you out of all cookies, except for those needed to run the website. Note that some products may not work as well without tracking cookies.

    Opt Out of Cookies
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Join us: Facebook and Bluesky
    @ekphrasticreview.



    ​
    ​Archives
    ​

    July 2025
    June 2025
    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015

    Lorette C. Luzajic [email protected] 

  • The Ekphrastic Review
  • The Ekphrastic Challenges
    • Challenge Archives
  • Ebooks
  • Prizes
  • Book Shelf
    • TERcets Podcast
  • The Ekphrastic Academy
  • Give
  • Submit
  • Contact
  • About/Masthead