As many of you know, last month I took a course called “Poetry and Ekphrasis.” Ekphrasis is a big word that means “written interpretation of visual art.” So basically in class we wrote poems about or inspired by artwork. Orvieto has no lack of religious artwork to write about, and we used some of it for our poetry. It gets tiring writing about Mary and baby Jesus after a while, though, so we were also given the option of using a modern piece of art on occasion or writing about a piece of artwork created by the students in the drawing class. Our professor was the talented Julia Kasdorf from Pennsylvania State University. She’s a published poet and really knows her stuff. We wrote two poems each week for four weeks and at the end of the course chose five of our best or favorite poems to revise. Out of those five, we chose three poems from each student to include in a final anthology. I’m currently in the process of designing the book that we will then take to the printer. It won’t be anything fancy but it will be wonderful to have something to show for all of our hard work!

Since I’m sure nobody ever suspected that I was a poet (myself included), you’re probably curious to read what I’ve written. I’m a bit self-conscious about sharing my work but, as Julia said, artists have to be warriors so below I have bravely added one of my poems that will be in the anthology. It is based on the Genesis relief carvings on the facade of the Orvieto Duomo. The assignment was to write about an aspect of the Duomo facade, incorporating found text and/or pieces of conversations heard while sitting at the Duomo. Here’s the result.

Cain’s Legacy
 “And I here make a rule: a great and lasting story is about everyone or it will not last.” †

Bodies in marble,
Perpetually created
And forever cast out.
The offerings do not cease;
Abel never lives.

Outsiders pass,
Engrossed in conversation:
Only 4 euros. It’s a gift, you know.
 A torrent of words
That tell no story.

And, of course,
People are interested
Only in themselves.
If a story is not about the hearer
He will not listen.†

Adam and Eve are
Unable to react;
I better go intervene. She might waste it all.
 Eve’s inscrutable face
Does not betray her past.

I was created
Once, cast out
Since birth;
Constantly in motion
But never moving.

They come
With their cameras
To remember
What they cannot escape.
Cain never rests.

† Text from East of Eden by John Steinbeck

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