the lost city

This poem was written by Pablo Neruda, after he saw Machu Picchu for his first time in the 1920's.

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Give me your hand from the deep seeded by your sorrow.

You won’t return from under the rocks.
You won’t return from your subterranean time.
Your hardened voice won’t return.
Your gouged-out eyes won’t return.

Look at me from the depth of the earth, laborer,
weaver, silent shepherd:
tamer of wild llamas like spirit images:
construction worker on a daring scaffold:
waterer of the tears of the Andes:
jeweler with broken fingers:
farmer trembling as you sow:
potter, poured out into your clay:
bring to the cup of this new life your old buried sorrows.
Show me your blood and your furrow, tell me,
“Here I was punished,
Because the jewel didn’t shine
or the earth didn’t yield grain or stones on time.”
Show me the stone you fell over
And the wood on which they crucified you,
Make a spark from the old flints for me,
For the old lamps to show the whips still stuck
After centuries in the old wounds
And the axes shining with blood.
I come to speak for your dead mouth.
Across the earth come together all
The silent worn-out lips
And from the depth speak to me all this long night
Like I was pinned down there with you.
Tell me all, chain by chain,
Link by link and step by step,
Sharpen the knives which you hid,
Put them in my breast and in my hand,
Like a river of yellow lighting
Like a river of buried jaguars
And let me weep, hours, days, years,
For blind ages, cycles of stars.

Give me silence, water, hope.

Give me struggle, iron, volcanoes.

Speak through my words and my blood.

the little town of macchu picchu, in the urubamba valley, in the early morning hours

The LORD reigns, let the earth be glad; let the distant shores rejoice! Clouds and thick darkness surround Him, righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne. Fire goes before Him and consumes His foes on every side. His lightening lights up the world, the earth sees and trembles, the mountains melt like wax before the LORD, before the LORD of all the earth. The heavens proclaim His righteousness and all peoples shall see His glory. [Psalm 97:1-6]

the sunrise through the mist

LORD, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. You return man to dust and say, "Return, O children of man!" For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past or as a watch in the night. You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning: in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers. [Psalm 90: 1-6]


we climbed the mountain in the background, it is mount wynapicchu


view from the top of wynapicchu

For the LORD is a great God, and a great king above all gods. In His hands are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are His also. [Psalm 95: 3-4]

Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will remain.

Psalm 102: 25-26