visitation

the strada bianca ribbons its way to the capella de vitaleta where I plan to go for meditation but I wander on passing through ploughed fields and the young vineyards of the valdorcia to the duomo de pienza for I had read in wikipedia built on the edge & slipping and in tripadvisor loved the church bells

walking down the romanesque isle     marbled columns reach to a fluted ceiling

aware of the dual level floor and teetering church   I hold my hands in penance

go for coffee at the café next door the owners’ washing overhead fans me while I view the etruscan landscape     savour the almond biscuits   note the languages of tourists

it is time for the angelus as it is twelve o’clock according to my watch   but there was only the swift wing of a hawk diving from the tower where the bells hang motionless against a botticelli sky

it is when I return to green tuscany hills   sit in a gathering of pines and cypresses at la poggio bacoca that I sense a breath sighing amidst leaves and hear between the calls of thrush and swallow between the humming of bees and insects not the chimes of bells   but my name being called cascading down the valley and up its slopes

I answer here am I   not knowing what else to say

juli Jana