I’ll Tell You Where To Come
In case we never meet because
we’re cowards or I die before you,
I’ll tell you where to come
to find me still.
Come one sunny day when
you can see the mountains clearly
from the Lido.
Take the vaporetto from San Marco.
Acknowledge my old friend Salute
as you pass.
Come to San Giorgio – as did the Doge –
water laps the landing.
Climb the steps,
take the lift beneath the campanile.
Stand and wait.
At noon, around the basin, church bells toll in turn.
Then you’ll find me hovering here
gazing at this wondrous jewelled city-sea,
phantasizing incessantly of you.
When you’ve held my hand a while, slip silently away
in case I command you “Stay forever!”
When you reach the Piazzetta you’ll see gondolas
genuflect in the water,
the Ferros toss back the moonlight to you.
Glance back at the
crocodile column in case I linger there
reading the Cantos, trying to understand all of
Ezra Loomis Pound.
Copyright ©: B K Gooch, 2009.
Barry Kent Gooch, Words, First Poems, edited by G Hare, Leiston Press, 2009,
137 pages, ISBN 978-0-9562896-0-5, price £10.95 :
Availability:
Waterstones Ipswich, 15 Butter Market, Ipswich, IP1 1BQ, United Kingdom, tel. 01473 289 044
and by contacting editor
For permission to publish this or any of the poems please contact the editor above.
Last updated 30th December 2011 by Geoff Hare