LANGUAGE SPRINKLE SERIES ...ITALIAN
Derrick has been eating pasta all week for his Italian preparation. I have been thinking of Italy and Italians friends ( sadly one has died this year) and writing this has released a whole lot of memories that have been submerged for a very long time. Looking forward to your poems.
Ciao
Rall
If you have written chunks of Italiano please provide translations. I know this is early but am busy tomorow. Besides, it is Wednesday midnight here down under at the bottom of the world.
All this has made me want to go to Italy. How about you?
LA DOLCE VITA
( For Gianni who painted vivid colours on a very bland landscape. You are missed. )
Sophia che bella
a tasty mozzarella
Marcello che bello
a dashing lothario
but not more so than
a bellissimo banker named
Gianni
a connoisseur of panache and Armani
zipping about in his smart Alfa Spyder
to Julio Iglesias looking like a cross
between the Pink Panther
and an olive brown preying mantis
Lives in a penthouse filled with
etruscan sculpture and arum lilies
to remind him of home
Serves strozzapretti and egyptian eggs
to straight city bankers
for Sunday brunch
wearing skimpy black speedos
because he can
Dresses like il Papa
and arrives at a party
with a South American Band
as a birthday surprise
Drinks crates of champagne
has girlfriends galore
(no marriage for sure)
Steals sprigs of fresh rosemary
from the memorial garden
for his torta tarantina
Kneels in prayer and beseeches
the Madonna when Italy is losing
the soccer and never forgetting the
deep warmth of his origins
will bring minestra d'orzo and flowers
when you have the flu and invite your
conservative great Aunt to lunch
presenting her with a huge pair of pink
animal print fluffy slippers
(as a joke)
My rainbow would be missing half its colours
if I had never known you
Continuare a Ballare Amore Mio
A lovely tribute, Rall, full of life, love and mischief just like Gianni I imagine.
ReplyDeleteThank you Derrick.Yes, just like Gianni and more so. It all went so quickly.
ReplyDeleteContinuare a Ballare Amore Mio
ReplyDeleteKeep on Dancing Darling!
Gianni sounds like a very special man indeed. The world could use more like him.
ReplyDeleteI got off to an early start too, and fell into a reflexive mood:
The voices in my head speak with perfect accents
Dancing with the angels, no doubt - Rest in peace Gianni.
ReplyDeleteHer's one Italian POW
Hard to lose friends and loved ones. I had to attend 3 funerals this week. I feel drained. Dying is hard on the living. Your poem, LA DOLCE VITA, is just what I needed tonight, Rall, and reminds me just the tiniest bit of my little poem!!!
ReplyDeleteoh, this is beautiful.
ReplyDeletethis, ah! --
My rainbow would be missing half its colours
if I had never known you
Continuare a Ballare Amore Mio
I had enough of sad this week with all the oil spill mess, so I went shopping.
http://another2doors.wordpress.com/2010/06/15/so-rall-wants-an-italian-sprinkle/
Rall it is heartbreaking to lose a loved one and you have written a loving and lovely tribute to Gianni.
ReplyDeleteHe must of been quite a man.
I have written my very first Italian sonnet for the occasion (and probably my last)
Thanks for a great prompt!
Pamela
Sounds like a wonderful person to have known. Not just animal print, not just pink.
ReplyDeleteI don't know all that much Italian, but I played. your face: my dreams
Rall, this is a lovely tribute. I should like this line on my tombstone: "My rainbow would be missing half its colours if I had never known you."
ReplyDeleteOK, here I am back with my offering:
ReplyDeletehttp://melrosemusings.blogspot.com/2010/06/lei-parla-litaliano-pow-prompt-7.html
Oh, and I almost forgot this poem that I wrote last year!
ReplyDeletehttp://melrosemusings.blogspot.com/2009/06/neptune.html
Grazie Francis for you lovely thoughts.
ReplyDeleteYou too, Angie and Stanski.
Not a good week Marianne. Glad my poem was a little light in a dark week for you. Hugs.
ReplyDeletePamela and Barbara thank you for your sweet comments. Gianni would have been thrilled about his poem (of course he would have insisted on some additional attributes ) and
ReplyDeletetaken us out for a slap up lunch. He was really a very funny,generous and wonderful person.
Thank you Vivienne. I would be happy for you to use this inscription on your head stone. Hopefully it will be in the far distant future.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful tribute to your friend...technically, you did an ridiculously great job of weaving in that Italian. Created a great flow.
