Rio de Janeiro the “Cidade Maravilhosa”

I have spent so many hours lately cleaning out old files and trying to make my computer work like it should.  It died anyway and had to be replaced.  I guess I could think, if I were an optimist, that all things happen for a reason.  So maybe the reason here was for me to find this poem, written 4 or 5 years ago.  Never finished.  Now I played with it a bit.  Ask and received advice from one of my blogger pals.  Camillo was also ask to read it and give an opinion – his note, “ Publish it someplace”  and “there used to be a samba with the same theme, some of the same wording”,  I promise I never heard it.  If anyone knows the name of the samba let me know, I’d love to hear it. 

So here it goes, a rare occurrence, a poem published.

“Cidade Maravilhosa”

 

And the Lord laid his hands upon the earth saying,               

 “Let this land be blessed.”

 

The rock shall rise up from and of the sea in glorious splendor

 and the sand; produced by the oceans, protecting the soil

as it descends shall touch this land

with soft gentle colors of brown and white.

.

The ocean waves shall be of many shades of blue,

indigo teal and sea foam green,

washing the sands in constant rhythm.

 

And so it was said.  And so it was.

 

And the Lord created man in his image,

saying, “Go out upon this earth and multiply.”

 

So the people came,                                    

lured by the glorious splendor,

arriving by sea from distant lands

from the jungles and the mountains.

And so they came in great numbers

creating by their own name:

the Cidade Maravilhosa.

 

As commanded,  multiplying their numbers

crowding this abundant land with houses

precariously balanced atop the rock,

and tall buildings linked one by one

connected by roads twisted crisscrossed

and filled with noise,

drowning the sounds of the sea,

filling the land, the rivers and the oceans

with signs of their excesses.

 

And so it was said. And so it was.

And the Lord despaired.