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Poems - Piazza Navona

Piazza Navona

by pathos

Walking stoned paths underneath sore feet
As they weave their crooked ways
Through the city’s tired streets
Narrow passageways between stucco walls
Washed in shades of terracotta and ivy green
Parked cars on pavements incongruent
With the rest of the street scene
Mo-peds rudely push a way through
Lovers who have left no space between
A woman at her window above watches you
The street for her a kind of TV screen
Caught in a maze of twisting vias
Suddenly you’re tossed out into openness
You are standing in Piazza Navona.

Sculptures by Bernini bathe in water fountains
Cherubs and Grecian gods their alabaster skin bare
An obelisk taken from Egypt is cemented in
Around which a peddler peddles plastic souvenirs
And entertainers with tipping hats and coloured skin
Make of the atmosphere a carnival
Tourists study their Lonely Planet guides
Hoping to find something spiritual
The sun is streaming and making golden lines
On the black stones of Piazza Navona.

Step inside the church of Sant'Agnese
Its decorations displayed as if a gallery
Expecting admiration request for silence
Pathos in the paintings but no sign of pity
Under a gold-lined dome in every recess
The finding of another treasure trove
But of finding God your spirit captures less
Where the mosaic floor meets the marble steps
Sits bent like broken arches a begging leper
Shift your glance but not the guilt of a conscience
For the gilded gold inside never reaches her
And you wonder if this is nothing but a circus
Everyone playing a part in Piazza Navona.

Stone block palazzos encircle the square
Once private residences for aristocrats
When all the wealth congregated here
Today an Embassy for foreign diplomats
Renaissance art in fading frescoes
On the ceilings and walls remain
Finding out that when the money goes
You’re left with just an old paint stain
Wondering if anybody here knows
That the golden days are forever over
Is this not just a museum you suppose?
A museum they call Piazza Navona.

Hanging in the air on a liner heading for home
Thinking of gladiators and Michelangelo
Walking in their footsteps through the ruins of Rome
Wondering if the sun is still shining on Navona
What matters if the cross has fallen from the dome
Like the Pope’s fate to come my days in Rome are over
And I will never again see the sun and moon roam
On those black stones and fountains of Piazza Navona.

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"Piazza Navona" | Login/Create an Account | 3

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Re: Piazza Navona (Score: 1 )
by Michaelw1two on Sunday, October 30, 2011 (07:17:40)

Aloha Pathos... those black stones... I am curious the why of "I will never again see..." why the sadness cum anger? perhaps there is some detail not written herein? Please visit... all of the best from this life to you and all of your relations... Michael.

| Parent

Re: Piazza Navona (Score: 1 )
by Arsaces on Sunday, October 30, 2011 (12:19:55)

Another classic poem by Pathos! Hope you got to see more in Rome than the Piazza Navona. Good read. Arsaces

| Parent

Re: Piazza Navona (Score: 1 )
by Ozymandias on Monday, October 31, 2011 (00:00:14)

Part subjective, part objective.... works well!

| Parent

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