Playa del Carmen

All Poems, Art/Arts, Change, Children, Family, For Children, Grandchildren, Mexico, Miracles, Playa del Carmen, Pleasure, Stories, Trips and Places

It Felt a Miracle

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It felt a miracle.

Cancún in the morning.

Philadelphia, late afternoon.

Tropical heat.

Bone piercing chill.

Vibrant palm fronds.

Naked oaks.

Warm Caribbean waters.

Semi frozen Schuylkill.

Sonorous Spanish sounds.

Flat Philly English.

Once in the house, the cell rang.

The children’s mother, our daughter.

How was the trip?

Amazing, said Elias.

Excellent, his sister.

They went on to elaborate.

I asked each, what was your favorite part?

I, thinking cenotes, pools, holding butterflies, the beach.

One said, the temples.

The other agreed.

What about the temples, I asked.

Their decoration, endurance through time, history.

I have to say I was gratified

by interest in Mayan shrines.

How ancient carvings in the stone

revealed beliefs, storylines.

 

Lynn Benjamin

February 29, 2024

All Poems, For Children, Humor, Mexico, Playa del Carmen, Trips and Places

People in Cancún

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People in Cancún are entrepreneurial.

From small kiosks at archeological sites.

To boutiques and eateries lining streets.

Haggling, expected at makeshift stands.

Prices reasonable in most stores, restaurants.

Unlike at the airport.

Lined with places to find your last souvenirs.

As well as with food courts.

Teeming with visitors from all over the world.

Captives to higher prices for goods, services.

Thirty-five dollars for a cotton tee.

Sixty dollars for a whole pizza.

Twenty dollars for one slice of pie.

An outraged woman exclaiming to her husband:

You enjoy every bite of that pizza!

 

Perhaps a sign should tell you

when coming or going from Cancún:

Don’t make purchases at the airport.

Your finances will go to ruin.

 

Lynn Benjamin

February 28, 2024

 

 

All Poems, Farewell, For Children, Mexico, Playa del Carmen, Trips and Places

We’d Be Packing

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All of us were aware.

After dinner, we’d be packing.

Getting ready to return home.

So, from morning on.

Each step, farewell.

To the beach.

Cenote in the sand.

Clear Caribbean Sea.

Avenida 5 with shops and hawkers.

Cocolandia’s fresh coconut milk.

The fish spa.

El Pirata’s fried whole red snapper.

Amorino’s gelato.

Street dancing.

Mariachi musicians.

Chocolate cafés.

Our apartment, Quintamar.

Delivering a Mexican miracle.

When water appeared the second day.

So we could remain there.

Enjoy a private pool.

Meet some neighbors.

Goodbye to birdsong and palms.

Stray dogs and cats.

Bougainvillea and yellow trumpets.

Walks in shorts, sandals.

But the sun faded.

Loading bags for home began.

Suitcases lined up by the door to go.

In a sort of caravan.

 

Lynn Benjamin

February 28, 2024

All Poems, Family, Grandchildren, Mexico, Playa del Carmen, Siblings, Stories, Trips and Places, Wisdom

Empathy and Sympathy

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Twin themes, empathy and sympathy, popped up all week.

Liora’s strong empathy for stray animals.

For downtrodden, weak.

For dispossessed, brutalized.

For victims of colonialism, war.

But, on a walk, Elias confided.

It was hard to discuss sensitive topics with his sister.

For though her empathy expansive, she was short on sympathy.

Which, he went on, was necessary to complete a picture.

To understand both sides of a complex issue.

I commended him for his insight.

For the explanations he provided.

Especially when later, he applied them to himself.

As he laboriously folded clean clothes.

Putting them into his suitcase.

Now I know how Mom feels, he said.

Twice each week, when she folds clothes.

There he stood, right in her shoes.

Feeling boredom, tedium.

But sympathetic, too.

Knowing it had to get done!

 

Lynn Benjamin

February 28, 2024

 

 

 

All Poems, Change, For Children, Humor, Mexico, Playa del Carmen, Stories, Trips and Places

Vendors

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Vendors assemble everywhere in the Riviera Maya.

Outside of places like Tulum or Chichén Itzá.

Even along side streets on Avenida 5 in Playa del Carmen.

Selling everything imaginable.

Teeshirts, magnets, trinkets, carvings.

Inflating prices.

Expecting to bargain.

Which, in youthful days, I’d do.

Though, now, no longer appealing.

As I think about the lives of these workers.

Rising early to set up.

Standing in the heat.

Waiting for passersby.

Hoping for another bus to discharge tourists.

Competing with a hundred other hawkers.

All carrying the same merchandise.

How could I demand a lower price?

When profit margins small?

Living conditions hard?

The seller tallied thirteen hundred pesos.

For three bird whistles and a magnet.

I hesitated thirty seconds.

Before I could nod, he reduced the price to a thousand.

Bien, I said, handing him a credit card.

