Spain

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, Family, For Children, Grandchildren, People Traits, Spain, Trips and Places, Valencia

I Learn by Watching

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I learn by watching, announced Katusha.

Her large brown, nine-year-old eyes scanning.

Rooms, plazas, parks, shops.

Indeed, she does.

Observing polite gestures in restaurants.

Greetings to people on the street.

Purchases of entrance tickets.

How to work elevators.

Or spot bats, the city’s symbol, on sewer covers, statues.

And she learns by asking questions.

Why do people ruin walls by writing on them?

Why do so many people smoke?

Why do people beg for money?

There is so much to learn.

But, Katusha exhibits a flair

for observations, questioning,

discovering, becoming aware.

 

Lynn Benjamin

February 3, 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

 

 

 

 

 

 

All Poems, For Children, Spain, Trips and Places, Valencia, Wisdom

Juan Luis Vives

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Our address in Valencia, 4 Luis Vives.

Street honoring the humanist scholar.

Born here in 1493.

At a time when being Jewish, dangerous, lethal.

So, the family converted to Catholicism.

Vives residing here till age fifteen.

Fleeing after his mother’s death from the plague.

While in England, learning tragic news.

His father and other family members, executed.

Despite being conversos.

Killed for covering up their Judaism.

Vives was living with Thomas Moore.

Tutoring Mary, daughter of the king.

But lost favor for disapproval of King Henry VIII’s annulment.

From Catherine of Aragon.

He escaped to Brussels.

Where he wrote tirelessly.

Prolific on many themes.

Education, care of the poor, gender roles.

Medicine, the soul.

Learning, memory.

Earning the epithet Father of Psychology.

Maybe even Godfather of Psychoanalysis.

For acknowledgment of the unconscious.

Though working in the Renaissance,

today still his advice applies.

Memorize one thing every day,

or your memory slowly dies.

 

Lynn Benjamin

February 3, 2024

Converso: A Spanish Jew who converted to Christianity outwardly to protect him/herself from persecution or expulsion, though often practicing Judaism in secret.

Adult Children, All Poems, Family, Farewell, Food, Grandchildren, Museums, Spain, Trips and Places, Valencia

Sunday in Valencia With Katusha and her Papa

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Sunday in Valencia is strolling.

With a loved one or friend.

Or with your family.

Maybe running through a museum.

Eating paella for comida.

So we were determined.

To be Valencianos for a day.

Starting with watching regional dancing in the Plaza.

Women, men in traditional garb.

Doing boleros, fandangos, jotas.

Clicking castenets.

Singing in Valenciano

Till it was time to walk through Turia Park.

To the Museo Fallero.

Study prize winning ninots.

Comment on the parodies.

Staying till doors closed.

Heading again toward the park.

Ambulating like a wave.

With masses of walkers, bikers, kids on scooters.

Toward the City of Arts and Sciences.

To a whole new set of wanderers.

Finding passage beside pools, palms.

Finally catching a taxi.

To the promenade along the beach.

Joining up with yet more ramblers.

On the walkway, the shore.

Urging Katusha to climb ropes on the sand.

Partake of Sunday exhilaration.

Continue to Casa Carmela for late comida.

After smelling every kind of paella in eateries along the way.

To our surprise, being seated in a private room.

Where we lingered for hours.

Feasting on dried tuna, cuttlefish, salad.

Black squid paella and prawn paella.

Flan and squash cake.

Till cabbing back to the old city.

Resuming our constitutional.

With the remaining Sunday marchers.

Retracing steps along plazas.

Past the statue of the River Turia.

To both old city gates and back.

For this was the last day in Valencia

for Katusha and our son.

We hoped to blend right in

with energetic motion.

 

Lynn Benjamin

February 3, 2024

Museo Fallero is the museum of the Fallas, the Valencian festival in March when people who live in Valencia build giant figures, usually parodies of the period. On March 19, these figures are burned except for two that are rescued from the flames. The museum houses those that have been rescued through the years.

Ninots: The figures that are built during the Fallas. Ninot is a Valencian word that means doll.

 

 

 

All Poems, For Children, Spain, Stories, Trips and Places, Valencia

Pedal Boat

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Please, Papa, come ride a pedal boat with us, Katusha begged.

As we ate comida on a sidewalk.

Not far from the Bioparc and Parque de Cabecera.

Having just rented a pedal boat.

After our trek through the zoo.

But her father missed the morning.

So she wanted him to have the experience.

With a different boat.

Since the swan she chose was tall.

Wouldn’t pass under the bridge.

Forcing us to spend most of the half-hour rental turning around.

In a very narrow space.

Forward, back.

Forward, back.

