pompeian figures
DESCRIPTION
A sequence from the poet's samuddo/ocean project, set in CampaniaTRANSCRIPT
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pompeian figures
John Martone
samuddo / ocean2016
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pompeian figurescopyright © 2016 by John Martone
samuddo / oceanisbn: [email protected]
link for a print copy of this book
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pompeian figures
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autumn — I wind scarf halfway around the world
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at cumae the afterlife a photograph
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avernus
people with gardens — there’s nothing to living right above hades
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I build a stone wall for the sun to knock down
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for the gardener in autumn a book about ruins
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night deepens a table of irregular verbs
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everyone comes to paint this bayeveryone dies
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scugnizzi in sight of vesuvius — parallel play
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presepe
living underground he builds nativity scenes — the straw is straw
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understanding the language at last you come to a pawnshop
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big winter coat talks to himself they come for him
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the old men playing bocce you doze off
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you speak differently after vesuvius
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that camouflaged lizard on vesuvius imprinted in you
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a handful of pebblesfrom vesuvius sinceyou can’t say a thing
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a human shape you pocket a root on vesuvius
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coins for that woman huddled on a church step outside pompeii
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at pompeii
you’ve lain on your side curled-up like him in the ash
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no one looking modern pick-&-shovel man lifts a roman stone
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a cameo master cuts into shell at pompeii we all fit in
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that married couple from pompeii — they see through you and write it down
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at paestum
unearthed the diver’s sarcophagus forever now floating in space
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2000 years — a curved stone bench — remember — or not — be seated
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hera — this pomegranate’s a handful of myth
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cutting into this pomegranate under the pines look who’s home
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the pomegranate cut open — everyone is nameless
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so much life — at 85 knocking olives from his grandfather’s trees
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knocking down olives sleeves rolled up — no wedding ring no wristwatch
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forgetting to change your shoes you take the shovel go out in good ones
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standing before this three-century olive tree you copy it
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bright day a cloth for this table
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massa lubrense
a place to drink & smoke above the boatsbelow the mountains
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for this wool cap & this pecorino —thanks
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come to the sea after the ruins — a doric squall
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those blue glass globes for fishing nets — back then floats up
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dozen names on a mountain path mailbox word enough
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the curved wall follows a narrow via somewhere you squeeze through
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shoulder-wideeye-shape cave —a shrine!
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in this narrow street an ancient lamp ripens at last
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stone on stone on stone I feel at home
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that dialect — behind white walls silence
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those dark windows in cliffside stone houses how everything fits
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there’s a plastic basket of wooden clothespins on the stone sill
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you change the sheets as if this were some distant land
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old age sickness death — stone houses float from these cliffs shutters flung open
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lemon trees below your balcony that mandala
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after pneumonia sore ribs go for a stroll in the garden
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childhood prayer
“holy mary mother of god” inside you
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water buffalo looks at me who can’t explain
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a maritime pine leans from a cliff edge — shade plummeting —
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in that dream you hear waves crash below — you’ve got a brass whistle
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rain in campania — tonight you almost make out the words
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so many goodbyes nowthe rain stops
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after that rain the eaves keep dripping the pine holds on
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villa on the bay — impressionist trees & sky — you can’t read his name
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giacinto’s canvas — the back of your eye — those flecks of white light are sails
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sketching that boat the pencil’s angle a lateen spar
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roman terra cotta ground to powderhis pigment
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a watercolor bay on the innermost wall the bay below
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crushed olive leaf to paint a watercolor olive tree
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the wind gets into the pines you didn’t know the god took such space
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when the wind lets up those pines still bend — form gone in & you take root
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the jade plant’s a succulent you sketch it
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all that light — the fig tree leafs out in an old man’s room
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time-lapse — you take a day to watch this fig leaf open
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nets for olives & fishnets from small boats mending this world
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pine nuts numbers are mystical
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winter sun on the table breakfast
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human life a little bit divinea little while
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naples, castel nuovo
you find what you came for giotto’s fisherman mends his net
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roofs bright with frost — water put on to boil — a verse from shakyamuni
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sanctus andreas, amalfi
this vertigo — saints in every direction — you kneel before X
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up 9 stone steps — wrought-iron gate & potted plant this century
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madonna dell’idria
o girl carved of wood& wooden child — all one tree —a bell keeps tolling
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