Digging around in the photo files that I transferred from my old computer to my Google drive, I discovered this golden oldie composed of my words and Clare’s images. What a revelation: I had completely forgotten that this group of work existed. I’ll dig them out ne by one and post them from time to time. Ayer is the Spanish for yesterday, hier in French. The title “Ay! Ay! Ayeres!” with its multiple plays All our yesterdays and its reference to the old song “Ay, ay, ay, canta no llores” draws together a series of memories, some in the past and some in the future. ‘How can we have a memory in the future?’ you ask. By recognizing a present moment, or one that lies just ahead in a future that ill become soon enough a present, as one that has already occurred in the past, thus confirming the circularity of our lives and the idea that all time is time present, one of T. S. Eliot’s recurring themes.
Ocho Venado: Eight Deer is a central figure (war leader) in the Zouche-Nuttal, a pre-Columbian Mixtec Codex. He is the war leader in the Conquests recorded in the codex (circa 1050-1100).
Quesadillas: Oaxacan tortillas filled with cheese and flores de Calabaza, gourd flowers.
Reyes Magos: the three wise men or kings who visited the Christ Child on January 6, the traditional Spanish Christmas.
Murcielago: the bat and a symbol of death in Oaxacan mythology.
Nueve Viento: Nine Wind descends from heaven to separate the sky from earth and its waters. Nine Wind at Tule meeting with Cortes is mythical not historical, though the meeting of Cortes with the Mixtec chiefs (caciques) did happen.
Apoala: The Mixtec nation was born form a cave (sometimes a tree) in Apoala, Oaxaca.
Spinning the wheels in the snow: a reference to Jean Chretien and one of his famous images.
The piece is written in a surrealist style that mixes historical fact with creative writing. The distant past is recalled (1050-1100), then the middle past (1525-1530), and finally the present appears. This mixing of time and place (Mexico and Canada) is also related to the surrealist movement. Surrealism creates a dream world in which images float and change shape within a time-space conundrum where dream is more real than reality and creates its own new meanings that are individual to each reader.
Any comments on this rediscovered piece will be warmly welcomed.
rogermoorepoet 
Great Roger I know you are a surrealist deep down or maybe way up. Remember the dream time.
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Hello again, Mr. Cake. I’ve missed you. Not just a surrealist, a bilingual surrealist … except I take the Octavio Paz Amendment … I select and polish the gems that emerge from the depths … therefore not really a surrealist at all.
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Good job we are not in a movement together this would led to a schism
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I think it did, to a certain extent, with both Lorca and Paz. Lorca was Spain’s most prominent verbal surrealist, especially in Poet in New York, but, as you know, he split from the painters in fairly violent fashion. Paz, as a Mexican, was always borderline, though Piedra de Sol, and many other pieces, have similar elements of surrealism as I do. Mind you, I have imitated his techniques, and those of Lorca, obviously at a much inferior level.
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Bunzel was quite dismissive of Lorca surrealism though he had nothing but praise for his character. Paz was a surrealist at least in the beginning. You plough your own farrow
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It is indeed necessary to make your own way, rather than to meekly follow. I really like Lorca’s plays and his Poet in New York. They deserve serious recognition.
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I meant Bunuel… not sure who Bunzel is… Poet in New York is excellent… I am not really up on his plays (or plays generally).
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he House of Bernarda Alba is well worth reading. There is great video of it too, in English, possibly available on You tube. Joan Plowright and whoever played Elizabeth I (in the film).
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Thanks Roger I will track it down.
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Roger, I’m so glad that you found this piece and shared it. A fascinating read, very dreamy and surreal, also I enjoyed the idea of, “all time is time present”. I love the following bit, “… the cat and the dog that stood up and spoke to us about a vision of the world we humans lost a long, long time ago”, it’s quite profound. Please have a splendid Wednesday. ~ Mia
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Thank you so much, Mia, for the visit and for the commentary. I have always been attracted to the animals talking at midnight and I have often wondered what they would tell us if only we would listen. There are about 40-50 of these and I will ‘resurrect’ them one by one. I hardly remember doing them, but they are certainly a wonderful discovery. Perhaps I’ll put them into a book!
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You’re so welcome, Roger. I’m sure the animals would tell us all about the things that we’ve neglected. I’m looking forward to reading them as you post them. A book sounds like a marvelous idea!
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