after a 9 hour flight from Rome, after being away for about 3 weeks, with Dante smoothing my way through the dreaded gates of INS at the airport. While I will miss (and recall) the Mediterranean azures (apart from days in Rome and Florence, the communion with the sea was continuous), it feels good to be back to a cloudy Jersey spring day.

And before I forget, my favorite art moment from this Italian sojourn (remembering Italy bleeds art): the discovery and the conquest of breathing by Caravaggio's "The Calling of Saint Matthew"¹ - this, after randomly walking into a church in Rome to rest tired feet for a bit before continuing on to the Pantheon, and discovering this painting (along with two other masterpieces) hanging in an innocuous alcove! I have, since then, been haunted by that extended hand of Signor Jesu.


[1] For more detailed description of the painting look here


Travel Notes

Somewhere in the Austrian Alps


Travel Notes

Dawn’s faint breath
breathes with your mouth
at the ends of empty streets.
Gray light your eyes,
sweet drops of dawn
on dark hills.
Your steps and breath
like the wind of dawn
smother houses.
The city shudders,
Stones exhale—
you are life, an awakening.

Star lost
in the light of dawn,
trill of the breeze,
warmth, breath—
the night is done.

You are light and morning.

*original title by Pavese in English, written for his lover, the American actress Constance Dowling


Notes: As I looked out into the foggy vistas, here - somewhere in the Austrian Alps - my mind went back to this poem


Big Book Of Poetry