to home

with motorinos parked on both sides

and a lot of people, young and old, about on the narrow street

i began walking the few blocks home

i didn't hear the car come up behind me

or turn to look

as it sped past inches away

at Corso Del Rinacimento near the Senate

cabs, buses and four or five motorcyles

rocketed by as I crossed near the crosswalk

through the confusion

looking straight ahead

noise, movement

life in the city

everyone has their space

and uses every inch of it

another train

again to Orte, an hour north of roma

this time to look at a house the church is selling

two apartments, one each floor

and a basement, 500 meters squared

not your typical home

ancient, interesting, particular

the basement goes down three levels

with a dozen winding caves, wine press, a well and tunnels

all dug by hand into the rock

dating back 2600 years

by the etruscans

when there was lire

some times i want to write and sometimes i just want to add something nice to look at. i was going through photos and found this. i painted this before the euro, but i don't have the picture in front of me and i can't tell you when - about '98. it's oil on canvas. about 24x24.

at sea

at sea we sleep

with the rocking

tilting lapping waters

the hum of recirculated air

the turn of the screws

a ship-moving vibration

that dulls all senses

and becomes dream

are you now, or have you ever

one of the great things about night

is that it gets dark

think about it.

it even cools down at night

it’s like a time out

let’s keep it that way

back in ’02 vienna, austria was the first place in the world

to pass a law about light pollution.

the people who passed the law must have bitched as much as i do.

have you seen a photo of earth from space?

it’s lit up like a christmas tree

don’t get me wrong, I like free light. It’s great to have your house lit up and not have to pay for it.

but not with a street light shining in at all hours

who wants to be able to read the small print in the phone book in bed with the lights off?

so I wake up early - four or so

bad guys should do that

then sit quietly alone

they’d cause less trouble

and quit going to meetings where there are flags, banners or emblems

and don’t take any oaths

i like to sit in the dark.

when a light is on do the cops drive by

and wonder what’s going on in there?

“jack, there’s six guys in military fatigues and flack jackets in your laboratory taking all the lids off your paint cans.”

i heard that old people got up at night

but I’ve always done it

trouble sleeping?

no trouble at all

i like getting up when it’s quiet

even the dogs are asleep

the good thing about kitties is that they don’t bark

ever

and you don’t have to follow them around

with a plastic bag

we have a neighbor dog that gets up to pee

at two in the morning and then barks once to be let in

that’s cute

unless I’m sleeping with the window open

one bark and I’m up

light pollution and dog pollution

I like animals that are vegetarians

And totally biodegradable

headache, neuritus, neuralgia?

Where have all the flowers gone?

sunday in trastevere

giacomo canceled and couldn't meet us for coffee
he lives just up the street on san francisco ripa but
it started raining and he can't carry an umbrella
on crutches
someone opened a car door in front of his
motorcycle a month ago
he broke a leg

to get out of the rain
instead of going into the restaurant
we waited inside santa maria in trestevere
for our friend maria
then had chinese food
when she arrived
and passed a good time

http://www.sacred-destinations.com/italy/rome-santa-maria-in-trastevere.htm

orte

we rode an hour north by train to grey, stone Orte

built high atop a hill in 1300 and still intact

on quiet turning, odd angled streets the gentle bus man

told us of a restaurant just off the main piazza

each step revealed a scene to paint or photograph

the eating spot was quiet, provincial and well appointed

in a tired, sophisticated country way

we each had different tasty local pastas with red wine

after, coffee at a traditional bar, filled with locals

then took refuge in a somber old shelter built in a wall

and awaited ten minutes for the local bus

then caught a train in the rain back to roma

aquaforte engraving

another plate engraving or etching
this is my sixth year of doing them

this one, called "the builders",
was done on a zinc plate about five by seven inches

if you make an error it shows
you can't erase

a wax coating is applied, then scratched off the plate
then dipped in a 75% solution of nitric acid, cleaned,
inked and printed on paper that has been soaked
in water

it is a slow process of planning, preparation and execution
one at a time is printed

click on the photo to enlarge

a snowy day

here is a tiny a village in the alps near bessans, france.
click on the photo to enlarge. the alps are beautiful.

tram ride

Four young italians on tram 8

were laughing and taking photos

of the back of a mans head

riding on the tram.

