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/