A Figure Half Seen

Rome was not the firmamentOf his imagination. Yet, he readThe plays of Goldoni and remarkedUpon the nobility of Colleoni.

As a child he did not acknowledge;As an adult he saw but dimlyThose who would have beenDescribed as swarthy, yet

Innocent—unless provoked.We associate him with a smallTown romanticism, an urban andCommercial maturity, and an

Imagined realm forever unseen,But often visited. Yet, when heExited an Arp exhibit, disappointed,A Southern cheese—sharp and

Strong, un-tasted (not Brie),Brought him back to the things ofThis world. And when Renato PoggioliRecorded his words in the language

Not his, he beamed somewhatBoyishly and then dismissed TalCoat and Oudot, thought insteadOf Morandi in Bologna,

An old teacher in Rome. ThenHe began to dictate a new poem.His purview redrawn, and rewritten,He ascended soon after.