31

Water Under the Bridge

It’s not quite how I meant to do it

Fill my river of stones this summer

But happily, I did get it done

Not on time exactly but, as contractors

Are fond of saying, certainly under budget

It was very important to me so there’s

Real joy in the finishing and knowing that

In the completion,  it’s alright to move on.

30

Bella Capello

There’s no denying it;

I am a hat person

And the wider the brim

The better

Italy – at least this part—

Adores my hat;

I cannot go anywhere

Without someone

Calling after me,

“Bella, Bellla”

And when I turn

They are always

Motioning to show

Me how much

They love my hat!

29

A Plathian Moment

I had one today; they are rare now

And I, a non-believer, give thanks

For rare or not, I will never forget

how very deadly, the subtle,

Inexplicable mood manglers

Can be …

A pall of intense despair

Washes over me, and like Sylvia

I wonder dully, what I am doing

What the point of it all is

And why … why … why

28

The Back Way

Behind the place where we live

There is a path that appears to lead

Nowhere, but, if you follow it far enough

It is a shortcut to everywhere

We like to go … how about that?

27

The Art of Money

Waiting in line to pay for incidentals

I have time – there is often extra time here –

To study my Euros, and for the first time

I really do, and notice how truly beautiful

They are; each denomination a different

Carefully wrought work of art

26

No Cimiteros?

I like the quiet of cemeteries for writing

Or just sitting quietly to meditate

And I have been searching for one

Since my arrival almost five weeks ago

What do they do with their dead, I wonder?

25

Potenza’s Moving Stairs

I had hoped they would be

One long, uninterrupted

Escalator – of course,

That would have made

Them over two miles long …

Still – imagine building a city

On such a steep incline

The need for ten or twelve

Escalators becomes paramount

24

A Shipping Snafu

Unbelievably, equipment

Needed for my husband

To fulfill his task on this

Academic exercise

Has been held up in customs

The entire time we have been

Here and now, it seems

Will not arrive here, ever

Still – we are in southern

Italy and have already been

Invited back for next year

I’d say our cloud has

A sterling lining …

23

Same Tune, Different Day

That’s the thing with addictions

Once you let yourself

Have a taste of whatever it is

You’ve been lusting after …

So you and I were out at dusk

Again and this time, after the Ave

I let Calon Lon wash over me

Knowing full-well I could

Drop a Welshman to his knees

Were I to play the tune aloud

(It’s been known to happen

at weddings …)

Then, with abandonment

Likely deemed inappropriate

In one of my advanced —

Maturity—danced home to

Free Your Mind – blessing

My good fortune angel-child

That you are in my life.

21

Out at the Dig

Last night we drove out

so I could see the dig—

I had never been inside the gate—

The sun was melting behind

Il Vulture, and shepherds

were bringing a huge flock

of goats up the road …

Stepping over crypts,

The apse, room after room -

Felt surreal, as if the past

Crouched just there ---

Behind a veil.

20

Good Night Moon, and Good Night Little One

The child in the hall is three years old

His bones and teeth tell his age

That precisely; I find I want

To tell him so many things

All of them irrelevant, of course

But three year olds are babies still …

And he just seems so damned young.

19

Honouring Esther*

One of the osteo experts

Is frantic to put her

Somewhere while the group

Are partying hearty

It’s Friday night

After a particularly

Grueling week after all

But she is 2500 years fragile—

Would we be creeped out,

He wonders, if she were

To overnight in our room –

I tell him, not in the least

Secretly thrilled

She’ll be in our care

*archaeologists name everything, from equipment to cars to, of course, skeletons – when first this one was found, there was no way to tell the sex, so the students named it “Mr. Garrison” after a transgendered person on the TV show South Park, I believe. However when they discovered the foetus and the other unmistakable indicators that this was a woman, I found myself thinking of her as “Esther” – I have no idea why, but it just seemed me and so Esther she is.

Day 16

Another Landmark Arriving

One month from today

Terr turns sixty-five …

That man I love more than life

It seems impossible we are old

He has put off retirement

Until Christmas – a sound

Financial decision, it seems

But I feel his dread and wish

I could help soften this change.

Day 15

Italy, You Go Too Quickly Past

One slim month from today

And silvered wings

Will carry us over the ocean

And home to our loved ones

I look forward to that, I do

But hate to leave this new love

Italy, ah Italy – you inspire me.

Day 13

Fortunato’s Castle

The library, I am looking

For the public library—

But no-one seems to understand

And I end up at Palazzo Fortunato

Where sure enough

There is a “Biblioteca Comunale”

And,  there are thousands

Of books, in every language

Save Englais  – or so it seems

But the place is fascinating

And the mistress of the books

Insists on showing me

The whole palace …

Magnifico

Day 12

Rionero Turns Two Hundred

It’s their bicentennial they enthuse

When I try to discover

Why fireworks go off

Almost every single night

day 10

Reverence for the Ancient


They come back year after year
From all over the planet
To work, gratis, on this dig
Taking earth away
Layer by painstaking layer
Eager to discover in what was
What is, what will be.

Day 9

Rionero’s Church Bells

Waiting to be fetched

From the train stazione

We are blessed

By a church nearby

Not only do the bells

Chime – a regular

Occurrence here

They peal an actual

Tune …

Day 8

I Think I Can, I Think I Can


A two-car train strains
To make the mountain;
I feel surreally isolated
As if in a scene from
“Out of Africa”
And the words,
“I had a farm in Rionero”
Flit, unbidden to my mind

Day 7

First Impressions of Basilicata

They said the south is different
You won’t like it as well
As Toscana, or Firenze say;
It’s a much poorer region
And the people are unfriendly
No-one speaks English
And the countryside’s just
Not pretty; it’s plain ugly.
They were wrong.