Search Results for: Renzo Del Castillo

What Nature Has Wrought

The brightness of man’s hubris
shines atop uprooted palms reaching for the firmament, 
silent in rebirth.

You and I look out different windows
as if the intransigent panorama would darken less
in one than the other.

The earth will exact its recompense
for the parched ignorance of urban development 
with a flood,

black water swells, etching a path;
driving mediocrity from the face of nature’s perfection,
marred by sidewalks.

As if we needed shoes to walk;
As if we needed stucco, vitrolite, steel, or terracotta
to feel alive.

Inspired by "Pink Sidewalk, 2017," above the ekphrastic poem.

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Painted Landscapes

Emboldened by our cities,
we’ve uprooted Nature from the earth
and painted a memorial in her stead;
preferring the artificial to the real,
misplacing our faith in steel and chain-link fences.
Our need for control blinds us to the truth:
we get our strength from the chaos.

Inspired by "Camouflage, 2017," above the ekphrastic poem.

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Hanging Gardens

Above our heads, growing unperturbed, 
Negating the inconvenience of plaster 
And concrete soil, a plant stands in defiance.
Structures of all types are built, but Nature finds ways
To wear them down, to overtake them;
Amassing patience to teach lessons in hubris.
Silent custodians of unwavering purpose 
In a world that chooses domination instead of harmony.
Ancient knowledge that we ignore at our peril:

Seven wonders were gifted to us,
An ascending series of tiered gardens containing
Marvels of mankind’s imagination: trees, shrubs, and vines
Overhanging, a large green mountain of mud bricks among them.
Years from now this white building will be 
Long forgotten, the exact location of this pensile paradise 
Overlooked by cartographers and priests.
Varying accounts will meld into rumor
And still the roots will remain entrenched to the earth.

Inspired by "Painted Roots, 2017," above the ekphrastic and acrostic poem.

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©2023 Renzo Del Castillo
All rights reserved

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