Gordon Walmsley


Coronocopia

So we are to listen to our leaders
as though they were Wise Men,
follow Polyphemus' blinded eye
as though it were that star?

In Santa Maria del Popolo
I was allowed to enter, but not
to see. A priest blocked my way
to Caravaggio's crucified Peter

And Saul, now Paul,
fallen from his guiding horse.

In Rome, a dog might serve you well
if you wanted to find those terrified streets,
a dog at the heels of a horse on the threshold
like Dürer's horse before the abyss

It is good to remember

that beneath the true star,
ever moving,
we carry our own lights,
illumining.



© Gordon Walmsley



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