Cinco Calles...

February 20, 2015:

The names of the streets in Old San Juan are lyrically well suited to be the first line of a haiku, which normally consists of five syllables;  Calle de Luna, Calle de la Sol, Calle de Christo, etc., and as I was walking down a steep cobbled street leading to the harbor early one damp and misty morning a haiku

came to me as did the idea of a photo poetic project that would provide the psychic glue that would hold me together as I languished stranded and alone in San Juan waiting for Jackie to return from sea.  So if I could just come up with four more haikus and at least five good photos to accompany them I would be saved... So here it is...Cinco Calles...With no particular effort to synchronize the words and pictures in any coherent fashion, just a walking tour of whatever caught my eye.

Calle de la Cruz

cobbles damp from last nights rain

or are they weeping.

Calle de la Sol

your sad smile can not disguise

secret thoughts of death.

Calle de Christo

seeks strength in the cross it bears

finding only thorns.

Calle de Luna

hidden and mysterious

suena la mujer.

Calle de Justo

full of light and hope and dreams

mine is a dark world.

                                                                                 (Ayudame)

Piraguas are nice but at the end of the day Jackie, Maria, Ben and I spent our time drinking remarkably refreshing and potent $5 happy hour special mango mojitos to wash down our amazing $5 happy hour tapas upstairs at the Cafe St. Germaine.  If it sounds Parisian or something it should because the decor and drinks have the power to transport you to another time and place.   Its at the corner of Cruz and Sol, second floor.  So if you should find yourself in Old San Juan and thirsty in the late afternoon, which you undoubtedly will, tell them Pablo sent you.

Pablo