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Tuesday, 11 May 2021

Corner Stones

I waited a few minutes
To see the Anthony Gormley
Which he wisely entitled
Another Time W

And it may have to be another time
When I share his view of the city
Where I too will stand erect
To take in the longer view

The She Wolf was more immersive
Even without limbs
There was a beauty, also a danger
To the representation

Archimedes of Syracuse
Looks down and across at me
The young woman with a fine rear
Walks by, as if she has lost her lover

I too once roamed aimless
In need of no instruction
Not yet having found
The peaceful vision of the cast man

Tomorrow there is another place
Also most probably another time
But hopefully
With not quite so so many people


Monday, 10 May 2021

Lantern of the Winds

The wedding dinner is begun
But the wind, or rather the winds
Will not allow
The candle’s light to prosper

Instead, as dusk falls (on society)
It is the electricity which takes over
The incandescent, iridescent bulbs
Providing a warmer, more shimmering glow

Yet still we queue
To see the beginning of time
Or at least to see
Renaissance man’s artistic impression

Black and white
Are still the colours of the day
And for most of the menfolk
Beards were the passion of the day

Much as today
Where Steve Job’s mobile-phone-camera
Is the one essential accessory
Which man nor woman cannot live without

So let us commemorate
The birth of Apple (Computers)
How well it has prospered
Even without the Medici


Sunday, 9 May 2021

Black and White

The American woman has a rudeness
The best of which is that she doesn’t even know
Or care; take today, in the Uffizi
With her camera set to video
She stood right in front
Dead centre, of the Botticelli
Thereby embedding herself
Into everyone else’s photograph
But, as I say, she was so totally unaware
Such that she knows nothing, of her own celebrity

Meanwhile, I sit to write
To make a note of this supreme arrogance
Which, so I understand from television
Is propagated by their leader

Then, lest I forget
To make a note (pun intended)
Of the music exhibition
In the Academie of Sienna
Where, with way less visitors
There is ample space
For care and attention
Even time
To listen to the piano being played
As the lover sings an aria for his lover


Saturday, 8 May 2021

Passing By, Almost Forgotten

Slow train from Siena
Slow train to Firenze
Do not go beyond
The yellow line

Ten times more emotional
Than a picture or a painting
How sweet the sounds
That saved a soul like me

Cypress lined roads turn and twist
To the villa on the hill
Also simple apartments, beside the railway
Behind the allotment gardens

Castelfiorentino, where fake windows
Are painted on the building walls
Where the poppies grow, alongside
The diesel covered, extruded steel rails

A place where the washing hangs
Beneath the open windows
Where the old factory rooftops
Are covered in grass

These are the slow times
Of the twenty-first century
Where a new kind of man is required
To kick off the next renaissance


Friday, 7 May 2021

Day Trip Traveller

Leaving Poggibonsi
Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna

Leaving Poggibonsi
Hare Rama
Hare Rama
Hare Hare

Tickets scanned
Diesel online
Acceleration
Rama Rama
Hare Hare

The church is on the hill
The fool is on the hill
Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna
The fool is by the till

Rama Rama
Factories and farmyards
Victories and vineyards
Hare Rama
Rama Rama

Entering Certaldo
Hare Krishna
Hare Krishna