Subject: There is poetry in the very landscape.
Author:
Posted on: 2020-02-10 23:30:38 UTC
I'm not kidding - quite a few of the lines I used in the poems came unbidden during the flight or the taxi rides. The imagery of a green tide washing against the mountains was absolutely vivid. I wish I'd got a picture.
hS
(Cross-posted to Dreamwidth / Livejournal)
Mountains flow past beneath me, Knife-edged, snow-softened, Kirtled by winter-deadened trees.
Between them, dragons' breath Flows down deep-cut valleys, Mist like a river, riding the breeze.
Then sudden, a green tide Crashes upon the snowbound shore: The lowlands flow in like the seas.
The trees are different here: Painted with a broader brush, Soft green in the heart of winter, Lining the roads and long-forgotten ways.
Fans that wave to praise departed kings, And dark-leaved shadows surging up To strike as spears towards the sun; Or spreading, shieldlike, againsts its rays.
They have been shaped by older times, Sculpted by a thousand thousand days, Their rows and copses made holy by the years: Arboreal geometries of an ancient age.
The streets of Rome are paved with gold: The heir of oil and wick, actinic light Sparks amid three thousand years of stone.
Cast between the mountains and the sea A constellation, jewelled with time, Lets fall the day and rules the night.
I rise on wings of steel, but behind A cascade of crystal spread like stars: The City Eternal bids farewell.
So what is this? I went to Rome! Sort of. For various reasons, I actually spent about 24 hours in a hotel a short way west of Rome engaging in tedious meetings, plus a chunk of time at the airport. I never laid eyes on anything even remotely famous, and the best views I had were of fields from the back of a taxi.
But still: Rome! I found myself thinking in poetry at the moment we flew over the sharp divide between the Alps and lowland Italy, and it just kind of stuck.
More generally, this is Friday Blogging: my probably-doomed attempt to revive my long-form blogging skills and maybe entertain a few people along the way. Of course, once I tell anyone something will happen on a specific day, it almost immediately stops, so I've probably just shot myself in the foot here... anyway, I try to vary the content a fair bit, so this week, you get poetry.
hS
Sounds like all that Tolkien really paid off. And the images you did get are beautiful. Shame you didn't get to see the whole thing, but still, glad you enjoyed yourself!
Being compared to Tolkien is a real compliment. :) My poetry has often tended to the formulaic, beat-beat-beat-rhyme before, so I'm glad breaking out of that worked.
hS
Shame you didn't get to see more of the city itself, but hey—that's a poem for next time, eh?
The thing that most stuck in my mind, though, I don't think made it into the poems: while landing, I realised you could see the mountains from the seashore.
Okay, so you can do that in Wales, but in Rome those mountains had /snow/. I've never been anywhere you can see Winter from the beach. (Utah don't count; no, not even if the water is salty.)
hS
It's hard to get the opportunity to actually see the nifty place, because you have to spend most of your time on whatever people sent you there to do.
Still, those are some nice photos.
I've been sent to a few places, though this is the first in this job. Germany has always been 'small town in the middle of nowhere', but I /have/ strolled through Brussels a few times. Of course, the most interesting trip was probably the time I went to Lancaster and found the medieval castle which was converted into a modern prison; that was weird as anything.
Not as pretty, though. :)
hS
There were these narrow, pointed trees in particular which looked more like something painted by an artist than living things. The whole place could be a picture book (though /some/ of the trees were more Dr. Seuss...)
hS
Lovely pics, and equally lovely poetry! I've never been, myself, but it always looks so pretty.
I'm not kidding - quite a few of the lines I used in the poems came unbidden during the flight or the taxi rides. The imagery of a green tide washing against the mountains was absolutely vivid. I wish I'd got a picture.
hS
This is so beautiful! I'm sorry you couldn't see more of it. :(
Not going to lie, I was kind of disappointed when I realised the hotel didn't even have a /view/ of Rome itself. But at least the food was good. ^_^
hS