Wednesday, 30 July 2008

Milan 4

1
avoid places the guide books describe as ‘bohemian’
only the northern edge of Brera begins to feel like real people live there


2
the sparrows are smaller than English sparrows
but the pigeons and blackbirds are the same size


3
in Veronese’s ‘Last Supper’
everyone appears drunk


4
Medardo Rosso sculpts
like wax melts


5
Balla’s ‘Dog on a leash’
just about describes the Quadrilatero d’Oro


6
the Stazione Centrale is under wraps

the futurists have abandoned the city

2 comments:

Adam Aitken said...

Fantastic poem Laurie.

Have you seen Kris Hemensley's discussion of Petra White's article on "Baedeker Poetry"? I haven't read White's article but I think it would be very interesting to discuss what is meant by Baedeker poetry.

Adam

Laurie Duggan said...

Thanks Adam. I have at least seen the Hemensley discussion. On the surface of it I wouldn't want to rule out any possibility for poetry though I can understand why someone might want to do this. It's easy to write badly with or about anything. But the Baedecker thing is a bit like Williams saying you can't write sonnets anymore. And we know what happened to that.