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Poetry - On the Road
A selection of Works created to document travel experiences.
Essentially this reads as a poet’s travel diary, often spontaneous, and providing
an opportunity to reflect on our collective cultural history.
Venice
Written by Alison Marshall, Date
City of Light City of Grace
Dowsed in oily hues, a painter’s vision
Behold the ancient Masters stroke
Thick upon the canvass that is Venice
A merchant port
No fortress here
She greets the sea unfetted
Home of the boatman
Oars well grooved by muscle and song
Drown not o wayward child of Florence
Doused in medieval mortar and fear
Illuminated
Renaissance lamps. Line the cannels
Not too bright; the path of stone, softly lit
For she does not dazzle
On the alleyway of dreams
Awake and behold for she laps at your feet. Cold.
Coming out from the shadows
The red cloak of crime fiction
And watery graves gone adrift
Ghost stories from a labyrinth
of cannels and gateways and bridges
Into sunset hue
Of dreams too real
She does not shuffle. She does not moan.
Aching in some anachronistic trance
For she waits tidal.
Gentle Venice. Cradle of the poet,
ROCKING. Children sleep.
Mona Lisa
Written by Alison Marshall, Date
In the mosh pit at the Louvre
Foreigners stampede the pre-paid tour
Pushing and pressing upon the crowed scene
Must have Proof to show where they have been
Rushing to capture a photo, their prize
Their face aligned with that infamous smile
Not to seek
not to peer, endless
not to question this icon of ages
Helter Skelter in the Louvre
This place of timeless motion
Three steps back into the hinterland
Bending like a river she holds her ground. Her view.
Feasting on that smile
That asks all
Speaks nothing
And says everything.
Song for Dubrovnik
Written by Alison Marshall, Date
In the sniper hills
Position the New era Partisans
Over alert
A grape shot view
of the naval port
They wait
Riffles poised
The lights of the city go out in the below
Fear clusters’
Cliff edged,
hanging off the ancient walls
A bird’s nest bar
Protruding cannons
A Rocky outcrop of natural design
Cordoned by walls, stone aligned
with ancient precession and beauty sublime.
The view all pervading
Of enemies all invading
The vast sea, a moat. Green, deep
Protecting This fortress. Shielding This keep
Guarded by saints and the sailors prayer
Invading enemies beware beware
Besieged city Hold Fast
War is over Time has passed
Shiny New roof tiles
Flush stained walls old
Fanning memories of war malingering: cold
Quite now, with fishing boats. And Nets
Lace makers display their handiwork
Bead makers, threading, mark time.
The pink Lollie pop girl
Skates the smooth paved ring... rounding
the executioners square
The bells chime victorious
In the quite November air
A child with a violin crosses the square
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