It must be one or two in the morning. I lie in bed and have pulled the blankets, really only one, up to my shoulders. And there in that triangle of sky at the top of a shaft between the shutters through which light can filter, I sometimes see, – from where I lie – theContinue reading “Usual Musings”
Tag Archives: journal
A Yellow Butterfly
As usual I was hunting for a book. A slender booklet. And there was this story of a yellow butterfly. Pont-Aven. A seaside town in the Brittany region of France, the haunt of artists such as Gaugin. But what I wanted to find was a brief essay where a saffron yellow butterfly was the leadingContinue reading “A Yellow Butterfly”
How long?
The end is drawing near. How long? A year? Or three or four? Or less or more? Then, if I could, I would wander up some lane, onto a sunlit terrace, or float out over the patchwork of green fields in the valley, and dissolve, disappear into the ether. How do I wish to beContinue reading “How long?”
Moral Dilemma
A term I was unacquainted with. Is it perhaps too philosophical for me? Makes sense though when I figured out what it meant. So you have a house, a really old building with which you have fallen in love . It’s lovely but obviously needs to be seen to, needs repair, needs love. And nextContinue reading “Moral Dilemma”
Now
Yesterday…tomorrow.Before…after.Now.Suddenlyspring has given way to summer.In town legs and arms are bare,offering mosquitoes and no see’umsa banqueting table. In the country night creeps up,making way for thoughts.How rare just to sit,let oneself merge with the night,stop thinking of anything but the now.To stop thinking. And be aware of sounds,of shades of darkness, of touch, ofContinue reading “Now”
Memories
Rome with Carolyn, 8 may 2015 Over ten years ago. When living here in Rome was still something to be envied. The Janiculum. Dinner at Lo Scarpone. A large entrance courtyard with a flowering vine covering the whole area. Then in with tables and let’s say real food, although they also had pizza. In oneContinue reading “Memories”
Mother Tongue
I’m translating from Italian to English. But is English my mother tongue? Since my mother’s mother tongue was German, her first words to me, her infant daughter, were undoubtedly in German, but I don’t consider that my mother tongue. It might be so in a sense, for I probably absorbed it as I did my mother’sContinue reading “Mother Tongue”
Birthday
97 years ago. I find it strange and somehow revealing that my father didn’t mention my mother’s name – after all seems she played an important part in this event. The years have passed, and now that I am 97 I find myself thinking of the many things I wish I had done, or hadContinue reading “Birthday”
Sears and Montgomery Wards
Oh dear. The NY Times has an article that Sears is about to disappear for the second time. I suppose Montgomery Wards also disappeared years ago and with the two of them there go the dreams of my childhood. How my sister and I would wait for the postman’s car to drive up the dirtContinue reading “Sears and Montgomery Wards”
The letter C and A Special Birthday
December is marked by the letter C. There is of course Christmas but there is also Carolyn, Cynthia, and most important Costanza. Carolyn, you were just a student when first you came to stay with us, rather perplexed and not quite sure what you were doing in an unknown Italian household as you were finishingContinue reading “The letter C and A Special Birthday”
Dec. 24
A roundup of my beloved poems – a few of those countless excerpts that inhabit the library of my mind. There are many others I would add, but they, for now, must remain under cover. Wake! For the Sun, who scatter’d into flightThe Stars before him from the Field of Night,Drives Night along with themContinue reading “Dec. 24”
Not a Madeleine
But a Mounds bar. Coconut and dark chocolate. A Mounds bar from the vending machine along the side of the station sidewalk while I wait for the train to come swooshing in. The year 1952. A subway station in New York. I have always liked coconut but it has to be paired with dark chocolate.Continue reading “Not a Madeleine”
Day After Day
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF AN ALMOST 97 YEAR OLD LADY WHO HAD THE MISFORTUNE TO FALL AND BREAK HER LEG A YEAR AGO Hard to realize I’m no longer independent. Hard to realize my lovely dog has crossed the rainbow bridge. Now who invented that idea? I find there is a real rainbowContinue reading “Day After Day”
Erika Bizzarri 