Which, of course, would add to the cost.

Since the card company charges a fee.

Looking at the plastic, he explained the problem.

Raised the price to eleven hundred.

I handed him the card.

Listening to him haggle with himself.

Then he carefully wrapped four ceramics in paper.

Thanking him, I started to retreat.

He ran after me, waving a regalo.

Another small bird whistle.

A tiny token of gratitude

for the few goods I selected.

I think the best deal mine

for jungle sounds collected.

 

Lynn Benjamin

February 28, 2024

 

Bien means good.

Regalo means gift.

 

All Poems, Family, For Children, Grandchildren, Mexico, Playa del Carmen, Spirituality, Stories, Trips and Places

Danza de los Voladores

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Wait till you see the flying dancers, we told the children.

Finding them in Xcaret and Playa del Carmen.

We watched, we listened, we were awed.

By ancient sounds of flute and drum.

Like chirping birds and beating heart.

Staring as four men climbed the pole.

Affixing ropes to body.

Rotating downward, upside down.

In the shape of a pyramid.

Embodying a petition for rain.

To feed thirsty crops.

Fertility flowers in their hats.

Rainbow ribbons fluttering.

Four flyers for four directions of the earth.

The pole, center support.

Connecting earth and sky.

Symbolic genesis of the world.

The fifth flyer remaining on top.

Piping, tapping.

To catch consideration from the gods.

End the drought.

Powerful ritual drawing us in

to an ancient civilization.

Though brief, capturing time,

with ears, eyes, imagination.

 

Lynn Benjamin

February 27, 2024

 

All Poems, Creation, Family, Grandchildren, Homages, Mexico, Playa del Carmen, Spirituality, Spouses, Trips and Places

Chichén Itzá

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How many years has it been?

Since I Iearned about Mayans?

Inhabiting Chichén Itzá?

Finally, coming face to face with the pyramid?

Smaller temples?

Ballfields?

Caracól?

How fortunate to do it with Bob?

Partner in Hispanic studies.

With two grandchildren?

Old enough to comprehend.

All of us admiring the nested civilization.

Evolving sixteen hundred years ago.

From religious farming people.

To warriors, eleven hundred years ago.

Calculating time exactly.

Knowing when to plant, when to harvest.

Lining up seasons with sun, constellations.

Celebrating birds, snakes, jaguars.

Worshipping It Sam Na, deity of creation.

Valuing water.

Necessary to live.

Flourish, thrive.

A sacred site older than Tulum.

In a clearing in the jungle.

Where four of us paid homage,

feeling small and humble.

 

Lynn Benjamin

February 26, 2024

All Poems, For Children, Mexico, Natural Beauty, Playa del Carmen, Trips and Places

Cenotes

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The Yucatán is known for cenotes.

Natural pools of fresh water.

Formed from collapse of limestone.

Used by Mayan civilizations for drinking water.

As well as to make sacrificial offerings.

To gods demanding tribute.

Also, believing they were doors to the underworld.

Today, swimming holes on hot days.

Like the one we went to see after Chichén Itzá.

Sweating in the heat.

Longing for a place to refresh.

To swim.

Finding first, Cenote Oxmán.

Named for three towering Locust trees.

Then, off to Sunyun, Writing on Stone.

One cave draped epiphytes, the other stalactites,

pulling us beneath the ground

to dive into clear waters

where fish without sight abound.

 

Lynn Benjamin

February 25, 2024

 

All Poems, Animals/Insects, Emotions, Family, For Children, Grandchildren, Love, Mexico, Playa del Carmen, Trips and Places

Playa del Carmen Teems with Animals

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Playa del Carmen teems with animals.

Pigeons, seagulls, myna birds.

Lizards, turtles, coatís.

Also, unclaimed dogs and cats.

Which lure Liora at every turn.

To stop, croon, pet them.

Cradle their woeful voices.

Their complaints, problems, hungers.

If I could, I’d carry each one home, she moaned.

And she meant it.

For Liora’s heart is big,

full of empathy.

Ready to embrace all strays

with love and charity.

 

Lynn Benjamin

February 24, 2024

Adolescence, All Poems, Family, Grandchildren, Memories, Mexico, Playa del Carmen, Trips and Places

Whistles, Hoots, Caws

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Whistles, hoots, caws fill the air.

Early in the morning in Playa del Carmen.

Animating a now paved jungle.

Sending me into reverie.

As I remember being fourteen.

Was I like Liora?

Looking for my face in every mirror?

Checking my hair?

Fretting about my body?

Primping, grooming?

Thinking all eyes on me?

Judging harshly?

I believe I was.

Instead of toting an iphone, a transistor radio.

Carried in a pocket.

Feigning helplessness.

So one boy or another could feel strong.

It’s been a long time for me.

Days not lived tranquilly.

Worries and anxiety.

Sweet, Liora, you set free

sleeping teenage memory.

 

Lynn Benjamin

February 23, 2024