Museums

All Poems, Art/Arts, For Children, Holidays, Jewish Holidays, Museums, Philadelphia, Pleasure, Trips and Places, Wisdom

Morning After the Second Seder

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It was morning, after the second Seder.

Ordinary excursion to the Franklin Institute.

A favorite museum of grandchildren.

For exhibits on electricity, biology, physics.

A planetarium’s view of the universe.

All with predictable participatory fun.

But not one of us expected the surprise in the special gallery.

The Art of the Brick.

By artist Nathan Sawaya.

New Yorker, whose love of legos bloomed into masterpieces.

Copies of well-known paintings, sculptures.

His own expressive works.

On love, growth, hope.

Collaboration with photographer, Dean West.

Crafting distinctive photos with landscapes and legos.

Even more than prolific production, Sawaya encourages.

Cradles creativity.

Tells you who he is.

His journey from attorney to artist.

Enjoins you to find, honor your unique path.

The visit, ordinary to extraordinary.

Sawaya surely has a goal.

To uplift us and inspire.

Nourish each and every soul.

Lynn Benjamin

April 26, 2024

 

26, 2024

All Poems, Argentine Family, Art/Arts, Family, Farewell, Museums, New York, Trips and Places

I Never Thought

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Ilanit said, I never thought I could get around the world so quickly.

So inexpensively.

As we said our goodbyes.

At the staircase leading to the exit.

For she needed to go.

To finish errands on a rainy morning.

Before an afternoon flight home.

To Montevideo via Brazil.

Having just breezed through cultures and countries.

At the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Taking us to Africa, Asia, Europe.

Expeditions to Egypt, China, Japan.

To Spain for El Greco, Goya, Velázquez.

The Netherlands for Van Gogh, Rembrandt.

A whirlwind tour to be sure.

Ila in from Uruguay.

The Met kept us warm and dry.

Tender farewell fluttered by.

 

Lynn Benjamin

April 10, 2024

 

All Poems, Argentine Family, Art/Arts, Family, Farewell, Museums, New York, Trips and Places

Ilanit’s Final Day

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It was Ilanit’s final day in Manhattan.

By unfortunate chance, damp and rainy.

The last leg of a month-long trip.

Buenos Aires, Ecuador, Pittsburgh, New York.

She, ticking off places she wanted to see.

Chelsea Market, Central Park, Broadway.

For the next afternoon, the airport.

To return to Montevideo.

To boyfriend, job, apartment.

I felt fortunate to be on her list.

For her choice to join us.

The very day of her flight.

She could have chosen to swap us out

for a sight she didn’t know.

Instead, she opted to follow us

with enthusiasm, gusto.

Off to meet Elias,

accompany him to the Met.

Sashay through halls, art on walls,

escaping the showery wet.

 

Lynn Benjamin

April 10, 2024

All Poems, Catalina Island, Museums, Trips and Places

Catalina Island

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The last hundred years of Catalina Island are well documented.

In two city museums.

On plaques, in hotels, along piers.

In the botanical garden, Wrigley Memorial.

William Wrigley, Jr. sailing the island into the twentieth century.

Making it a premier place for relaxation.

Filming movies.

Manufacturing tiles.

But eight thousand years before, the island drew inhabitants.

To fish, grow crops, trade, pray to their own deities.

Using plants to make houses, baskets.

Quarrying soapstone, bartering it.

Turning it into bowls, cooking planks, effigies.

Supplying it all across the southwest mainland.

The islanders, Pimuvit, thrived until the eighteenth century.

When the Spanish arrived.

Transmitting European diseases.

Transporting them to work at San Gabriel Mission.

Decimating the population.

Over time they disappeared.

Descendants few, traces tossed

into the jaws of history,

swallowed bit by bit, till lost.

 

Lynn Benjamin

March 29, 2024

All Poems, Catalina Island, Museums, Trips and Places

People Think

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People think the casino in Catalina Island is for gambling.

But it’s not, and never was.

For a casino is a gathering place.

A term later borrowed by the gambling houses of Las Vegas.

For providing games of chance.

Here in Avalon, the building, constructed to draw crowds.

To a theater on the first floor.

For talking movies.

To a ballroom upstairs.

Which could hold three thousand dancers.

And a sound system to host orchestras.

So enviable that Radio City borrowed its design.

The Casino was built by William Wrigley in 1929.

Ahead of its time.

Circular, twelve stories high, art deco.

Surrounded on three sides by ocean.

With decorative murals outside.

Depicting underwater sea scenes.

The landmark of the island,

elegant, extolled.

Monument to an era.

Full of stories, old.

 

Lynn Benjamin

March 27, 2024

 

All Poems, Art/Arts, Museums, Spain, Trips and Places, Valencia

Lladró Museum

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Our son and granddaughter bade adieu.

After four days of running hither, yon.

Leaving us to organize our last four days in Valencia.

My curiosity got the better of me.

Urging me to check out the Lladró Museum.

In Tavernes Blanques, a town outside Valencia.

Where Lladró porcelain is made.

Since Bob and I, heirs to many figurines.

Brought home as gifts from Spain for parents.

Now sitting in our china cabinet.

So, we decided to walk the hour’s journey.

Past city limits through vegetable fields.

To the museum in the town.

Arriving unannounced.

The workshop, where they manufacture, closed.

We proceeded to the exhibition hall.

Quiet, not a visitor in sight.

Where a soft-spoken woman offered water.

Took us on a tour of various rooms.

Telling us Lladró had evolved.

To making elaborate utilitarian products.

