I was at the coffee bar and had just settled down for my morning coffee when I noticed a young man seated at the table by the door. He couldn’t have been more than twenty with a mop of curly hair and smooth chubby cheeks. And he was big. After exchanging good morning greetings, heContinue reading “Brief Encounters”
Tag Archives: orvieto
Fleeting Memories
July, summer has set in it all its heat. I lie motionless in bed hoping to cool off. My hands and arms finally feel cold. Eyes closed, I let my mind wander and find myself in Jerusalem or Nazareth. Forty years ago. I have risen early. The American students I am chaperoning are still asleep. All butContinue reading “Fleeting Memories”
Dream
Last night I had a vision. The city, once Urbs Vetus, Now Orvieto, Was rooted in the cliff On which it stood. Houses, streets, lanes, piazzas Were all sprouting from the tufa cliff, Like weeds Or flowers of the field That last but a day. Only here and there A few tap roots reached downContinue reading “Dream”
Usual Musings
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”
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 I See You
Now you see me Now you don’t Does that mean you no longer exist? Not only could I see, but I could also touch and hear you. Then when you turned the corner you were no longer there. Or if you were there, you were invisible. Is that any different from the tree I seeContinue reading “Now I See You”
Lion
Lion on my windowsillwhat are you looking at,what are you thinking. Silently you watch memove through the room. Yesterdayyou looked outwardson the age-old chestnutdown by the gate,on the ladder restingagainst the wallto one side of the window,on the lilac bushhalfway down the slopealready weighted downwith fragrant purple clusters.My Ukrainian helperasked permissionto cut a branch forContinue reading “Lion”
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”
Love
We are human beings and subject to a range of emotions, ranging from hate to love. Perhaps one of the most significant of human emotions is love, that attachment to another being, an emotion we also find in our four-legged friends. There is the love of a child for his mother, of a mother forContinue reading “Love”
One Never Knows
One never knows There weren’t too many in Orvieto those years who spoke English. It must have been the late 1960s or early 70s. There was the language school, equivalent of high school. They needed someone called “a reader”, who would come once a week to lend a hand to the regular teacher and theyContinue reading “One Never Knows”
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”
Coming Back
Coming back. Returning. To a place. But without the people you saw there every day it was not the same. So you cut short your stay. You left. Surely, though, I want to tell you, you can return to a place without the people. A place can be seen for itself alone. You can experienceContinue reading “Coming Back”
Aftermath of Phone Books
I doubt one can still find those thick phone books which told you the telephone number and street where a person lived. Not only that but they doubled as cushions to raise toddlers high enough to sit at a table with grown-ups. Those large unwieldy objects are objects of the past, but small personal phoneContinue reading “Aftermath of Phone Books”
Cold Nose Two
I know it’s cold so don’t even try to poke my nose outside. I lie in bed waiting for my son to finish whatever he is doing at the computer since he must help me to put on my brace. Thoughts begin to swirl around my head. I should really get up but I can’tContinue reading “Cold Nose Two”
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”
People and Pigeons
There they are, a gaggle of ladies sitting ìn a row on the long metal bench under the portico of San Andrea. There’s an odd male between one contingent and the other. There used to be a florist here, with her offerings of calla lilies, fuchsia cyclamens, carnations, and roses from Israel or Holland. ItContinue reading “People and Pigeons”
Thanksgiving
THANKSGIVING. TO WHOM SHOULD WE GIVE THANKS? Really don’t know why, as a family, we celebrated Thanksgiving. Or even Christmas or Easter in a household that is eminently non-religious. Although Thanksgiving is not a religious occasion. I suppose Columbus called what we call turkey, pavo, in Portuguese or Spanish. The Puritan invader who arrived onContinue reading “Thanksgiving”
Erika Bizzarri 