MONTE ROSA or The Picturesque and the Sublime

hayfield in Lombardia with Monte Rosa in the Background made invisible by sunlight.

Paint everything which is not
mountain;
only sky only
the tranquil green of a hayfield
tumbling towards a horizion
ignorant
of what it’s missing.

It is this void, superimposed upon the mountain
which instructs the heart:
Constrict!
There is the possibility of absence.

Bonnie M. McClellan

Monte Rosa

I have lived in Italy for three years now and it never stops being beautiful. The concept of a quotidian and yet extrodinarily beautiful vision continues to fascinate me as did the daily magic of the sky when I lived in Texas.

I wrote this poem parked in the parkinglot of the cemetery of the town of Orino, Italy. The cemetery is along the local road that I drive down on the way to and from my daughter’s daycare in Castello Cabiaglio. I encounter a vision twice a day on this drive: Monte Rosa. The mountain is the wallpaper of my everyday life. Despite the ubiquity of this beauty, I feel an ache in my chest that has the emotional resonance of loss everytime I round the curve in the road that brings the moutain into sight. I’m still working my brain around living with something so beautiful that it hurts to look at.

Listen to the podcast here.

When something extrodinary becomes part of your ordinary.
When something extrodinary becomes part of your ordinary.

By bonniemcclellan

Mother, poet, american ex-pat from Texas living in Northern Italy.

3 comments

  1. I really like this poem and the story of it’s conseption. It brings to mind a picture not unlike the photo that goes with the poem. I see that scene frequently on my drives around the hill country of Texas although, right now, it is unfortunately not as green.At any rate, I can relate!

  2. Ciò che trovo straordnario è che il Monte Rosa di tutto questo non sa nulla…e continua a splendere nella sua imponente bellezza!
    Grazie Bonnie

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