| El Milagro de Medellín |
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El Milagro de Medellín y Otros Poemas (82pp), is the 13th collection of poetry by N.Z. poet Ron Riddell. It is the first volume by a N.Z. poet to be published in Latin America. The poems were written in N.Z. and Colombia between 1998 and 2002. El Milagro de Medellín is the title poem of the book. It is a celebration of Medellín, its people, ambience, culture, including the Festival Internacional de Poesía which takes place every year. The author started writing this poem when he was representing N.Z. in the XI Festival Internacional de Poesía de Medellin in 2001. The poem was completed in June 2002 during his third visit to Colombia. "Riddell's great strength is his positive inspirational vision of human existence. It is a direct view, uncluttered by ego, vanity or obscure references... - Capital Times.
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El Milagro de Medellín I Medellín, O Medellín! You are the answer to the poet's prayers - you are the poet's heaven. You are a poet's making and braking his purgatory, hell and transcendence. Medellín, O Medellín, I want to sleep with the beggars on your streets make pillows of your gutters and drink the tears from your steps. I want to eat the feast of dry bread in your riverbed of fable and fiesta of poverty and poetry; of bombs and wonder. I want to hear the doves raise their gentle hymn above the racket of the gorgeous buses... I want to whisper them my love songs and secrets as they may whisper back to me and breach the locks of my heart for good. *** Waiting for the Perfect Man for Janice Lloyd Waiting for the perfect man? Have no fear. Your wait is over. The perfect man waits for you. He waits in patience and in hope For you to come and find him. Wait? What are you waiting for? Ever y moment you delay, is a lifetime lost, a whole world wasted. The perfect man lives round the corner, larger than life, less than a bus-ride away. Maybe you don't want to meet him? Maybe you're not completely sure Who it is you're waiting for- and how you would know him, one day, if he came to your door? *** The Doves of Medellin for Saray These pigeons who tip-toe along the rooftop ledges of Medellin ... I have watched them closely. I have asked them how to fly. They are not proud, nor cold nor dull. They open the doors of their tiny hearts to where the hopes of beggars lie, to add mine to their precious store. And in the dawn of silent thunder they lift me up; my hopes, my heart. They take me with them, through The cloudy heights - O brothers, O sisters- I soar with them, on wings of light In the orange glow of morning.
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