Years of great memories (and lots of good food)
Are locked away behind a shuttered front. “O lost,”
Our thought, “and by the wind grieved, ghost come back.”
Shuttered, the Thought
31 Saturday Mar 2018
Monthly Archives: March 2018
Another Invitation
31 Saturday Mar 2018
Posted in Art
Indoors offers a more certain outcome
Whether the forecast is spot-on or not;
And since Teatro Nuovo is quite close,
Only the program could raise any doubt.
Yet we have received conflicting reports:
In one, the evening is incredibly short;
Whereas according to my usual source
The Mozart alone could register a tort.
Proof of a Dour Report
31 Saturday Mar 2018
Posted in Education
L’attestato:
Aka, proof on the roof:
That would be a shower
Of hail out there
On the terrazzo.
Plans, What Plans?
31 Saturday Mar 2018
Posted in Travel
Sights of Easter coming soon
On every street, around every
Storefront, all over town.
Invitations have been sent.
Only given my bad Italian
I don’t know what is meant.
The first time we go out,
We get as far as breakfast
Before getting all that wet.
Safe and dry, back at home,
We wait for the sun to crest
Before making our grocery run.
Happy to be out and about
Even if completing errands–
Then a torrent comes down.
Plain to see, in this town,
The rain falls unpredictably
Sooner or later, now and again;
While plans, like the one
Many years in the making,
Are now open for the season.
Columba
30 Friday Mar 2018
Not at all to be confused with Peter Falk,
La Columba is the Italian word for dove:
A term that has special meaning at Easter,
When all the shops are overrun with pink.
Late yesterday at La Piazza del Mercato,
The historical site of the town’s old market,
We picked out our cake at the corner negozio
Known for the quality of its olio e balsamico.
After dinner, it was time to carve the bird.
Since she has a sweet spot for La Columba,
Rebecca held the honors in her loving hand:
Light morsels of heaven unlike any fruit cake.
Il Gatto e I Gatti
30 Friday Mar 2018
Posted in Education
First, a singular cat
Who showed up at
Our open doorway
While we napped.
Later, a herd of cats
Who showed up at
The feeding trough
While we walked.
Moving Round About the Town
28 Wednesday Mar 2018
Last fall, in the afterglow of the Spoleto Festival’s 50th Anniversary, we counted the lune bianche of celebration installed around the town.
The first time out this spring, we were counting on supplying the first round of our daily bread at a favorite frutta e verdura shop.
Only it was closed, perhaps for good. And as our day of transition dragged on, “Affittasi” signs on familiar haunts kept showing up everywhere.
Late this evening, on our way home along Via del Mercado, we came across an unknown Italian word attached to a no less puzzling art series.
Dumb struck by the sense of losses all over, we can’t help but think someone had the bright idea to cover up empty window fronts with temporary decorations.
Yet (thanks to Google translate), it turns out “Urban Screens” may prove to be just another case of a hill town’s penchant for art in its midst.
Italian and Me
28 Wednesday Mar 2018
Posted in Education
-
- Little Progress on the Spanish Steps
Aboard the plane to the eternal city
Once the spring comes round at last
I have time to ponder the mystery
Of a language course I never passed.
Still with wandering steps and slow,
Hand in hand we take our casual way
Up and down the familiar hills of Spoleto
Searching for the words we long to say.