“At the heart of all great art is an essential melancholy.”
Federico García Lorca
(June 5, 1898 – 1936)
Sign: Gemini
Homosexual Spanish poet, playwright, and vital member of the avant-garde poetry group Generation of ‘27. He is acclaimed for his plays and for his intensely emotional poetry. He was executed by Spanish Fascists for his homosexuality.
The Song of the Barren Orange Tree
Woodcutter.
Cut my shadow from me.
Free me from the torment
of being without fruit.
Why was I born among mirrors?
Day goes round and round me.
The night copies me
in all its stars.
I want to live without my reflection.
And then let me dream
that ants and thistledown
are my leaves and my parrots.
“Faggot Forefathers” is a weekly series highlighting the lives of historically significant gay men and their contributions to our world.