Spain by Major Jackson

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend April 7, 2015   Spain   Major Jackson

for Mark Strand   Beneath canopies of green, unionists marched doggedly outside The Embassy. Their din was no match for light lancing through leaves of madrone trees lining the Paseo then flashing off glossy black Maybachs skidding round a plaza like a monarch fleeing the paparazzi. Your voice skipped and paused like a pencil. Layers of morning pastries flaked gingerly then fell, soft as vowels, on a china plate. One learns to cherish the wizened reserve of old world manners, two blotched hands making wings of a daily paper beside us between sips of café con leche, a demeanor in short gentle as grand edifices along this boulevard. Yet Guernica is down the street, and some windshields wear a sinister face, sometimes two. Think Goya. Just south of here, on the lower slopes of the Sierras, fields of olive groves braid the land like a Moorish head, but those sultans were kicked out long ago. In the lobby of the Hotel Urban, I wait for a cab, my obedient rolling bag like a pet beside me.  I have loved again another city but Madrid is yours: her caped olé’s, her bullish flag, her glass pavilions and outdoor tables like a festival of collaged laughter, our dark harbors finding level.            Copyright © 2015 by Major Jackson. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   “Several years ago, my wife and I traveled to Madrid and had mid-morning breakfast with the great poet Mark Strand, whom I had met on several occasions in New York City. Upon hearing we would be in town, he extended an invitation to dine at his favorite restaurant, The Embassy. Our conversation ranged from national healthcare to the poet-friends of his generation to his early aspirations as a painter and the upcoming exhibit of collages in a New York City gallery. Afterwards, we walked along a grand boulevard to a bookstore in Salamanca where he made suggestions of works of fiction. Despite his waning health, he was stately and quite generous. I was happy to send him the poem a year before his passing, which he enjoyed and responded with characteristic grace.” —Major Jackson   Major Jackson is the author of the forthcoming collection Roll Deep (W. W. Norton, 2015). He teaches at the University of Vermont and is a core faculty member of the Bennington Writing Seminars.   Photo credit: Erin Patrice O' Brien Most Recent Book by Jackson   Roll Deep (W. W. Norton, 2015) "The Everyday Enchantment of Music" by Mark Strand "Crostatas" by Charlie Smith "Return to Florence" by Cyrus Cassells Read This Poem   For National Poetry Month, we’ve teamed up with 826 National to produce Read This Poem, a celebration of poets in cities with 826 chapters. Read this week's featured poems by poets from Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038