after Lorca
Summer song,
who set you loose among treetops and green leaves?
The blue jay screeching his fright.
Summer song,
who set you loose among dahlias and roses?
The butterfly escaping the night.
Summer song,
who set you loose among pebbles and loam?
The earthworm writhing in parched mud plight.
Summer song,
Who set you loose among mulch beds and fences?
The gardener spraying the menacing blight.
Summer song,
who set you loose among lamp posts and mail boxes?
The whistling mailman lugging his sack of brown news.
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Federico Garcia Lorca (1898-1936) was a preeminent Spanish poet, playwright, and essayist in the days of the Second Spanish Republic. On behalf of the Republic, Lorca traveled around rural Spain producing plays and teaching a liberal interpretation of classic Spanish literature. In 1929-30 he studied at Columbia University and wrote many New York City poems. He lectured in Cuba and Argentina. His most famous lecture was on the idea of duende, the sense of sorrow and mischief which plays in human life. He absorbed the gypsy flamenco tradition, a controlled collision of skill and passion. His time among the rural poor of Spain and disenfranchised African Americans in the city made him sensitive to systemic injustice and an advocate of reform.
Unrest in Spain between the left-leaning Republicans and the right wing Nationalists resulted in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and the dictatorship of Generalissimo Francesco Franco from 1939 to 1975. At the outbreak of the civil war Lorca was arrested and executed by firing squad on August 19, 1936.
His poetry is elegiac, acknowledging death even in the midst of exuberant life. There is a shadow in all his work, even in the poems he calls songs.