Aria

As it always has been

soundless dreams

populate the night sky

translucent globes

rattle with tumbling

imagery and confused

movements of the mind

shuttered visions

defuse the moods

of passion and fear

anger and sorrow

I sift them in hushed

tones a spectrum

of unknown choices

of unheard arias

Oh soft kisses, oh sweet abandon,

As I trembling

Unloosed her veils and disclosed her beauty.

Oh vanished forever is that dream of love,

Fled is that hour,

And desperately I die.

And never before have I loved so much!

– From Tosca by Giacomo Puccini

O how can we return

from the death

of dreams how feed

on the word

only to starve

as time

is devoured by rust

we carry the blight

within us as we

pass through

the narrow gate

iron has painted

the stones

a rusty-brown

with orange added

at the edges

how many unseen

flaws lie hidden

in the emptiness

within in the way

of shadowed vision

how much love

Is lost

The love that found the way to save your life

Shall be our guide on earth, our pilot on the waters,

And make the wide world lovely to our eyes;

Until together we shall fade away

Beyond the sphere of earth, as light clouds fade,

At sundown, high above the sea.

– From Tosca by Giacomo Puccini