14
At the root of the furious horserace in Siena
beneath the rivalry and vanity of the riders
lurks a phantom river (long-desired) -
clear civic fountain (figure of Diana).
Longing for water, water of long
memory - when the painted wood
of the account books of the Nine
wed justice and proportion (prong
of mercurial fire the silver starting
line, the finish line). The Sienese
were happy children - olive tree
shoots of equity (Time, departing,
grows crystalline) - and the phantom
spring, trembling on lips (the word
begins in J and ends in ice)... guardian
angels ward us from that infant kingdom
(leafy, lofty). Too simple to express.
A Virgin Mary in a catamaran
hoisted over the Campo is the sign
of our homesickness here - where the race
is won by one slow-witted yearning boy.
He cries, your moon-face is the lowest,
nearest star in my poor sky, dearest -
unforgettable horse chestnut tree...
Immovable on the steep slope of the Terrace
in the shadow of the founder's finding arm
the shape of my desire takes form : swift
limbs that waver in their signal place.
15
Sweet star that wavers in its signal place
on the brow of the hill of everlasting Providence
with your trains of candles - flowery iridescence
bowed like pilgrims on a mountainside. A race
won by the meandering mule. You led me here
with a low sound, equable and everywhere -
a wave-vibration, b-flat, basso profondo (Air
for Water Sprites Y-Cleft through Fire).
It semaphores through squares of Martian
saucer-shapes (some Greek discussion
with an Arab sheik, sans percussion -
syncopated Sanskrit, maybe) - quaternion
of green and lucky plans, a seedling nation
in a merry spiral (cartoon) carton flipped
o'er the Rhody gam, where Rachel shipped
him Ishmael - blasted son of all creation!
7 x 7 is the square of your returning
whorl. Out of one equal sign (Saena Julia)
comes a reunion with yourself (my ME) -
the lovely ring tin tin of faithful perning
gyroscopes (Antikythera kissers) - gaiety's
font of fatherly, cardinal car-alarms.
His hand floats like a levitating snake-
charmer's fire-breathing peripeteia
over the emblematic city - casual sign
of heartfelt causality - your father's
father's father's little tree. Crusaders,
martyrs... pioneers, pilgrims... everyone.
7. 07. 07
7.07.2007
More dangerous burbling from Henry World (Fontegaia) :
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