Poetry Rules

Sometimes I think I should write a poetical tour of Rome, and get it published. So many poets have fallen prey to the beauty of Rome over time and it would be nice to walk in their footsteps. Many foreign poets have left an indelible mark in our city and many Italian poets should be celebrated too. Let's check a few places. Keats and Shelley's House This is the house where Keats lived his last months and where he died on February 23rd, 1821. You can visit the room where he died, and enjoy the many relics the museum holds. There are locks of hair of Keats, Shelley and Bryon, handwritten letters and poems (a fragment of "Lamia" that always brings tears to my eyes), funerary masks and one of the most beautiful views of the Spanish Steps. This place is steeped in history and walking in Keats's very footsteps is quite moving. Keats and Shelley's House (1st building on the right) The Non-Catholic Cemetery (or, Protestant Cemetery) Close to the only s...

It was almost two years that I had not seen Jack . He was in Rome in  May 2012 for a couple of readings at the Circolo degli Artisti and at Chiccen. So, it was really a joy to spend a few hours with him last night. There are a few people I think I know as well as Jack. Writing his bio this is almost inevitable, but every time we meet  we end up chatting about us and about his life. He brought some great news from San Francisco. It looks like Ferlinghetti 's biographer has managed to ask the great icon of the Beats the questions I wanted to ask him regarding Jack. I am indeed on cloud 9 for this. Last night's reading was simply great. Jack was at his best and read some new poems too. "The Chaplin Arcane" was a pleasant surprise. And, he also read some of my favorite poems such as "Winter Solstice." He was accompanied by a great jazz orchestra, the TJO (Terni Jazz Orchestra) and the poetry and jazz interaction was simply great. I truly loved " Mother...

I headed to see Frida Kahlo 's exhibit , today. It's not the first time I see her works "live." The first time was over 15 years ago. Just a few months before that exhibit, I remember walking into a bookstore and being attracted by a cover depicting a woman with a split open body showing a crumbling column and with her body pierced by nails. It was love at  first sight. From that moment onward I have read truly extensively about her life and art. Her first exhibition in Rome boasted "Las dos Fridas," (The Two Fridas), one of her paintings I love most, but today's exhibit had an item that truly moved me: one of Frida's plaster corsets. Her art is always amazing to me. It's not about "Beauty," but it's rather about Feelings: it's about Anguish, Love and Strength. I wasn't allowed to take pictures, but here below you may check some of the beauties I saw today.  

Spring at the Protestant Cemetery of Rome makes even gray days seem brighter and the location more inspiring. Keats' tomb is covered with violets and lovely, yellow narcissuses adorn Percy Bysshe's tomb, making the place even more dear to me. If possible!

Back from the Keats-Shelley House. I have been there so many times and yet that place always speaks to me in powerful ways. Two items in particular captured my attention. The sketch of Keats reading--from a notepad by Severn--is simply moving. He seems so busy and so pensive: a lonely star in a desolate world. In the main room, a small green urn containing a fragment of Shelley's jaw made me wish we could still hear the poet utter some of his words to us.