A Reader's Poem

Back in the summer, a reader of In Love With Lisbon contacted me for some tips before visiting Lisbon. I was delighted to receive an email back from him a few weeks ago saying how much he had enjoyed his trip. In his email he included a beautiful poem that he had written whilst in Lisbon. With his kind permission, I have included it below.

Amos has now set up a website called Lisbon Poems to showcase his gift with words. Lisbon is his muse. On the site he writes :-

“Lisbon is a city that demands to be written about. Everything about Lisbon seems to quicken my senses and inspire me. It’s a deeply melancholic place, a deeply warm and local place, a unique city. In my humble view, it is the greatest city in the world.”

I couldn’t agree more Amos

Beneath the Triumphal Arc on Augusta Street
By
Amos Mallard

Lisbon is gentle, warm, sad.
The walls are waxed in carnelian light, the sky is brass
Each cobbled stone is white and weary and undulates a woven path
Toward the sea

Narrow as a knife blade
Tiles and plaster crack, paper peels and fades
Dark, slender wristed women lift their chins and walk away
And pigeons nest in minarets

Dust and loving breath upon the Tagus
Turn Pessoan faded pages.
Whip white sheets on balconies, cool flushed faces
For those beneath the arc on Augusta Street