Between reeds and trees.

Even so, Katusha found steering exhilarating.

Hence, imploring her father to do it with her.

How could he refuse?

So, we caught a taxi.

Motored back to the park.

Where Katusha chose a duck boat.

With a head low enough to miss the bridge.

She and her papa sat in front.

I and her grandfather, in back.

She delighted in directing the route.

But reprimanded her father.

Each time he lifted feet off the pedals.

For his legs,  long.

Knees aching.

He wanted to rest.

But, Katusha wouldn’t have it.

Pedal, Papa, she exhorted.

Each time, he, relenting.

As we gazed at ducks.

Saturday picnickers on the banks.

Families sipping beverages at the café.

Tall grasses and fountains.

Katusha pushed us forward.

The princess at the helm.

Her goal and purpose clear:

circumnavigate her realm.

 

Lynn Benjamin

February 2, 2024

 

 

Adult Children, All Poems, Animals/Insects, Children, Emotions, Family, Grandchildren, Spain, Trips and Places, Valencia

Bioparc

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What about the Bioparc? I proposed.

An option for Saturday morning.

Katusha, enthused, looked up.

Yes, I love animals!

Her father, less excited.

Zoos are everywhere. They’re not culturally Spanish, he said.

But this one’s special, I attempted to persuade.

Natural habitats for animals.

Grouping by geography.

Madegascar, Congo Basin, Wetlands, Savannah.

Caves, aquariums, forests.

A safari, on foot.

Signs in Spanish.

Elefantes, hipopótamos, jirafas.

Parents coaxing children.

Ven, mira, sube.

Commenting, qué lindo, precioso, chulo.

Though her papa not convinced,

we made our expedition.

Katusha adventuring in Bioparc

despite Papa’s admonition.

 

Lynn Benjamin

February 1, 2024

 

 

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

Four Weeks to Four Days

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How did our month in Valencia shrink?

From four weeks to four days?

Does time go by faster here?

Is it the novelty?

So many new things to observe, do?

Or does it just slip by unnoticed?

While visiting with friends?

With son and granddaughter?

Who knows the why?

Or the how?

But impossible to hold it back

like a river flowing.

No point pushing against the rush.

Paddle onward, keep rowing.

 

Lynn Benjamin

January 29, 2024

 

 

Adult Children, All Poems, Art/Arts, Family, Grandchildren, Museums, Spain, Trips and Places, Valencia

Twice

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Have you ever wanted to do something twice?

Within a short time span?

Re-read a book?

Re-see a film, a play?

Here in Valencia, I had that chance.

To go a second time to the Hortensia Herrero Arts Center.

With my son and granddaughter.

To sense again the marriage of bygone and fresh.

Revisit the Roman circus.

Walls of the judería.

Underneath the renovated Valeriola Palace.

Now populated with twenty-first century art.

I wanted to show them everything.

Re-trace my own steps.

Especially on the second floor.

To stand once more in front of Manolo Valdés.

Valencian artist with a knack.

For taking the ancient.

Making it novel.

Challenging viewer to know history.

Crafts, archeology, iconography.

Fans painted over burlap.

Glass-like figure of Queen Mariana.

Head framed with multi-colored glass shapes.

Reminding me of the monumental blue glass.

Dama Ibérica near the soccer stadium.

Giant yellow butterfly atop female head in Alicante.

If not for Hortensia Herrero,

Monolo Valdés, I’d not meet.

Not ever knowing what I’d miss.

Sensibilities incomplete.

 

Lynn Benjamin

February 1, 2024

All Poems, Family, Grandchildren, People Traits, Spain, Trips and Places, Valencia

My Body Adjusts

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My body adjusts to new environments, said Katusha.

Dancing down the street.

Not the least bit tired.

After arriving on two flights to Valencia.

With her father from JFK.

Ready to taste new flavors.

Churros and chocolate.

Visit new places.

El Mercado central.

The Serrano Gate.

Turia Gardens.

Eat paella for comida.

Sit the requisite two hours of sobremesa.

Then climb up and down three flights of stairs.

Through Hortensia Herrero’s Contemporary Art Center.

Interacting with the pieces.

Mat Collishaw’s Fallas.

Sean Scully’s Chapel.

Olafur Eliasson’s Tunnel of Glass.

Cristina Iglesias’s cave-like passageway.

Manolo Valdés’s sculptures.

Skip out the door to la Plaza de la Reina.

To join the throngs at a café.

Delight that it was still afternoon at 8pm.

My body adjusts to new environments.

And, indeed, Katusha was right.

Though the Spanish afternoon, long,

she was loath to say goodnight.

 

Lynn Benjamin

February 1, 2024