(not just the head –

the whole man was riding on the tram)

The elderly balding man

had a five cent piece

stuck on the back of his head.

toward home

turning toward home

i walk collar up, huddled in random, quiet thought

amid the turmoil of cobblestoned old roma

tempered by the ages

of michelangelo, bernini,

shelly, keats,

and fellini

“oh, marcello” laments sophia

these weary streets are covered by now silent footsteps

put down through the ages

between some dusted grey buildings

nearly black, unattended

or vulgared in dashes by modern signage

how swiftly leaps time

day and night swing over

venders, thieves, beggars

in alleys

swarmed with map-clad tourists

while around thunder large buses and sirens

and all passersby suck exhaust

above are broken shutters, some missing

weather worn graffiti scratched in stone

potted plants on high-railed private terraces face the sky so as to look away from it all

core of me

the dentist says my tooth has a crack in

So its going to happen

extraction

another tooth is goin’ away

i’ve lost a few already

like someone who loses a limb and still has feelings in it

could this tooth be the core of me

maybe they’re all wrong and my brains are in it

the very core of me

yank it and I’ll be gone

wait and see

the last to know

okay
so i have a bit of disability
but i thought it impaired only my disposition
(i never read the instructions)

with confidence, courage and meri
we went to a week long ski place in the alps of bessans, france

it was more like Curly, Larry and Meri
(i was Curly)

and it was not actually a "week long" ski place
because it was still there when we left

should i start over?

okay
so we went to this place where
i dug, ground and pushed my face into the snow and ice
more than necessary

but it was fun, of a sort

my friend Max, one of the ski instructors
took me out of the beginners class in the first minute
and put me into the "absolute beginners" class

so i'll tell you -
those frenchies ski a lot.
we saw this kid about five doing a down hill
then fall flat backwards
AND THEN HE BENT UPWARD AND KEPT GOING!
he was down about one second

i saw a friend fall and got up in about three seconds

when i fell
i laid there a while and thought about things
like - what time is lunch?
where was i? the place looked familiar
in a white and snowy sort of way

i had long wooden stick-things tied onto my feet
how could i position them to stand up?

it took about five minutes to get up, everytime
sometimes i had help
sometimes i took the help down with me

wanna help?

i don't know if they will let me come back
i think i am on a list somewhere

engraving

An engraving looks like a pen and ink drawing, but from start to finsh the metal pate etching is an involved process. Part of the art is to make it look simple.

the true cross

constantio teotedesco of romania/transylvania

was applying guma laca to an old piece of furniture

and making it shine like a collector’s garage-kept ’57 buick

this other guy was making in-laid wooden clothes hangers

and i asked why

he said he was doing it for the fun of it

cause no one buys them

i asked his name

and he said Cruccia

the italian word for clothes hanger

i asked if he was joking

he thought i wanted the name of the thing he was making

and i finally got his real name, eugenio

i wasn’t sure if he was kidding

because it sounds like the italian word for genius

but is eugene

it’s tough being a foreigner

passing through, among friends

in a little workshop in roma

a plate engraving (incisione)

half a haze
half a sun
the early morning fisherman

secret love

i love clocks

they keep on ticking

and isn’t it amazing

time doesn’t exist

oh, time is here, we made it so

and you’d better not be late

cause that’s bad,

I know, I know

despite universal laws and regulations

I like clocks anyway

every time, anytime

cause they keep ticking and ticking

wealth revealed

today i went through my sock drawer

the strays and stragglers were gathered

my wife put them together

she is good to me

of course, i could have done the deed

but she is so much more skilled.

it is her lot in life

to be thorough until, at last, there is completion

i now have seventeen pair of clean socks

and more in the dirty clothes

you may as well know me now as i am

the john paul getty of socks

laboratorio

the painting is of my lab in ohio.
from my lab, looking out.
that's our 12 year old geo in the reflection
50 miles to the gallon
good ole geoie

below your will find the objects from the bessans photo blown up. if i could run picassa any better they'd be big as a house, but i couldn't transfer them larger. take it from me, they don't look like smudges on the camera lens. they are three cornered things put together to form different shapes.
smudge my butt, that's what i meant to say to my contact with expert credentials.

back to the painting. it's acrylic on canvas.
i'm putting together a web site. let's say several of us are.
not to sell art or poetry, but to put it out there, cause i think it is time for the world to enjoy things, to appreciate the beauty in the world.

