Best La Dolce Vita Poems
The Great Beauty
by Odin Roark
How short lived
This laughter made for releasing
Buried in the tragedian
Locked in the universal clown costume
We
You and me
We might watch Fellini’s balloons part
But the message of La Dolce Vita
Has faded into paparazzi history
Or perhaps
Never was
But
Taking up the Master’s baton
Paolo Sorrentino runs like a gazelle
His Great Beauty
Revisiting the question
A man lent to us
Provides a moment
Where one’s man for the ages
For our lifetime
A sufferer for both woman and man
Torn between the paternal instinct
And imagined freedom…
Becomes alone
Yet all-embracing
Such a price
We might say
Italy’s microcosmic decline
Man’s countenance on trial
His worth awaiting
A Christie's auction
Everything with its levy
Yet
What price the good life?
The good life seldom realized?
The kind lived
Then rebuked in
The Great Beauty?
Oh to seek
The unanswerable
Not the self-cocooning
Of “I know”
And the peace of inner-nothingness
Sublime’s secret
Like Sorrentino’s protagonist
We all live in bubbles
The question is about choice
Your bubble
Or
Mine?
Re-live the nineteen-sixties? Don't! We all
imagine mop-tops, surf, free love and sun,
conveniently forgetting Watts, De Gaulle,
the Tet Offensive, Audrey Hepburn's nun.
Imagine! Mop-tops, surf, free love - and sun!
Transistor radios, Italian suits!
The Tet Offensive? Audrey Hepburn? None
of those can overshadow kinky boots!
Transistor radios. Italian suits
the spirit of the age - la dolce vita!
No woes can overshadow kinky boots,
The Fugitive, short skirts, the parking meter!
The spirit of the age! La dolce vita!
Your Normal Joe thinks former times were "swell":
The Fugitive, short skirts, the parking meter!
To get to know Uhura, really well!
Your Normal Joe thinks former times were "swell".
He wants to join the Enterprise's crew,
to get to know Uhura really well,
and satisfy that inner yearning, too.
He wants to join the Enterprise's crew,
conveniently forgetting Watts, De Gaulle,
and satisfy that inner yearning to
re-live the nineteen-sixties. Don't we all?
I'd like to get some
paper from Amalfi, Italy
That's one of my dreams
To return to the Amalfi Coast
maybe stay
some time in Positano
Live La Dolce Vita
Pick up a journal,
some paper
which they are famous for
and maybe
pen a few poems
while I'm there.
It's on my bucket list
and I think it's going
to become a reality
in the next year or two
It's one of the most
beautiful places on earth
(if not the most)
and it is truly
heaven on earth.
A bon vivant lyfestyle
of the Bohemians de Paris,
has always saddened and deluded me...
by seeing it in someone's happy smile.
Mademoiselles and jeunne hommes,
exchanging artistic and poetical ideas
at the Cafe' de Flore, or at the Les Deux Magots...
with coffee aroma on their breaths.
Living in legendary and vibrant Hollywood
is an honor to be seen with the admired and respected wealthy;
and whoever struggles, can't keep up with any of them...
whose only desire is the glitter of money.
And steadily dreaming of a bon vivant lifestyle with an aloft
imagination, I let this want often disrupt my peaceful sleep...
not being able to accumulate, quickly enough,
fortunes and stand on that pedestal of greed.
So snap out of fantasy and don't peruse into La Dolce Vita
of Hollywood! Stay away from those extravagant fashion shows!
And at the Cannes, Capri or Venice Film Festival, avoid contact with movie stars,
stare at them from far...they are as contagious as influenza.
Copyright 2009 by Andrew Crisci
La Dolce Vita Part One
How sweet life is, indeed!
The air we breathe, our nightly rest.
Think back about your very first
steps.
You played games outdoors with
your nose not stuck to a screen.
You romped in the woods ever so
merrily.
Days of conviviality with no fear.
Just endless days and nights
with parents and friends, we held
so very dear.
Life was just beginning for us.
Most of us went to Church and
learned who created the Universe.
We learned the Ten Commandments
that applied to men and women...
one and all.
Our countries stood tall and
proud. We loved our countries
proud of its flag and song.
Leaders were respected not
humiliated or the butt of jokes.
Times horribly transformed..
When God was shown the door
and our country and leaders
we abhor.
The New Bible is the deceitful and
devilish fourth estate,
That has made us hate each other
without reason or debate.
The time has come my friends
To get a grip, return to reality.
Love all and create a new world,
That is ours and for those yet to be.
June 10, 2019
4:30pm PST
Life of the holy man, sequestered, unnatural
A fancy hat atop his red gown for his alleluia…
Down on the lowly branches lands a red bird
On natural wild wings he sings a mating woo
Loved for his striking feathers, he’ll fare well
Colors of precious blood, make him a mystic
Earning him spiritual powers so pagan-native…
Vying hardest is that cultivated flower of luv
In petal form perfected long before the magi
The original scented pinks lost to red pursuit
A root’s kumbaya unheard as her thorny plea…
(12/30/22 For ‘the cardinal and the rose’ contest)
Bride me rainbow brite
groom your peacemeal pains
La Dolce Vita?
Time is money
As he locked the door, a palm came open
waiting for dues to be paid.
How many hours, days, weeks can you pay your wage?
So is the length of your life.
Thirty-five citizens of a town called La Dolce Vita
And closeted-in, they gave their worth
to breathe air once again.
Time is money
but living is far more.
when things are going well
seems writing is boring as hell
do you truly care to read
when there is not great need
why does gloom
carve out so much more room
so to force myself to write
I draw an angel card every night
within that tiny deck
find much opportunity to reflect
share a thought or two
tricks to kick being blue
kissed more than a few toads
been down too many tough roads
grateful for my life today
thrilled to be able to say
always love a good reminder
la dolce vita & I could be kinder
'bout half way through the deck
different way to keep in check
discernment concerning time
best spent making a rhyme
My country, it is not the sweet Portugal
AND yet I love Fado, the wine of the Douro,
My country is not beautiful Italy, nor Rome,
And yet I love Naples, Palermo, and Florence,
It’s not Haiti or Salvador de Bahia,
It’s the Dolce Vita and Eight and a half, in black and white,
I like all the films by Fellini or Antonioni,
My country, it is not the illustrious talkative France
AND yet I like Jurançon and Monbazillac,
I like beef bourguignon and duck with orange,
My country, it’s not California, or Utah,
AND yet I like Monument Valley, Hollywood Boulevard,
I love the Grand Canyon and Los Angeles at night,
My country, it is not so political Turkey,
But I love Istanbul and sleepy Cappadocia,
It’s the Dolce Vita and Eight and a half, in black and white,
My country is the cinema, it’s the privileged place
Where will the train stop from your indolent and black eyes,
It is beyond, the bridge of lascivious embraces, the bridge of the Iroise
It’s the country I like when you play for me alone, O my action.
NB La Dolce Vita and eight and a half, are two masterpieces by Fellini.