“Here I want to see those men of hard voice. Those that break horses and dominate rivers; those men of sonorous skeleton who sing with a mouth full of sun and flint.”

“The river GuadalquivirFlows between oranges and olivesThe two rivers of GranadaDescend from the snow to the wheatOh my love!Who went and never returnedThe river GuadalquivirHas beards of maroonThe two rivers of GranadaOne a cry the other bloodOh my love!Who vanished into thin air”

“I sing your restless longing for the statue,your fear of the feelings that await you in the street.I sing the small sea siren who sings to you,riding her bicycle of corals and conches.But above all I sing a common thoughtthat joins us in the dark and golden hours.The light that blinds our eyes is not art.Rather it is love, friendship, crossed swords.”

“The round silence of night,one note on the staveof the infinite.Ripe with lost poems,I step naked into the street.The blackness riddledby the singing of crickets:sound,that deadwill-o'-the-wisp,that musical lightperceivedby the spirit.A thousand butterfly skeletonssleep within my walls.A wild crowd of young breezesover the river.- Hour of Stars (1920)”

“The night above. We two. Full moon.I started to weep, you laughed.Your scorn was a god, my lamentsmoments and doves in a chain.The night below. We two. Crystal of pain.You wept over great distances.My ache was a clutch of agoniesover your sickly heart of sand.Dawn married us on the bed,our mouths to the frozen spoutof unstaunched blood.The sun came through the shuttered balconyand the coral of life opened its branchesover my shrouded heart.- Night of Sleepless Love”

“The little boy was looking for his voice.(The king of the crickets had it.)In a drop of waterthe little boy was looking for his voice.I do not want it for speaking with;I will make a ring of itso that he may wear my silenceon his little fingerIn a drop of waterthe little boy was looking for his voice.(The captive voice, far away,put on a cricket's clothes.)- The Little Mute BoyTranslated by William S. Merwin”

“There is nothing more poetic and terrible than the skyscrapers' battle with the heavens that cover them. Snow, rain, and mist highlight, drench, or conceal the vast towers, but those towers, hostile to mystery and blind to any sort of play, shear off the rain's tresses and shine their three thousand swords through the soft swan of the fog.”