There are other futures involved in my Christmas presents. A pair of sheepskin boots that I cannot yet pull on by myself. There is a very warm vest with, thank heaven, capacious pockets for my phone, house keys, doggie bag, hankies, eye glasses, bus tickets. The backpack makes it possible for me to do myContinue reading “Aftermath of the Holidays Part II”
Category Archives: Poems
Who Owns Whom Part I
Dear David Here we go again with books, that seemingly endless subject we always turn to in our afternoon tête-à-tête. As we were saying, David, now that you have had to give up your collections of books, parts of you are in the libraries of people you never met, in places you have never been.Continue reading “Who Owns Whom Part I”
Pop-up Card Caper
MYSTERY The great pop-up card caper There were two blue envelopes in my mailbox. Yes, I still have a mailbox. And yes, I still occasionally get letters, although most often it is the printout of a bill the bank has already paid for me. To get back to the blue envelopes. I knew without lookingContinue reading “Pop-up Card Caper”
Yellow
Shades of yellow Hues of yellow Lemon amber chrome gold Burnt umber, bronze A yellow butterfly Escaping from the ghetto A patch of yellow wall in Vermeers View of Delft Proust Van Gogh Rembrandt The Jewish Bride Slashes of yellow satin sleeves The little prince Daffodils and sunflowers A host of golden daffodils Your hairContinue reading “Yellow”
Giving and Receiving
December 2022. Time to think of presents if you haven’t already done so. Once upon a time you began to think of what to give a month before or even earlier. I remember I kept a lookout for something to put aside at giving time, even if it was in the middle of August, andContinue reading “Giving and Receiving”
Bagnara Calabra
And then there is the word. Again the photo gives us what we can consider reality. It can be impersonal, in the sense that anyone could have taken that picture. Yet like a drawing, it is the result of a choice. The framing, the time of day. What strikes the observer. A description in wordsContinue reading “Bagnara Calabra”
Manual Approach
BUT BEFORE THAT MECHANICAL APPROACH, IT WAS ALL MANUAL SO how about a drawing or a sketch? Once upon a time that was how the present was recorded, so as not to forget. There’s an advantage here for you can choose, illuminate, accent this or that. You decide what is most important. You can focusContinue reading “Manual Approach”
The Camera
Europe. 1955. A world that to me was new. It assailed my senses. I responded. In sketches, in photographs, in words. Now, in 2022, they are all still there immortalized on my computer. 1949 was a box camera. Amazing what it could do! 1956 was a 35 mm. Leica. With a light meter and rangefinder.Continue reading “The Camera”
Little Time Machines
(Thanks to James Lalonde) Whirlwinds of memory. A box of photographs. I thumb through them, paralyzed by the present, haunted by the past, fearful of the future. The world around me gyrates, Spins out of control. Wars. Wild fires. Winds of winter. Heading into chaos. But here, in this box, there is a past noContinue reading “Little Time Machines”
Black and White #2
Returning from the little park next to the former hospital with its view of the valley and the abbey, I often stop and sit on the bench that runs along the palazzo across from the cathedral. It’s not a simple bench, but seems to serve as base for the building, interrupted by a few doorways,Continue reading “Black and White #2”
Black and White
Blocks of stone. Paltry remnants left behind when our brothers had been chosen and become part of a greater whole. We are only what remains, quietly waiting for the flood of tourists to ebb and wane. Cresting at eleven, by five withdrawing, the people gradually trickle into the quiet square, mill around, spill over intoContinue reading “Black and White”
Somewhere Out There
I saw it once. I’ve been searching for it ever since. What? A film. Haunting images of a room seen across the way, glowing with light as a mother brings in a steaming bowl of soup for her husband and children. We are seeing it from a dark room – across the way. We areContinue reading “Somewhere Out There”
Wordless Communication
How does one share a feeling? I suppose you could ask your dog. When she (or he) gets all excited and joyous about seeing you, knowing you will take her (or him) for a walk, isn’t that a way of telling you what they feel? Might also be familiarity. As the days and years pass,Continue reading “Wordless Communication”
Surfeit
Just one is quite enough. A friend sent me 50 pictures of the wonders of nature. Flowers, birds, creatures of the sea, trees. I scroll through them all, marveling. Yet I feel overwhelmed by too much. Just one would have been quite enough. Just one I could have lingered over, impressed it in my mind.Continue reading “Surfeit”
Belly Buttons
Or Rather Silly Daily Thoughts Another summer weekend. School is far from thoughts. Too hot for clothes, more or less. Midnight. Gaggles of giggling Lolitas wander the main drag. Dressed or undressed depending on your definition. Long bare adolescent legs. Frayed shorts barely covering buttocks go up in front to just below the belly button.Continue reading “Belly Buttons”
The Importance of Having a Name
Seems everyone knows me by name. Maybe because I’ve been around so long. I used to have a shop and if someone whose child was having problems with English, or the Carabinieri or the hospital when whoever they were dealing with didn’t speak Italian, would turn to Erika. At this point, the Carabinieri and theContinue reading “The Importance of Having a Name”
Music and Memory
As I get older my lifestyle changes. What I once took for granted, gradually vanishes from sight, or should I say from hearing. Memory. All that remains to us as we get older is memory. We can no longer hear the music that marked our lives, except in memory. We can no longer enjoy theContinue reading “Music and Memory”
Coffee
It’s a hot hot summer day. You find that even thinking takes it out of you. And then you see a stand selling granita di caffe. Coffee, frozen and crushed to a mush and with a cap of whipped cream on top. Does that count as coffee? I suppose it does for it brings youContinue reading “Coffee”
Colleen/Guardian Angel
Aren’t we all supposed to have guardian angels? They may not be all that interested in their charges, and sometimes seem to disregard them completely. There’s one in particular who seems to have forgotten what he was supposed to be doing. In any case my friend Colleen Garvey caught him sleeping. She said he was theContinue reading “Colleen/Guardian Angel”
Friends
A warm summer night. A man and a woman are animatedly conversing as they drive up into the hills. Fireflies are flashing against the velvety black woods. She’s not quite sure how the conversation took this turn, but she finds herself on the defensive. A friend, she says, always remains a friend even when theirContinue reading “Friends”
Erika Bizzarri 