This is the first post in a new category, one which brings together poems with a connecting theme.
I first visited Venice in 1989 with my wife and daughter. We travelled by train from Bologna – where our daughter was studying – and crossed the lagoon on the railway causeway built by the Austrians during their second occupation of the city. We exited St Lucia station and there was the Grand Canal.
I have been back a number of times, the last being in 2017.
My first actual sighting of the city was in 1976. Again I was with my wife and daughter. We were returning from a holiday in Corfu. The pilot announced that we were flying over Venice. I looked down – and there it was, sunlight catching the terracotta roofs, surrounded by blue, romantic, enigmatic. I remember wonderingly if I would ever spend time there, and thinking it would be important to do so.
Venice has inspired a screenplay – IN THE LION’S MOUTH – as well as a number of poems. The poems on the site set in Venice and other islands in the Venetian Lagoon are listed in alphabetical order:
ACCADEMIA BRIDGE
Although elsewhere they must compete with tall men
from Senegal selling faux Gucchi bags…
https://davidselzer.com/2018/09/accademia-bridge/
A CONTINUING CITY
A millennium of trade and empire
has pushed the wooden piles the founders drove
more deeply into the seditious silt…
https://davidselzer.com/2012/12/a-definitive-history-of-venice/
BACINO DI SAN MARCO
From the Daniele’s restaurant terrace,
a bride and groom watch a shower of rain…
https://davidselzer.com/2012/12/a-definitive-history-of-venice-3/
CITY OF ART
There are the Biennale’s Big Beasts, of course…
https://davidselzer.com/2018/09/city-of-art/
COGNITIVE DISSONANCE
Ezra Pound looks both querulous and almost
slightly shifty…
https://davidselzer.com/2024/06/cognitive-dissonance/
DECLINE AND FALL
Once, there were no panhandlers in La
Serenissima. Now there are four beggars…
https://davidselzer.com/2012/12/a-definitive-history-of-venice-2/
EZRA POUND IN VENICE
Sitting in a traghetto, Olga Rudge
from Ohio and Ezra Pound from
Idaho – together fifty years…
https://davidselzer.com/2009/06/ezra-pound-in-venice/
FRUITS OF THE SEA
On the island of Burano, where women,
sitting at their front doors for the light, make lace…
https://davidselzer.com/2018/09/fruits-of-the-sea/
GRANDE HÔTEL DES BAINS
…Cholera is no longer a rumour…
https://davidselzer.com/2018/09/grande-hotel-des-bains/
LA FENICE
At Punta Della Dogana, a cellist
seated under the arcade, is playing
melodies from operatic arias…
https://davidselzer.com/2018/09/la-fenice/
LA SERENISSIMA
…stucco white as cuttlefish. In shadows,
a lion’s mouth utters advantage or blame.
The whitewashed stench of the prison inspires
the palace. An improbable city…
https://davidselzer.com/2012/12/a-definitive-history-of-venice-5/
O BRAVE NEW WORLD
On the third floor of Ca’ Rezzonico –
where gondoliers slept when the palazzo
was let to the song writer Cole Porter…
https://davidselzer.com/2018/09/o-brave-new-world/
PIAZZA DI SAN MARCO
After the sky has shaded from indigo
to sepia, when swifts have gone and pigeons
roost in the crepuscular arcades…
https://davidselzer.com/2012/12/a-definitive-history-of-venice-4/
RIVA DEI SETTE MARTIRE, VENICE
If you stroll far enough, long enough eastwards
on Riva Degli Schiavoni (Shore
of the Slaves)…
https://davidselzer.com/2017/11/riva-dei-sette-martiri-venice/
THE ARMENIAN MONASTERY, SAN LAZZORO, VENICE
San Lazzaro island was the city’s
leper colony until the Doge
gave the Armenians sanctuary, no doubt
to annoy the Turks…
https://davidselzer.com/2016/09/the-armenian-monastery-san-lazzaro-venice/
THE FISH MARKET
The resin and fibreglass installation
of one of the sculptor’s small children’s
hands and wrists emerges from the Grand Canal…
https://davidselzer.com/2018/09/the-fish-market
THE GARIBALDI STATUE, VENICE
Usually on a geometric plinth,
sometimes ahorse, once like Charlemagne…
https://davidselzer.com/2018/11/the-garibaldi-statue-venice/
THE GHETTO
We came here more than twenty five years ago
but know when we reach the Trei Archi bridge
we have gone too far and turn…
https://davidselzer.com/2018/09/the-ghetto/
THE GULLS OF VENICE
Many things are forbidden in Venice…
https://davidselzer.com/2018/09/the-gulls-of-venice/
THE LAGOON
Like most houses over centuries here
this one has been divided…
https://davidselzer.com/2018/09/the-lagoon/
THOUGH NOW THERE ARE ANGELS
Long ago, before angels learned how to fly,
https://davidselzer.com/2025/07/though-now-there-are-angels/
WINTERING IN VENICE
The exiled Russian poet, Josef Brodsky…
https://davidselzer.com/2024/03/wintering-in-venice/
By David Selzer