Banish winter rains, Here comes the Sun –
At last, it’s Springtime in Marbella
Come enjoy the flowers with the American Club!

Welcome to springtime in Marbella with the American Club!  I hope I am not amiss in boldly proclaiming that we all just ADORE springtime in Marbella.  Hotels and restaurants that have been shut during the off-season winter months are beginning to open their doors again.  Boutiques dotted along the Golden Mile display the latest resort wear in their luminescent windows.  After months of incredible rains, the sun is finally peeking through and drying out the drenched chaise lounges on our terraces. Pools are being cleansed and chlorinated, and we are again enjoying glorious early morning beach walks and welcoming orange blossoms, birds in mating songs, bees “doing their thing” and the scent of fresh towels and sun lotion. 
 

The entire Costa del Sol has been bombarded and houses even destroyed by the winter rains as if at war, and the sun this spring is a sign of new peaceful beginnings. Forget Napalm: the smell, you know that “springtime” smell...  “Smells like, victory to me!!”

Two of the most wonderful words coined by American poet ee cummings are “mud-luscious” and “puddle-wonderful,” which he invented to evoke imagery of spring. Take a look at how they are employed in this beautiful American poem below, a majestic ode to spring after the torrential rains such as those we have recently experienced here in Marbella.

e.e. cummings - in Just- (1920)

in Just

spring when the world is mud-
luscious the little lame balloon man
whistles far and wee
and eddy and bill come

running from marbles and
piracies and it's
spring
when the world is puddle-wonderful
the queer
old balloon man whistles
far and wee
and betty van disbel come dancing
from hop-scotch and jump-rope and it's
spring
and the goat-footed
balloon man   whistles
far and wee

We now turn from ee cummings to another fantastic modernist poet of Spanish and American heritage.  Born in Rutherford, New Jersey, in 1883, Williams was an extremely popular family doctor who delivered over 2000 babies. In his precious little spare time, he wrote poems on his medical prescription pads. His birth date falls today during a period of celebrating the liberation of several Spanish-speaking countries from foreign rule.
 

Williams wrote the ground breaking book “Spring and All” in 1923.  In it, Williams examines nature, the tendrils and shoots below his feet, breaking free from traditional verse.  Williams states in his letters that his profession was a means to finance his true passion – writing poetry.  See how he departs from his doctor’s duties and takes a close look at the beautiful forces of springtime awakening and exploding all around him.
Whether you live here in Marbella full time, spend a few weeks or months with us, whether you work in Marbella or are a retired pensioner, I hope that Williams inspires ALL of our members this month to take the time to really appreciate the fragrant mimosas, the sea gulls nesting in the eaves of your terracotta roof tiles, and the beaches being combed in time for Semana Santa.  Take pleasure in every joyous moment of this beautiful springtime in Marbella………  and enjoy making memories with your friends at the American Club.

Spring and All – William Carlos Williams (1923)

By the road to the contagious hospital
under the surge of the blue
mottled clouds driven from the
northeast-a cold wind.  Beyond, the
waste of broad, muddy fields
brown with dried weeds, standing and fallen

patches of standing water
the scattering of tall trees

All along the road the reddish
purplish, forked, upstanding, twiggy
stuff of bushes and small trees
with dead, brown leaves under them
leafless vines-

Lifeless in appearance, sluggish
dazed spring approaches-

They enter the new world naked,
cold, uncertain of all
save that they enter.  All about them
the cold, familiar wind-

Now the grass, tomorrow
the stiff curl of wildcarrot leaf
One by one objects are defined-
It quickens:  clarity, outline of leaf

But now the stark dignity of
entrance-Still, the profound change
has come upon them:  rooted, they
grip down and begin to awaken