Bolting packaged food
along the gleaming corridors
easyJet to Palma
first sight in Port Andratx
4 garden Buddhas
panting up through pines
clack of sticks stops:
the wine-dark sea
new boots old feet
blisters
immense dark silence
two companions
cold kiss of moonlight
dappled sunlight dappled shade
dozing
eight vultures drifting
cool updrafts
douse my face dry
pink eyelids blink
goat’s evening greeting
long day’s end
sweet cocoa
nothing to say
message on my mobile:
say hello to the stars
out of thump-startled sleep
shadows
step back as donkeys
this is the best time
flowers breeze morning stride
café con leche
in Banyalbufar
renga disputes
this olive tree hasn’t moved
for a thousand years
trudge up through noon heat
in a cistern’s green water
a turtle lolls
3 cans of Red Bull
ready for the climb
we spread our mats
in the soot caked camp
of long dead charcoal burners
arms cradling space
Qi Gong on the Pla d’Aljub
walkers’ talk
weightlifting & poetry
green tea on the mountain
huddled among rocks
rain patter on GoreTex
crunching along the top of the clouds
martins slice the void
no mountain no valley
they too are lost
4 friendly Hollanders
just hearing
soft bells of Deia
6 am
marmite on veggie sausages
early morning bliss
half a week unwashed
fresh day walkers pass
a whiff of perfume
shirt soaked in the stream
dries on my back
this dry stone wall
alive
moss lichen liverwort
juddering down the cobbled track
grafted centuries ago
workers papers Spanish TV
in a rainy café
we wait for Nick
full of strangers this hotel
in our neat separate rooms
strung across my bed
underwear 8 woolly socks
memories of rain
a few faint smiles
tourists in Port de Sóller
rough day on the esplanade
the ageing artist gathers up
her unsold landscapes
16 cats or more
at the lighthouse of Cap Gros
passing over the Coll
cairn with crucifix
and fresh flowers
sheep-dung on the porch
the padlocked refuge
can’t figure asphodels
numb fingered morning
beside the windy lake
my knee will forgive me
for not climbing Massanella
two electric candles
flicker for the Black Madonna
50 cent devotions
blessed daylight dispels
the basilica’s chill
last night’s torrent
this morning’s scattered puddles
limestone valley
no snag on the barbed wire
mindfulness of robes
small snake basking
unflustered by my footfall
retires into her cave
lost my jacket kept my life
rock scramble through the karst
legs weigh a ton
in the holm oak’s shade
let the afternoon dawdle
eyelids glowing
I smile into the sun
glance in the mirror
creased eye-folds and stubble
Mallorcan landscapes
flanked by my snoozing friends
easyJet to Gatwick.
A travel renga, written (mainly) in Mallorca
from the 28th April to the 10th May 2010.
Participants:
Bhikkhu Abhinando
David Glendinning
Ajahn Sucitto