2021-06-28 00:06
Love grows in the loneliest of places.
Like a weed that sprouts from a sidewalk crack,
It forces its way through the darkness to the light.
No matter how hard we try,
We cannot uproot… Read More
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Rosalind's Poetry Project Blog
rosalind.typepad.com
My goal in creating this blog is to publish poems that I have written over the course of my life and to allow poets from all over the world to read them, critique them, translate them into other languages and make them their own. Since I am American, most of my poems are written in English. However, some of them are written in Italian, the language that I adopted (and that adopted me) when I studied in Florence over 30 years ago.
2021-06-27 23:59
Sono la Rosa
Eccomi
Una donna di affari americana
Sola in una grande casa
Libri ovunque
Foto tantissime
Occhi chiusi per assaporare il silenzio
Una settimana di lavoro si fa sen… Read More
2021-06-27 23:57
Sotto le mascherine
Siamo tutti noi nascosti
Come i festaioli spensierati del Carnevale.
Ma non è Carnevale che festeggiamo oggi.
Solo gli occhi si vedono
Il naso… Read More
2020-08-14 19:51
Last night I swam in a pool in the middle of New York City.
I walked down the stairs of a factory building in TriBeCa
And stepped into a bright blue Roman bath for ninety minute… Read More
2020-08-07 01:16
The distance from my heart to yours
Seems so small that they seem to beat as one
And yet the ocean that divides us seems so large as to engulf eternity.
The last time that I fel… Read More
2020-07-19 18:24
Last night I ran out of my house for a glimpse of life and beauty.
Leases signed, my last two apartments rented,
I sprinted down West 4th Street as fast as I could go.
The High Line… Read More
2020-07-10 21:18
This year there will be no birthday party.
Too risky, I called it off.
Hard to keep guests six feet apart in a townhouse that’s only 18 feet wide.
Do the math.
No hu… Read More
2020-06-29 23:00
They call me the eye of the hurricane,
The calm before the storm.
With gentle winds and balmy skies,
I offer peace to travelers who’ve journeyed from afar,
A place to drop their… Read More
2020-06-19 12:09
Today I rode the subway
For the time since the lockdown,
Pulled the bright blue Metrocard from my wallet
And swiped it gingerly through the metal reader.
Go, the machine told me… Read More
2020-06-12 12:03
Every day begins the same way
With a jolt into consciousness
From an endless dream.
Sometimes I’m racing to the airport to catch a plane
But there are no taxis or th… Read More
2020-06-05 11:28
I never thought the little tree outside my house would leaf again.
It’s dead, I told my friend, as we walked by,
The hapless victim of a brutal New York winter.
Let’s call… Read More
2020-05-29 21:17
Going through old letters in a box this afternoon,
I came across a picture of my younger self on a couch with a college boyfriend.
There was something strange about seeing myself so y… Read More
2020-05-23 11:52
These days we all seem to be talking about our hair
As if it was the Seventies and we were back in high school starring in that musical.
Before Corona, getting your hair cut or colore… Read More
2020-05-21 12:48
Today I broke my quarantine,
Left my home and my cat
And my neighborhood —
The quiet and tranquil West Village —
That sheltered me from the viral storm
These past fe… Read More
2020-05-18 12:57
Sono tante le parolesono stanche le paroleviruscambio direzione cambio vocali gioco all’anagrammafinalmente un suono somigliante ma miglioreversoverso i tempi del ricordoverso la guari… Read More
2020-05-16 02:12
The night we met
The starry sky was filled with constellations —
A bull and a crab,
The twins, the archer and the scales on high —
And you and I transported
On a mag… Read More
2020-05-08 15:10
Today I broke my quarantine,
Left my home and my cat
And my neighborhood —
The quiet and tranquil West Village —
That sheltered me from the viral storm
These past fe… Read More
2020-05-01 22:13
On the other side of the mirror
You used to wait for me
As my train pulled into Santa Maria Novella station.
Tired and hungry but so happy to see you,
I would kiss your sw… Read More
2020-04-25 02:33
At the end of the day,
The Stoics got it right.
Amor fati.
Love your fate.
