France
15 September 2013, Paris
Musée National du Moyen Age
- Cluny Museum
- fifteenth-century mansion
- built for the abbot
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16 September 2013
Lover’s Locks
- Lovers lock their locks
- on the Solferino bridge—
- toss keys in the Seine
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Paolo Veronese’s Wedding at Cana
- A big work of art
- like the Wedding at Cana
- a lifetime of love
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17 September 2013
Musée d’Orsay
- Behind the clockface
- a crowd assembles to look
- out of their own minds.
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19 September 2013
Our Lady’s Bells
- Bells of Notre Dame
- attract all kinds of tourists—
- mix chaotically
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Bells at our Windows
- Ringing cheerfully
- in our apartment windows—
- the Notre Dame bells
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Notre-Dame Gargoyles
- Grotesque drainspouts
- leap and fly from gray stone eaves
- speaking of the rain
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Archeological Crypt
- Under the plaza
- ruins of a Roman bath—
- the tourists look up
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Luxembourg Palace
- Luxembourg palace
- armed guards guard entrances
- while senators meet
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Luxury Chocolate
- Ewer of chocolate
- served with a bowl of whipped cream—
- affordable lunch
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Panthéon
- Remains of Voltaire
- rest in the Panthéon crypt—
- immortal but why?
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Foucault’s Pendulum
- Hung once from this dome
- swung between science and faith
- turned our heads around
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21 September 2013
Montmartre
- Artists made their way
- from the top, its sacred heart,
- through the cobbled streets
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Molin Rouge
- Garish red windmill
- seeded the boulevard with
- peep shows and sex shops
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23 September 2013
Cimetière du Père Lachaise
- Hundreds of thousands
- deported, enslaved, murdered
- and finally mourned
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27 September 2013
Café Procope
- Writing history
- in windows at Procope—
- many reflections
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29 September 2013
Églice Saint-Sulpice
- A small bird inside
- the great church of Saint-Sulpice
- flew over our heads
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Mass at Notre Dame
- Great clouds of incense
- rise from before the altar—
- the archbishop coughs
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1 October 2013, Mont Saint-Michel
Mont Saint-Michel “Église Abbatiale”
- In the abbey church
- a ship with spider-web sails
- over the chapel
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Mont Saint-Michel “La Merveille”
Cloister
- Around the cloister
- granite arches catch the light
- to make pilgrims glow
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Scriptorium
- For the abbey’s monks
- light in the scriptorium
- was held up by stones
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Almonry
- In the almonry
- a doorway over gardens
- makes a private stage
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Pontorson, on the River Couesnon
- Wet Pontorson streets
- in the old city center
- shine under gray skies
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4 October 2013, Paris
Pompidou Centre
- Pompidou Centre—
- Other people seem to know
- where they are going
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Roy Lichtenstein’s Brushstrokes
- Fake the brushstrokes, fake
- hand and brush, fake shade with dots,
- then frame and hang it.
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Église Saint-Merry
- Gold heaven appears
- over the gray crucifix
- and lights up the church
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5 October 2013
Saxotromba at the Musée de la Musique
- A saxotromba
- gold curves of brass and shadow
- mirrored in its case
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From the Musée de la Musique
- Lead by his small hand
- a child leaves the museum
- alight with beauty
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After Visiting Musée de la Musique
- While Liz is thinking
- of musical history,
- history echos
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6 October 2013
Musée Marmottan Medieval Room
- Our Lady Mary
- rich in ivory and gold
- feeds her child a pear
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10 October 2013, Orange
Cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-Nazareth d’Orange
- Crumbling in the rain
- stones of monument and church
- in sunlight remain
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North of Montélimar
- Golden clouds appear
- traveling swiftly by train
- over the green fields
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12 October 2013, Paris
Organ Concert at Notre Dame
- Thinking of our friend
- during the organ concert
- all out of context
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13 October 2013, Chartres
Chartres Horloge Astrolabique
- Old time-traveler,
- blind to time’s many faces,
- your face still travels
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Notre Dame de la Belle Verrière (Our Lady of the Beautiful Window)
- O Queen of Heaven,
- who gave the light of the world,
- drive all grief away!
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16 October 2013, Paris
Passing over the Seine
- A little bright moon
- rises over the jew’lled Seine
- beaconing lovers.
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17 October 2013, Paris
Crossing the Seine
- Seagull, far from sea,
- and the moon, far from the Seine,
- where we pass by.
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18 October 2013, Paris
Eiffel Tower and the Moon
- Celestial moon,
- grand spotlight over Paris,
- dwarfed by Tour Eiffel.
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19 October 2013, Paris
Parisian Catacombs
- Bones, bones, human bones
- piled up in the catacombs
- sandwiched under stones.
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22 October 2013, Paris
Before the Concert
- Before Notre Dame,
- eager for the night’s beauties,
- dark figures shuffle.
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23 October 2013, Paris
Luxembourg Gardens
- Autumn in Paris—
- fallen leaves on the green grass—
- sunlight through bare limbs.
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Pink Scooter
- Little pink scooter,
- scoot me about the city
- into the sixties.
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