All Day Duende

A duende is an elfin figure of folklore. I think of duende as a feeling, a cross between fidgety passion and contemplative inspiration. Frederico Garcia Lorca's vision of duende includes irrationality, earthiness, an awareness of death, and a diabolical touch. That fits.

In Spanish duende originated as a contraction of the phrase dueño de casa or duen de casa, effectively "master of the house." The duende of various cultures get up to all sorts of tricks, masquerading as leaves and woodland creatures who then prank women by pulling down their skirts and pinching their bottoms, or they pop down chimneys and lurk in corners to create havoc in the home. The chimney entrance sounds familiar. Is Santa duende? Because the whole season, this stretch from the end of October through about mid-February (as soon as I can smell the ground again) is intense All Day Duende for me. The rest of the year is All Day Duende for me too, but with the sun's varied satires.

The Moon Appears

by Frederico Garcia Lorca

     At the rise of the moon

bells fade out

and impassable paths

appear.

     At the rise of the moon

the sea overspreads the land

and the  heart feels like an island

in the infinite.

     No one eats oranges

in the full moon's light.

Fruit must be eaten

green and ice-cold.

At the rise of the moon,

with its hundred faces alike,

silver coins

sob away in pockets.