Long Francesco Poems

Two, perhaps three miles out to sea, beyond the reef to Zapatillas,
Bocas’ dual sand-edged footprint jewels with jungle centre trees, 
Francesco’s outboard boat heads out to Caribbean’s deeper blue.

Where sun burns softer gringo skin, but...

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a wealthy young man ,son of a cloth merchant man!
handsome deep brown eyes and dark brown hair!
singing sweet melodies breathing fresh air!
young and free rich as can be!
living the pleasures of life,
a bachelor not owning...

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Right now, are you feeling unsatisfied
with whatever you have in possessions?
Always feel stressed, some sort of depression
for not having what's desired, to be pride.

Feel of insufficiency kills inside
pushes hard jealousy, raze, obsession
makes one tired hankering...

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"The Wanton Rapture Blazing"

I hear you in the ribbons that sing
tied to poles of gallantry where charged
with acts of misadventure love carried me
to your walls, I wrote on them then, as I do now
to trace...

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Venice, the daughter of the sea
Winding paths, waterways or cobblestones roads
Rulers of the renaissance, noblemen would be
Her navy full of conquests, her triumphs all would see

From nobility rose, a woman fair
Her life a whirlwind, with...

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 'Roses from all nations scintillate in complete harmony'   

A Rose by any other Name - by Maria Williams

ROSE OF SHARON

Voyage of repatriated petals, dipped in silver and gold,
continental drifting through coagulating clouds...

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The sun on this September afternoon
is not quite what it might have been in June,
but hot enough. My barman’s chatting on,
while somewhere, some lopsided carillon
is clanging tunelessly. I’m in the square
of San Francesco in Arezzo,...

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If you've ever seen Ca' Rezzonico 
seeming quite to float 
upon the Grand Canal 
as you bob in a boat, 

or if you've ever eavesdropped 
in some Trastevere alley 
some golden afternoon 
on some tenor's...

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Grandpa Francesco Proia,
from Caserta, Italia,
a clever stowaway 
in the bowels of the ship
bringing him to Ellis Island,
Feb. 4, 1905.
Gruff ways,
often snarling a guttural “Huh,”
a lack of English,
never-ending hand gestures,
made me fearful of him.
But awestruck I...

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fleetingly lost in the moment
 my finger tips barely touch you
though I'm enveloped
   contained
      wholly embraced
   the power to stop you in your tracks
but not hold...

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Brothers Giuliano and Lorenzo de Medici
were co-rulers of medieval Florence in Italy.
Giuliano was murdered by a rival family.
The assassins were from the family, Pazzi.
They were Francesco de Pazzi and Bernardo Baroncelli.
The infamous event took place...

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MONA LISA

For ten years his paint brushes danced to the motion
of his hands on a white Lombardy poplar panel,
creating inimitable effects with the image he created –
Yes! Of one Lisa Gherardini, wife of a nobleman,
Francesco...

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Tracing the silhouette of her 
hourglass shape, 
I think of succulent lemons,

those ripe citrus display
of  pure divinity 
just waiting to be peeled 
and deliberately savored...

I gaze upon those valleys, 
hills of flesh, wanting to...

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