Costly chandeliers, candle holders, jewelry.

As well as intricate mammoth pieces.

A carnival in Venice.

Asian, mythological scenes.

Disney characters, parrots.

Traditional Spanish icons.

It was plain to see that Lladró marched forward.

But, there was no historical timeline posted.

No indication of changes through decades.

How it started, developed.

Interacted with the marketplace.

So although the pieces, ornate, embellished,

by theme, grouped in a salon,

it deeply disappointed us.

Not a word of days bygone.

 

Lynn Benjamin

February 4, 2024

All Poems, Art/Arts, Museums, Spain, Trips and Places, Valencia

Second to Last Day in Valencia

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Time continued to contract.

Giving us two days to see the yet unseen.

So off to the Plaza del Ayuntamiento we went.

To tour the grand City Hall.

Built by Francisco Mora Berenguer.

Grand ball rooms, twin staircases, clock tower.

Facing a pedestrian square.

A dozen flower stalls.

Perfuming the whole area.

Then down to the basement.

To experience tunnels where citizens fled.

During the Civil War.

When Franco bombarded the city.

Noting a statue in homage to La Dama de Elche.

Symbol of the Valencian woman.

From there to the House/Museum of Benlliure.

Valencian artist.

Friend of Joaquín Sorolla.

Who taught José Benlliure’s son, Peppino.

An artist in his own right.

Whose works also grace the house.

Along with sculptures by José’s brother, Mariano.

The exhibit featuring art work, furniture.

Memorabilia from the turn of the twentieth century.

José Benlliure’s painting studio.

A temporary display of Sorolla’s depictions of Valencia.

And a magnificent garden.

Palm trees, pergolas, plants.

Colorful tiles of typical Valencian scenes.

Religious processions.

As well as an outdoor tiled kitchen.

Rivaling the one in the Porcelain Museum.

We felt full as we exited the house.

As if digesting a satisfying meal.

Strolling through Turia Park.

Talking about José Benlliure.

His thirty-year sojourn in Italy.

Loss of his talented son.

Before he could realize his potential.

Rooms dedicated to his pieces.

The incredible skill of Mariano.

Painter and renowned sculptor.

Give thanks to María Benlliure.

José’s daughter, thoughtful, kind.

Donating dwelling and gardens.

Priceless gift to leave behind.

 

Lynn Benjamin

February 4, 2024

 

All Poems, Museums, Spain, Trips and Places, Valencia

History of Valencia

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Valencia is a city full of history.

She has museums to document it.

The Museum of Archeology takes you underground.

To the Almoina neighborhood.

To Roman ruins.

The forum, baths, streets.

Storage center for grains.

Factories for oil, wine, garum.

To a wall of the Moorish Alcázar.

To Visigothic tombs.

To a Christian charitable institution.

While the Museum of the History of Valencia intrigues.

Housed in the city’s water reservoir from 1850.

Taking the visitor through twenty-two centuries.

Up to the restoration of the Spanish Republic.

Stories of multiple civilizations.

One atop the last.

But, also narratives of wars, plagues, cruelties.

Hardship, poverty, intolerance.

Natural disasters, catastrophes.

Though Valencia’s history amazing,

suffering, pain profound.

Look underneath the facts.

Sadness, grief abound.

 

Lynn Benjamin

February 3, 2024

 

 

 

All Poems, Farewell, Museums, Spain, Trips and Places, Valencia

How Do You Say Goodbye to A City?

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How do you say goodbye to a city?

Where you have lived for a month?

Learning new customs?

History, words?

Where you have hosted friends? Family?

Do you traverse the known?

Or seek the new?

On this last day, we chose new.

A visit to Palacio de la Generalitat.

To see Gothic architecture.

Gilded wooden ceilings, tile displays.

Portraits of Spanish kings.

From Jaime I to Alfonso XIII.

Find ourselves surprised.

When the President and Vice President marched in.

Spoke to the crowd.

Departed to go about their work.

We cabbed to the House/Museum of Blasco Ibañez.

On Malvarrosa Beach.

Next door to Casa Carmela.

A restaurant we ate at three times.

The house was Ibañez’s vacation home.

Containing photos, his desk, a history of his life.

Author, politician, traveler, family man.

Friend to other luminaries of his day.

Writer who taught me about the Albufera.

In Cañas y Barro.

From there, it was an easy march to the sea walk.

To promenade in the Mediterranean sun till comida.

Eat paella by the shore.

How do you say goodbye?

To a city baring her heart?

To cuisine, history, literature,

centuries of masters, their art?

 

Lynn Benjamin

February 4, 2024

All Poems, Animals/Insects, Museums, Spain, Trips and Places, Valencia

Oceanogràfic

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Valencia’s Oceanogràfic tempted us since arriving.

Calatrava’s futuristic architecture beckoned.

But we stood firm.

Waited till our son and granddaughter would arrive.

Knowing Katusha would love diverse aquatic fauna.

Mediterranean turtles.

Sea lions, flamingoes.

Dolphins, beluga whales.

Sharks, crocodiles.

Penguins, tortoises.

She would love wandering through tunnels.

Watch fish swimming above, to our sides.

Giving us the illusion of being part of the habitat.

Experiences we wanted her to have.

Though expensive to get inside.

So, when we spotted pigeons in flocks on rocks.

In aquatic wetlands.

The sight piqued some envy.

For they could visit anytime

by gliding over walls.

Enjoy the park’s unique design

bypassing ticket stalls.

 

Lynn Benjamin

February 2, 2024