21 March 2004 12:25 PM

Antipodes

Vacant,
With its Lordly
Beds, the Royal Palace
Lies; outside a man sleeps on a
worn bench.


Cazenovia, New York
1991

This poem was one part of the first exercise of my Advanced Placement English class in high school. It was a wonderful exercise. It started like most first assignments in English class in that we were to write about our summer vacation. However, after that initial part, the exercise was quite unique. I believe the second part of the assignment was to condense what we had written to a single page; next, a single paragraph; next, a single sentence. The second to last part of the exercise was to write a poem based on the original writing. The final part of the exercise was to reduce our report on our summer vacation to one word. Mine? The title of the poem, Antipodes.

The inspiration for this poem was the Royal Palace in Madrid, Spain in all its magnificence and opulence. As we were walking by the palace, I noticed a homeless man sleeping on a park bench out front. At some point, we heard that the Royal Family was traveling abroad. That juxtaposition remains a vivid memory.

Posted by geoff at March 21, 2004 12:25 PM