Andean Condor

    The other day I was reviewing my trip to Chile last February and I was reminded of this poem by the 20th Century Irish poet, Padraic Colum. I find it very evocative indeed; perhaps you will too, especially if you have seen these magnificent masters of the sky in their Andean homeland. Ironically I cannot find any record of him ever having visited South America, but to write in such fashion, it would seem that he must have done so.

Condors

We watched the Condors flying towards the Moon,

A Moon that glimmered in the blue daylight;

Around us were the Andes, and beyond 

Andes the Ocean, empty like the Moon. 

I heard you speak in Atahualpa's tongue:

Then distances grew present; all the range

Of Condors' wings between my thought, your thought:

As though they had transcended need for wings,

We watched the Condors winging towards the Moon.