Blue-rinsed and perm-headed
hydrangea matrons
eavesdrop our conversation.
At least, that was my first thought.
Continue reading “heads, hair, hats”
Category: travel
Sanfermines
Although I am in Spain, I will not be attending the controversial running of the bulls in Pamplona. Instead, to mark the San Fermín festival, which started yesterday, I offer this splendid statue from Birmingham’s Bullring shopping centre. 
blazing a trail
I flew to Spain on Wednesday. We boarded on time, but sat on the tarmac for a couple of hours while they fixed a technical problem.
This was the view through the window just after take off:
in Catalonia II
L’Escala: thunder blue,
the Mediterranean
beat her lace-frilled cuffs against
the coast’s ridged washboard rocks
while the cobla band played on
in brassy silence.
You’ll find a couple of other poetry fragments from my recent trip to Catalonia if you click here.
in Catalonia I
La tramuntana
turns the beach
vertical, lifting it
towards a cleanswept blue
where tiptilting gulls
fly backwards.
It’s not quite the right photo, of course, but the tramontane wind blew so hard for four of the five days of my recent trip that I couldn’t see or think or focus. I could hardly stand upright most of the time, so was pleased to find even a few lines of poetry, without worrying about whether I had appropriate pictures to use alongside.
A painter’s light, you said,
but I saw nothing,
eyes scrunched against
drifting sand and tufts
of cottonwood.
don't confuse the narrator 