Ten Days in Eden Lake
The celebrated Spanish writer Federico Garcia Lorca met Philip Harris Cummings, an American student, in 1928. They fell madly in love. At one point, Federico visited Philip in his native Vermont.
We chanced upon
each other
in Madrid,
at a time
when my detractors
called me
Federica La Loca,
and my faithful,
Garcia Lorca.
You,
my sweet Philip,
were my savior!
I was smitten
by your charms
and the sparkle
in your eyes.
A passing fancy,
I thought,
when you returned
to Montpellier
in your beloved
America.
But then,
you beckoned me
to join you
at a cabin
by a lake.
I crossed the ocean
and slipped
into a dream.
Ten blissful days
it lasted,
yet still I hear
the soft crackling
of the wood
burning in the fireplace,
as we worshipped
our bodies,
beautiful,
sacred
and yes,
oh yes,
electric,
as our dear Walt Whitman
would say.
DCW
Haunting and Lovely. Thank you.
I was introduced to Federico Garcia Lorca in 1967. I had a "hard man" Scot as my room mate. He was studying Spanish. He would recite to me Spanish poems, as we lay in our beds, still able to hold hands (we rarely did). I don't think that Mike or I knew that FGL was gay but he accepted that I was gay. Even though I didn't understand Spanish, the poems moved me very much. Mike would translate them for me. On one occasion I began to weep, so Mike reached out to hold my hand. The "hard man" was a romantic at heart. Beautiful love poem - thank you.