Aldous Huxley Wrote a Poem about Almería

 Aldous Huxley in Almería, ninety years ago.



Almería: December 3, 1930

Winds have no moving emblems here, but scour
A vacant darkness, an untempered light;
No branches bend, never a tortured flower
Shudders, root-weary, on the verge of flight;
Winged future, withered past, no seeds, nor leaves
Attest those swift invisible feet: they run
Free through a naked land, whose breast receives
The whole fierce ardour of a naked sun.
Thou hast the Light for lover; fortunate Earth!
Conceive the fruit of his divine desire.
But the dry dust is all she brings to birth,
That child of clay by even celestial fire.
 Then come, soft rain and thunder clouds, abate
 This shining love that has the force of hate.