Don’t just bear it or accept it.
Embrace it. Savor it like a fine wine.
Anythi… Read More
2020-04-17 22:08
Alone in my house,
On a day that could have been my last,
A day of sickness and of death,
Of bodies piling up around the world on CNN,
A day that I, too, could have woken up feverish … Read More
2019-10-23 10:01
The world gets older by the day.
You know it, so do I.
It is the nature of all things
To be born, to blossom and to die.
Then why do we cling so dearly
To things we k… Read More
2019-10-23 09:53
Red lights at the end of the dock,
The current racing past.
Summer’s over,
The birds are packing up
And flying home.
And us?
Nothing remains but empty tables and cha… Read More
2019-08-31 11:26
(for Greta)
Maybe Today
Maybe today I’ll start my life again.
Maybe today I’ll go back home.
Seems like only yesterday
I headed down this road.
The fore… Read More
2019-01-26 14:02
O World of mine, how grand you are,
A blue-green beautiful eye,
Wobbling playfully on your axis
Like a marble in the sky.
Veiled behind a wall of ice,
I never saw your face,
Just sha… Read More
2019-01-26 14:00
Sometimes I feel I’ve got nothing left to say,
Like I should step in a boat and sail far, far away.
Like a veteran of too many wars,
I feel like I've seen it, seen it all before… Read More
2018-07-22 06:34
People say that love is a fragile thing that doesn't last.
I contend that love, while it lasts, is what keeps the Earth spinning on its axis Read More
2018-02-14 13:54
Non ho occhi che per te, ma tu non ci sei. Senza più il dono della vista, arranco sul proscenio della vita Cercando te, l'unica protagonista La stella che illumina… Read More
2018-01-09 16:06
Go the extra mile. That's what they teach you In school, In sports, On a hike at Girl Scout camp. Don't stop No matter how much Your feet hurt, No matter how tired, … Read More
2017-12-31 21:54
It was New Year's Eve, And Destiny showed up at my door. Non scherzo. Sul serio, era proprio lei. A middle-aged woman Wearing a bandana Carrying heavy bags of cleani… Read More
2017-12-31 21:54
It was New Year's Eve, And Destiny showed up at my door. Non scherzo. Sul serio, era proprio lei. A middle-aged woman Wearing a bandana Carrying heavy bags of cleani… Read More
2017-10-11 13:51
Lover,You slip through my fingersLike moonlight in water.You are so close that I can touch youAnd yet, when I reach for you,You slip away. Present yet absent,Your words set my heart abl… Read More
2017-10-03 20:50
Finita l'estate Con tanto bel sole Il vento sussurra. Di un'altro viaggio Qui alla stazione Ti aspetto. I treni urlano Con i loro merce I passeggeri arrivano E vanno via Oltr… Read More
2017-10-03 20:32
Your kiss melts my lips Like Chianti wine, The first drop so smooth And then the rest like candy Fills my mouth As your tongue so soft Dissolves in mine. Your kiss has no la… Read More
2017-10-03 20:15
Packing Unpacking Repacking Another day Another week Another year I've lost count Of the steps, the miles, the kilometers I've logged since leaving home. Eccomi qua (Here I am) In your ide… Read More
2017-08-22 23:54
Friends,
When you met me,
I was bleeding in the street
But you did not know that
Because I was standing smiling in the door to greet you.
Friends,
When you entered my home,
I w… Read More
2017-07-26 01:07
I put my loneliness aside.
I don't remember where I left it.
Like a red car in a parking lot,
I didn't think that I could ever lose it.
Flying home alone,
My skin still bu… Read More
2017-06-29 11:50
On a solitary road,
On a mountaintop,
On the raging seas,
I can't remember where we met
Or who you were --
My father, my teacher, my lover --
In the twisted journey of my life.
It was a mi… Read More
2017-06-25 22:03
How desperately I longed to see your face
I who am doing penance for unmasking you.
How could I have known that you were the young god of love
When they planted seeds of doubt in… Read More
2017-05-05 19:19
Do great poets feel the way we feel? Do they suffer, bleed and cry? Transcendent, almost godlike, They flutter upon the printed page with the grace of angels on felt-tipped wings, Metaphors… Read More
2017-04-27 16:38
Sometimes I wonder If posterity will decide That I spent too much time on my business And not enough writing poetry Or the other way around. Every day, I push rocks up a hill Only to find… Read More
2017-04-27 16:18
Negli ultimi giorni dell’Italia
Tutti danzavano
Pranzavano
Scherzavano
Non si preoccupavano
Se domani non sarebbe mai arrivato.
Io
L’unica americana
Fra di loro
Mi consideravo… Read More
2017-03-22 13:51
Under a different moon, We shone rebelliously, A pair of rough-edged diamonds Refusing to be polished smooth By life's conventions. It is Spring's first day, But the wind blows cold And t… Read More
2017-02-08 15:13
The winds have changed, And here I am alone On the other side of the ocean. The flames of passion That once burned in my heart Have turned to ashes. It is winter now and nothing grows… Read More
2016-12-29 01:16
2016-12-07 21:05
Rain, you bring life from the Earth,
Bread from the ground,
Yet you lash at my windows with your angry claws,
Ripping the joy from my heart.
In Cuba, your name is hurricane.
In China, you… Read More
2016-12-01 02:17
The morning after the election, You stepped up to the microphone stripped of your makeup, your hair pulled back, Your puffy eyes and turkey neck and sixty-nine years of wrinkles showing. An… Read More
2016-10-27 15:02
They told me If I signed up for the tour,
They would show us ghosts
That had lingered in Grand Central Terminal for decades.
I'm not sure who I expected
To see there haunting those marble h… Read More
2016-10-27 14:33
You said you can never forgive me
For what I did to you.
You said I broke your heart,
Crushed your dreams,
Left you for dead on the side of the road.
But who was I, the author of those vill… Read More
2016-10-13 14:12
It is not yet time
To put away your cape and mask.
Not while there are battles left to fight.
For years, the villains shuddered at your name.
Cowards, they ran for cover in the night.
Their… Read More
2016-10-07 16:04
Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman.
You were the superheroes of my youth.
Fighting crime, flying high above the skyscrapers of Gotham City,
Crusading for truth, justice and the American way.
Kr… Read More
2016-10-07 15:57
At night she visits me,
Curls up beside me in my bed.
My shadow self --
Stray cat, she-wolf, moon goddess --
While I, poor insomniac,
Struggle to recapture sleep.
My shadow self purrs, hiss… Read More
2016-09-14 15:27
Sometimes there are days when I am so exhausted that all I want to do is sleep. Maybe I'm just getting old. I'll always be 27 in my own mind even though my driver's license tells a differen… Read More
2016-09-04 01:42
Alone at the beachAt the end of the summer. The tourists with their screaming kidsAnd their beach chairs and umbrellas are gone. So are the ice cream carts and the taxis patrolling th… Read More
2016-09-04 01:10
There was a ship at the end of the harbor. There was a train that I needed to take. There was a song wafting out of a window. Sweet raspberries still on your cake. It was summer from wha… Read More
2016-08-09 20:58
Is it the journey or the destination? From 25,000 feet in the air, It's hard to tell. Like that guy who jumped Out of the plane without a parachute, It's hard to know if you're a madman or… Read More
2016-06-12 06:29
They call it home,
That place we hang our hats
And watch TV
And make our coffee.
