Northern Spain

Rain, elixir of the rising spirit!
A star appears in the Milky Way
And shoots towards the west;
Lord of Thirteen, live the zodiac,
Egypt of the spiral soul.
It is time for the Goose Game,
For the bridge, the inn, the dice, the well,
The labyrinth, the prison, the gateway, and death.
Isis, bless the way!
Before the revelation is the tomb.

Dust blows round the half-finished cathedral;
Blood shines on the sword.
The giants whirl in a minuet,
Kings and queens with swirling skirts,
And a rocket goes up as the first bull is loosed;
At night fireworks burst over the citadel
And the maddened fire bull chases children down the street.
Midnight is a candle in the hand
And a sad song’s consecration.

The damned laugh, and Christ looks on with subtle smile;
The three Marys hold hands beneath the Cross;
Judas hangs from a fruitful branch.
The Master Carpenter comes to build a church
In the name of Lazarus, nailing his love to the sky.

The wolf waits on the hillside.
On the day of the spring equinox a sunbeam
Strikes the womb of the Virgin of the Annunciation.
We shall build a cathedral of stone and light.
One morning, listening to the song of a bird,
The monk fell into ecstasy
And saw into eternity,
And though to him it seemed but a moment
When he awoke many centuries had passed.
O,five stars and a crescent moon!-
A stone serpent coils in the font,
The naked woman suckles serpents, with lions on either side,
The twins hold hands beneath the rainbow.
The triple spiral staircase rises,
Granite stairways interlacing in a single tower,
Each leading to a different door.