Travel essays and poetry
Fez, Morocco, June 2013 As part of the sacred music festival, a forum is dedicated to "the Poet and the City," discussions by a panel of distinguished poets from many countries on the poet’s responsibility to society, the place of…
Little Cat Shit Alley for Maggie and Riantee Once I had a dream and now it’s always beginning all over again: it is either dawn or dusk; the stairs that lead to the roof terrace, the narrowing alley, the medina…
Lisbon, Portugal, 2006 Trembling lightly, I put out my hand for the railing of the Santa Justa lift as it takes me and the others up and up, the patterned metal cage of the elevator flicking at my eyes, giving…
For Mary, 1997 Introduction I was traveling in Portugal with my husband, Paulo, to research and write an article about Portuguese fado, when I received the phone call from Heather at Appellation Magazine telling us of our editor Mary Chesterfield’s…
Thursday, 14 June, 4 pm Batha Museum courtyard, Fez International Sacred Music Festival Arabesques: From the poems of the Diván del Tamarit by Federico García Lorca Interpreted by Rocio Màrquez, Melodies and piano by Christian Boissel “Proud of the Arab past…
I hadn't expected to be moved by Joan Baez. Heck, I could go hear Joan Baez in California; I don't need to go all the way to Morocco to hear her. And the last night of the festival, too, after…
“Toda la tarde la agua se siente…” Arabesques, Rocío Màrquez and Christian Boissel & the dove & the piano chord repeat this over over over and over & the dove and the quiet of the afternoon with our many passes…
blood peach, melon & honey marmalade on flat bread of wheat fried to a crisp golden brown in patches. the cat on her cardboard throne the unbearably thin kittens who doze in the middle of the cobbled streets and the…
Mirror with a robe of copper and brass horse with its own moon, moon with its own horse quietly braiding the entrails of the lizard into shining ropes.