the poet and the architect

December 2017

 

 

is the poet closer

to understanding place

than the architect?

can the poet see

the light as life

as moving time

the white patches on this wall

as reflections of the sea?

 

II

can the poet draw a line

between the ocean and the land?

and see the dunes

as repetition of the waves

as land that moves like water

the same song

in different tunes?

 

III

can the poet sketch a space

where past and future coincide?

where sun lits the same

ancient stones upon which

we build our new walls

the shadows change

but the light remains?

 

IV

can the poet build in words

a place where we reside?

where we sit on the stones in the sun

where we walk with our feet in the sand

where we eat around a room of light

where we climb on a hill and see

a house, the ocean, a path, and trees?

 

a place where we reside

if only briefly

as visitors

of the poet's world

a place where we have lived.

 

--

 

This is one of a series of poems I wrote in “poets’ cabin” of the Ciudad Abierta, the “Open City” of the school of architecture, Valparaiso, Chile

kmh nov 2017