SHADES OF DANTE

Dante’s shade cast an uneasy shadow

over these immutable hills last night.

Everywhere we meandered, paused to dally,

Hades’ hounds snapped and snarled about our heels.

Portinari’s daughter, Venus whispered,

no longer enamored by the poisonous yew,

has turned bittersweet. Exhausted and weary  

of the provincial roses, so many cheap summer wines,

‘She’s lost her lust for the nightly rhymes …’

any delusion of having found herself a new

Alighieri, a second chance at life along the Arno.

La Vita Nuova I sense, is giving way, fast

fading into the encroaching dusk of autumn …

we’ll not survive the siege of another winter.

Ken e Bujold

Author's Note

Significant rewrite of 'All's not well along the Arno" such that it's really a new work of old idea/theme

Reviews

[redd Brick Keshner]

The greatest inferno is in the mind and consciousness, once that conflagration spreads it seems worse than psychoses or some other heavy duty mental ailment. But that’s just my take. 🙏🏻🕊👍🏻

[W. Barrett Munn]

You make the rest of us appear as slackers but I’m unwilling to duck the challenge of trying to catch up.

[emmajoygreen]

Life and its turmoil goes back further than the years take to breathe! You have included as much as needs literary time melded to the classic. You can crowd the relaxed mind in seconds! Well needed, however. Fine writing with appropriate new life, new meaning.

[Ern M. Yoshimoto]

it's very foreboding. yet it is extremely timely. this anxiety that is running across the world, but particularly acute in america, was captured in this verse. and by evoking mythology, it really emphasises the sense that we are facing the end of a once great civilisation. im not well-versed in the classics, so more than a few references went over my head, but it was a stunning read. it's heavy, long lines, and enjambments worked really well to produce dread. and there is very little light that can be seen as we march towards madness.