Monterosso al Mare, New Town

Cinque Terre, Liguria, Italy. This gorgeous detail by Dana of one of the "Five Lands"--five small fishing villages that cling to Italy's Mediterranean coast--communicates beautifully how residents of Monterosso al Mare (al mare means "by the sea") have lived hidden away for centuries, safe from pirates, bandits, fascists and to some extent, even modernity (tourists like us, excepted). The villages have always had access to the sea, but residents could quickly vanish upward, into the steep hills, whenever necessary. And they've maintained their traditions, bending geography to their will, growing grapes for wine and other produce on ridges that jut out from the cliff, establishing a national park on the land above with paths connecting the villages, and fishing their sea for more than ten generations. Since Rick Steves put Cinque Terre on the European tour map, the villages now thrive as holiday destinations, but in our experience, visitors are largely respectful of the residents, customs, and landscape, making the Five Lands a remarkable place to visit. Dana? She wants to retire here...next week!

Familiar Fires

Trembling
minds seek comfort
in the certainty
the clarity
of familiar fires,
instinctual, sheltered,
ritualistic and unaware

Heat without warmth
light without vision
creation without imagination

Ideas forged in
familiar fires
at 621 degrees Fahrenheit
melt into words
taking 24 hours
to harden fully in the mold

But keep liquids away
from molten words
or they can explode.

******

Words fired from greedy mouths,
barrels digitized, rationalized,
super-sized in high-definition,
increase in velocity
with recognition

Animation, incitation
stimulation incessant and mindless
wild choreography
mad improvisation

tearing
through the flesh
of a nation
leaving black wounds
infected and screaming,
deadly in their actuality
driving us mad
with grief
with rage

virtual truth murders an age

televised telepathy
dog whistle orchestration
ignorant
random
inevitable
produces such
devastating sorrow

and absolution
is sought
and granted
before the cost
of the sin
can be reckoned.

Gio Reads "Familiar Fires" on YouTube

Vienna Boys' Choir from Above

The famed Vienna Boys' Choir performs on the altar of the Hapsburg's Imperial Chapel at Hofburg Palace (begun 1447) in Wien, Austria. We attended Bruckner's Mass in D-Minor in June of 2010. We were seated in the front row of a side balcony, high above, which offered this unique perspective. The Choir is divided into four touring choirs of equal standing. They share the tours, appearances in Vienna and recording projects. Each choir has a choirmaster and two tutors who travel with the boys. The voices? Angelic.

Photograph by Dana Angotti-Novick

Savonarola

Putrid water
quenches a black thirst
secret visions
frustratingly human
invigorate and kill
defy His will
and endure millennia--

The ashes that rise
from the Holy flames
of Piazza Signoria
thrill our bones:

Vibrant oils of glorious myths
and beautiful heresies
proud sentences birthing naked ideas
that pose contraposto like David in the sunlight
without fear
without shame
mingle in embers above Firenze
with Savonarola the Devout
without fear
without shame
his bold flesh
frustratingly human
suffocated and burnt black

And our animation
our invigoration
our quickened breath
gives life to the fire
rising with the ash
above Firenze

Joining contentedly
in monastic silence
a knowing procession of life,
glorious myths and beautiful heresies
bold devotion and quickened breath
marching south along an ancient gray route
to cool in the mysterious Arno
before a familiar current carries them to sea.

Unpublished, 2010

Gio reads "Savonarola" on YouTube