Count Julian - pg. 23

a humble, tremulous prayer of a monk shut up in
his cell like a diligent bee: the cry of a frail babe still
in diapers: the Duero in its infancy, yet already
quintessentially Spanish: fed by the wellsprings of a
profound, passionate inspiration: winding its lonely
way across the ancient, noble soil, a river constantly
seeking, and finding, the course that best suits it: the
robust octosyllable, the perfect hendecasyllable, the
immortal scent; a powerful, abundant stream: narrowing
at times and occasionally descending underground for a
certain distance, bending back upon itself and meandering,
but never ceasing to flow: from the romancero
to Lope de Vega, from Lope to Federico Garcia Lorca:
and on to today's beloved poets: your crazy, frail, grown-up
children, wrapped in swaddling clothes: overcome with
amazement, joyous, smiling: dumbfounded: holding the
most intimate conversations with God: