Rena looks like a nature sprite
among the flowers and ornamentals
in Boboli Gardens -- a free spirit
wandering the labyrinth.
At a cafe on the Ponte Vecchio,
a man watches as she walks by
and composes haiku on the margin
of his newspaper:
Bridge on the Arno,
A young beauty strides across.
Ripples in my heart.
Somehow a goddess
Bright in the shimmering light
Quickens the world.
Merchants selling gems
She walks past, no lira spent.
Her hair is spun gold.
Hearing the bird song
Under the eternal sky
My mind set adrift
She sits at a table in the biblioteca
with books stacked around her, jotting
passages into her notebook from Dante,
Emerson, Whitman; and from Savonarola:
"Through this faith, man becomes stronger
in his tribulations."
Do we think it's easy living so freely
in the world? Only a discipline of heart
and bone can sustain this life
of dancing in the Florence sun.
16-Jul-2019 / for Rena Riffel / Photo: tw