And what is home if not
A pile of bricks that welcomes us silently each night when we return from work
And… Read More
2016-05-19 16:35
Poetry in a Bottle
At the end of a crowded table
You stand, a proud, uncorked Montefalco Rosso, A sinewy Italian red raised on an Umbrian hillside Where Etruscans dined befo… Read More
2016-05-03 13:59
There is a place Where I can go and float face-down In a pool of silvery water And swim to the bottom Where the dancing coral grows. Down on the ocean's floor Where there is no soun… Read More
2016-03-24 16:32
Fragments of a night Lost in translation. I fall asleep over a book, I wake up to check my phone. Bombings in Brussels, terror in the airport, blood in the streets. My cozy room, m… Read More
2016-03-24 16:18
There is no need to ask that question. You have already conquered my heart And laid it waste. The cornucopia of my affections is now yours for the taking. You have carried me to yo… Read More
2016-03-11 20:08
In Italian, they call it la storia, A story, a fish tale, a love affair, True or false, real or imaginary, It doesn't matter. The history of the Gallic wars as told by Gener… Read More
2016-03-11 20:02
I saw a fork in the road, And I took it. I split my car into two cars, I split myself into two selves, One of me driving east, The other driving west, Until I was on one coa… Read More
2016-02-28 17:58
The writing on the Roman wall said simply this: I was here. I (my name) was here. I made my mark. I wrote it here. And neither your paint or your bleach or the history books Can ever era… Read More
2016-02-20 19:50
Poem
Everybody seems to have a story about a taxi. Driver or passenger, it doesn't matter. I'm a New Yorker so maybe it's not surprising That one night during the C… Read More
2016-02-05 22:13
They say that love has no rules. If that's the case, then why do we keep playing? Why do we keep feeding coins into the slot machine And spending our hard-earned money on lottery ti… Read More
2016-02-05 21:23
Philosophers say That you can't put your foot In the same river twice. I don't know. I've spent my life dipping toes In different waters, Changing, being changed, Circling back to… Read More
2016-01-03 18:18
Ah, what the Hell?
A villanelle.
A Shakespearean sonnet?
I’ll get right on it!
Love or death,
A pretty flower.
I rent my quatrains
By the hour.
Couplets, limericks… Read More
2015-12-13 22:25
Around the world, We use our languages like barbed-wire fences to keep the strangers out. Tacking up "No Trespassing" signs in our mother tongues, We use our words like weapons to pro… Read More
2015-12-13 22:05
Sometimes it's good to be hungry. Not the searing pain of starvation that bloats an empty belly, Not the hunger of a holy fast, a diet or an act of self-denial, Of day after day without th… Read More
2015-11-28 16:25
Who's to say When morning has lost its glory? Who's to say When the bloom is off the rose? Who's to say When the girl with one pearl earring Becomes a grandmother with a garden hose?… Read More
2015-11-19 16:07
Choices -- Too many. Regrets -- Too few. You, you, you, not you, Maybe you. Or you. Coffee, lunch, a drink? It's been a long day, A long week, a long year. Too much work, Too much… Read More
2015-11-11 16:00
Fuck the moon, It's much too far away to offer inspiration. It's cold and distant and shines only in the Sun's reflected glory. Embrace the world Like a big squishy orange And bathe… Read More
2015-11-02 03:45
By day,
You and I
Blend in with the lunchtime crowd.
A hat, a coat,
A bag, a pair of shoes.
Ordinary people
Lost in a sea of faces.
By night,
Our fangs come out.
You a hungry werewolf… Read More
2015-11-02 03:32
Your blue eyes, Sad, wandering, Scanning the horizon. Is there anyone Who has cried More tears than you? A city on a hill, A lighthouse on a cliff, Your proud tower Struck by lightning, Fa… Read More
2015-11-02 03:25
Non la bevo I'm not drinking it, the Italians like to say. In English, we say that I'm not buying it. (We're more transactional, I guess.)So what exactly are we hoping to get With t… Read More
2015-09-17 03:16
Non durerà.
It will not last.
Isn't that what they say
About love and the world?
Empires rise and fall.
Markets collapse.
One day you're safe,
The next day you're sorry.
A che… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
He was your friend. I met him one time only. We stood in a field where the sun shone, And he recited some words from the dolce stil novo – Tanto gentile e tanto onesta pare – Wor… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
2014 Perched on the precipice Of a new year, We stand with one foot in the future, The other in the past. We raise our glasses to predictions Of good things yet to come, Resolving to return… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
Wine glass in hand, Toasting the future, Sun-drenched shoulders Tanned by a day at the beach, Beads around my neck, A little lipstick, Laughing, Talking with my friend, Breathing the salt se… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
So che le mie parole venute da lontano Non sono sufficienti per tenerti caldo di notte. Ma le parole sono la unica cosa che ho da darti Fino a quando ci incontreremo di nuovo. So che di paro… Read More
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