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Norma Wilson spent the month of July 2002 in Spain as a writer in residence with Fundacion Valparaiso, located near Mojacar. The foundation offers residencies to eighty artists each year. Wilson was offered the residency after submitting samples of her poetry. Residents receive free room, board and laundry services and are housed in a large adobe-style complex located near the foot of Mojacar La Vieja, a mountain that was home to a series of cultures--Agaric, Phoenician, Greek, Roman, Visigoth and Moorish. On an adjacent mountain is the city of Mojacar, which has been inhabited, beginning with the Moors, since the end of the thirteenth century.
Wilson says, "It was a fascinating time to be at Mojacar. The history of that place coincides in so many ways with the history of the Americas. In 1488, the Jews and Moors were expelled from the entire region of Andalucia by the Spanish monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella, who claimed their region in the name of Christianity. This was happening immediately before Columbus arrived in the West Indies and began exploiting Native labor and resources and claiming that territory for Spain. Still today, there are land disputes between Spain and Morocco. I found this history and the beautiful landscape fertile ground for my poetry and have written the first draft of what I hope will become a book of poems from Mojacar."
Wilson was one of three artists from the United States in residency at Valparaiso during July. There were also three artists from Spain, one from the Philippines and one from Venezuela.
Norma Wilson with other residents at Fundacion Valparaiso, July 2002.
Mojacar la Vieja
An Indalo made of stones on Mojacar la Vieja
Egyptian Palm planted at Fundacion Valparaiso
Playa de los Muertos
Castle of Maecenas
Norma Wilson in front of the Sirens
The Sirens
Festooned cave on the coast
Norma with two other artists on a Mediterranean Bay
Interior of the Alhambra in Granada
Courtyard in the Alhambra where Columbus met with Ferdinand and Isabella before coming to the "New World."
Some Poems from Mojacar
Hare in Wonderland
A man is picking
almonds in the cool
morning. I listen
to the thump of the
nuts. The apparition
of a large gray rabbit
scurries down the bank
beneath him. That couldn’t
be a rabbit, I’m thinking. But
later when I ask what large gray
animal might live here,
Rafael says a liebre
and they’re very good to eat.
No wonder Liebre is in such a hurry.
Liebre wants to be libre.
The Flamenco Singer
The singer closes his eyes
His voice comes from inside
His tears. Pouring
his body into his song, his
heart sings to night,
to the stars, the moon.
Listen.
The guitarist offers sympathy,
a variation on his song.
But the singer has the last
word, and his hands
dismiss the effort to sing it.
Sea Alhambra
You can climb the lacy white rock
and walk on top to look down on
the deep aqua pools. You can jump
in to swim the calm clear waters.
Fishermen on the other side
of the Alhambra of the Sea
cast their nets out toward Morocco.
You can imagine ancient Moors
living in this cove and later
their descendants moving north to
Granada. There the artists who
made the festooned ceilings must have
dreamed of the honeycombed art of
Los Arcos.
Leila or Perejil*
On a stone island
near a land of a thousand deserts.
an old man riding a white mule
carries his star on Leila.
Where is he going? Why?
Wanting this Perejil, claimed by Spain
--tug of war between two flags--
Rock of Spain or Morocco?
His star.
*The Moroccans call the island they
occupied on July 11 Leila (which
means night); the Spanish name for
the island is Perejil (meaning parsley).
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