i live in rome most of the year
even here the new age has overrun the beauty of the ages
i have hope the wheel keeps turning
and like a wave there are highs and lows

give all to love
patiently trod
smile when you can
do the best you can

sun goes up
sun goes down
the good times
will come around

so now a guy calls - just now
he found my name in the rome phone book
because he found a telecomando, or a device to open a gate
it had my last name and the first three numbers of my voip phone on it

but it is a device to open a gate and i don't have a gate
and my last name is the only one like it, of the six million names in roma
he found me, but it wasn't my thing he found
my last name is Sender and it could mean the device was a sender

the numbers?
incomplete, but they almost meant something to me

like the story of roma
incomplete
and i'm not sure what it means to me
maybe that's why i'm still here

Bessans, France click on pic for larger view

Bessans, France

I was going through digital photos from two or three years ago and emailed this one to a

friend. "This is good, Walter. Most interesting. Enlarge the photo and look carefully. Do tell me,

you were there, what are those two things in the sky?" I wrote.

He replied, "Birds."

Then I saw a third thing in the sky and a possible fourth, above and to the right of the one on

the left. The entire file contained about a hundred photos, both indoors and out. I checked

them all again. This was the only one with smudges that caught my attention.


After a short while my friend wrote again, "Winter. Where do these pictures come from?"

I wrote back, "I think you took it. It was on a cd you sent me from your trip to Bessans,"

Then I knew he had accidentally photographed swamp gas.

metal plate engraving of via dei cappellari

the return of blackie

Beginning in the spring we have a lot of birds in our yard. My wife likes to keep the bird bath clean for them. The cardinals have their own bath they prefer to use, while the other birds use the community bath. There are robins, sparrows, doves, starlings, cardinals and blackbirds. We bought peanuts for ourselves and threw a few to the birds because it seemed the friendly thing to do.

While other birds didn’t pay much attention, one black bird in particular loved the peanuts. After just a few days it was apparent that the free peanuts got to be a habit for this black bird. He’d come around everyday at the same place for a tasty peanut. Only a short while later we had named him Blackie, our favorite bird.

It would have been nice to have a colorful cardinal, or even a blue jay as a favorite, but the other birds remained aloof. The best we could attract was our new feathered pal, the solo blackbird

That summer a lot of birds came and went through our yard, but only Blackie was a regular that we could identify. The robins had children and hung around teaching them to dig for worms, and the doves walked around in pairs. But, Blackie made a noise to attract our attention. We talked to him and he would fly in for his peanut.

In the fall, most birds migrate south for the winter. Only the illusive cardinals stay year round.

One day The following summer, when my wife was working on the side of the house she heard a black bird squawk. She looked up and said, “Blackie, is that you?” It was. She went around to the other side of the house where we used to feed him and he followed, and took up his usual position at a particular spot on our fence and waited for his peanut.

My wife and I were happy to see the old wanderer and enjoyed the surprise visit for a second year. Through out the summer Blackie was a regular, and became friendlier and calmer with our presence.

The third summer he returned again. Now he would fly to our back porch and I’d sit in a chair and put a peanut on the small table and he’d hop onto it and take his peanut. Now we had a pet.

By the end of that summer he was taking peanuts from my hand, still a wild bird, but happy to play the routine of entertaining us for his peanut.

Most every morning Blackie would be there. We’d look out and see him on the fence, and as soon as we came out with the peanuts he’d fly over and take one.

Many blackbirds were living in a wild an area a mile south of our home. Each morning they’d fly over and head to the farmers corn field where they’d feast for the day, then return in the evening.

The following year the farmers had complained and the city burned the wild area where the birds rousted. No longer did we have flocks of black birds passing over head. Blackie had moved on with his friends.

May rushed by with no sign of him, we wondered if he died, relocated with the others, or went off to make a family. Then in June he returned, and this time he brought a younger bird with him. We called it Blackie Junior. This was the fourth year in a row for Blackie on our fence. The same spot, the same routine of squawking and waiting for his peanut. Unbelievable, four years in a row we had Blackie as a guest. We only saw him a few days that year. His son never a taste for a peanut.

The fifth year there were even fewer birds around. May and June passed without a sign of him. Then at the end of July, when we had all but given up hope, he returned.

It was a quick stop. He must have been living farther away, but he made his appearance, did the squawks and the peanut grabbing routine, then flew back to the fence. I swear he looked back at us before he flew off, and that was it for Blackie’s visits.

We still look for him, or son of Blackie, but now he is only a pleasant memory, yet we still keep our peanuts ready just in case.