Christopher Columbus
leaves foot prints,
wake to his imagined ships,
dark, in the snow,
the unusual snow,
the snow they haven’t seen
in Granada city centre
for forty years.
It settles on roofs,
forms dark ridges
where the sun catches it
and turns it into
wet, dripping snow.
The Alhambra:
a wonderland of stiff,
white starched buildings,
stands out against
the mountain’s mass.
We click our cameras
and say “Just like home!”
We don’t realize
we’re repeating history
for it snowed then,
as it snows now
and Columbus
walked these streets
like any Canadian tourist,
short of breath,
short of cash,
the seams of his boots
letting in the cold,
wet snow,
you know how it is
on Yonge Street,
Main Street,
any street,
any town
in Canada.
And then the miracle:
he’s walking away,
leaving it all behind,
when the messenger
catches up to him and says:
“The war’s over:
there’s money now.
She says ‘Go for it!’
The ships you want,
the dream, the world,
they’re all yours now.”
Christopher Columbus
fell on his back,
flapped his arms,
and created winged shapes:
dream-angels,
white-sailed ships
sailing in the snow.
rogermoorepoet 
The Vikings in Vinland didn’t fare well at all in the New World, the sojourn in Greenland was longer but also ended in disaster (I am haunted by the fate of those Greenlanders, the worsening conditions, the recently arrived but more adaptable Inuit, the decline of ship building, the fading of Norwegian power). As to Columbus, well, a New Rome was to arise.
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The fate of the early immigrants to Eastern Canada was very similar. 1776 and the Loyalists, with tents from the Southern States, arriving in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick and facing those incredibly tough winters. Only the hardiest survived … and that with luck. We found it hard at first, even with all modern conveniences!
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The fate of the Greenlanders would make an excellent science fiction book I always thought. Interesting that Newfoundland seemed so balmy back in the 11th century, but it was warmer back then, then came the little ice age.
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Books have been written in Newfoundland about the fate of the last indigenous people … to be the last of one’s race, language, or family, is always so sad … so often, we are not even conscious of it.
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That would indeed be sad
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One of those pivotal moments in history. But if not Columbus, then another. To set in motion such sweeping and catastrophic changes for the world on the other side of the ocean. He couldn’t have known that, though. And we humans are a curious lot!
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He probably wasn’t the first to the land mass. The northern routes had already been explored by the Vikings with their landings in Newfoundland (12th century), and the Basques (14th century or earlier) with their whaling expeditions.
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Neither group seemed to have the same awful impact, though. Don’t forget St. Brendan!
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Indeed: impact is everything. The Spaniards had just been unleashed from the Reconquest of their own country and had a very different mind set.
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What a great tale of Columbus in pursuit of his dreams of discovery! Loved the snow effect! Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria never looked better! Very good!
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Thank you so much. We took our daughter, Grade 8, to Spain, “a land where there’s no snow in winter.” “Don’t be daft, Dad,” she said, “all countries have snow in winter.” It snowed the night of our arrival in Madrid and snowed in the centre of Granada when we got there for the first time in 40 years. “There,” my daughter said,”Snow: told you so.” The Alhambra was wonderful beneath the snow.
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How great is that! Have a little faith!!
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