ReplyDelete- Dina
Here's mine: http://mypoeticlicense.wordpress.com/2010/06/15/we-will-meet-again/
I've posted some photos to go with my Florence Remembered sonnet: http://vivinfrance.wordpress.com
ReplyDeleteI stumbled over the Italian in the beginning like I was struggling up some stairs with some very high heels. But, once I entered that ever-expanding room filled with Gianni (starting with the Armani), I forgot about my inadequacies (in the crossroads of Italian language and my brain) and soaked him into my skin. What a wonderful tribute, Rall. I could feel your heart in this piece.
ReplyDeleteI wrote a sonnet this week, and I forgot to include the word, "arse." Maybe next week. =)
http://lindagoin.com/2010/sotto-voce-strange-whispers.html
Ah, Linda. A little ray of sunshine in a gloomy week. I would have thought the Fellini pic would have been an inspiration!
ReplyDeleteClickety clickety clack
Linda races up the track
A blaze in high heels
The crowd roars and reels
Her arse like a beacon
Fluorescent in the night
Causes the other runners in the race
To fall down in fright
http://jdmackenzie.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteI have been a silly billy and put my poem in the wrong spot!
Rall,
ReplyDeletegreat catch, this is what happens when we rush and try to balance work and poetry at the same time. I owe you one, big time...
Here in Tuscany
http://jdmackenzie.blogspot.com/
The images this week bring back a lot of memories!
Ah, at last,someone commented on the images... I tried to recreate Italia of my youth.Take it easy Black Douglas Boy and as we say down under
ReplyDelete'keep yourself nice!'
LOL -- Rall, you are a delight. Fellini felt promising, but it proved too soft for my hard edge this week. =) I promise to find a place to put your arse in the coming weeks.
ReplyDeleteAND NOW FOR SOME IAMBIC PENTAMETER PRACTICE.
ReplyDeleteCARRY THIS ON
Ten syllables
da Dum da Dum da Dum da Dum da Dum
I Flipped and Flopped and Flound-ered Round the Rocks
Iambic Pentameter practice
ReplyDeleteTakamaka 1993: a true story
I flipped and flopped and loundered round the
rocks,
exhausted from the fight against the pull
of tide and current in this tropic sea
whose waves have crossed ten thousand ocean
miles.
To dive at Taka Maka - bad idea.
This beach is not a place for you and me.
Exquisite scene, illusory peace and calm,
hides a rip that flows out of the bay.
My air low, I surface, discover my situation
rocked by the swell, the beach too far to
reach.
Hand up in distress, I sign ‘help’ to my buddy.
He spots me at once. He calls out ‘hang in
there’
and the strong young Aussie swims to my aid.
He dumps me by the rocks which hug the bay
and turns to go back for others, further away.
I flipped and flopped and floundered round the
rocks,
exhausted from the fight against the pull
of tide and current in this tropic sea
whose waves have crossed two thousand ocean
miles,
delighted to be safe on land again.
Sorry, I couldn't make the layout stick.
But sadly I forgot to thank the man
ReplyDeleteWho saved my life big Bruce with lovely tan
I harboured fear of Aussies all along
They drink cold beer and come on far too strong
She said 'dear Bruce your garb is all too brief
ReplyDeleteThose awful speedos do enhance your cheeks'
Sadly I reject his base intentions
ReplyDeletebecause I am already shackled tightly.
A marriage of long standing was made rightly
much too good to break upon a whim
just for buttocks built so very tightly
although I must confess I fancy him.
And now her diving days are at an end
ReplyDeleteShe's back to making quilts and sewing hems
But sometimes late at night with whisper'd sigh
She thinks of Bruce's strong and ripper thighs
Italian - it's like spoken music. Lovely.
ReplyDeletehttp://thelaughinghousewife.wordpress.com
That was fun Viv! We must do another one sometime and see how long we can keep it going.
ReplyDeleteHow about trying a Renga, with others joining in? I read of one with 90 odd stanzas from 6 poets! I have tried it before, but it got very silly after a bit.
ReplyDeleteIf you organise a Renga over at your site I will join in .Quite honestly I am not too keen on haiku tanka etc. I am in a Shakespearean,rhyming couplet mood at the moment.Must be the weather!
ReplyDeleteJust seen this, Rall. I think I'll give it a miss. Like you I'm thinking - even dreaming - in iambic pentameter. It's like hearing one of those irritating songs that go round and round in your head and can't get rid of! I'm trying to prepare for a workshop next week with a modern poet. There's no way I'm taking feeble sonnets as work-in-progress!
ReplyDelete