We are lucky, all is good here

A small Lion of Venice, taken Sept 2019.

"Cats on the whole are loath to discuss God.

Generally speaking, cats have no money, although some of them secretly collect rare and valuable coins.

Cats believe that all human beings, animals and plants should congregate in a huge heap in the centre of the universe and promptly fall asleep together."

for more of the poem see

MAGIC CATS

Gwendolyn MacEwen

From:   Magic Animals: Selected Poems Old and New. Toronto: Macmillan, 1974

https://canpoetry.library.utoronto.ca/macewen/poem3.htm

Dogs, April 2017, Good Times

"These are the stories that the Dogs tell when the fires burn high and the wind is from the north. Then each family circle gathers at the hearthstone and the pups sit silently and listen and when the story's done they ask many questions:

What is Man?' they'll ask.

Or perhaps: 'What is a city?'

Or: 'What is a war?'"

from City by Clifford Simak

http://veneziablog.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-rialto-bridge-unpeopled-thursday.html

Today (The First House Xmas 2019)

“Without noticing, I slip into a light yet lingering malaise. Not a depression, more like a fascination for melancholia, which I turn in my hand as if it were a small planet, streaked in shadow, impossibly blue.”

Patti Smith

Not at home to callers

"Sitting over words
very late I have heard a kind of whispered sighing
not far
like a night wind in pines or like the sea in the dark
the echo of everything that has ever
been spoken
still spinning its one syllable
between the earth and silence"

Utterance by W.S. Merwin

The gang self isolates. 

Actually this is pretty much what we do anyway

Whateley and Piggy, action shot.

Dog in Venice

One thing I enjoy especially on vacation is photographing dogs.

And here you can speculate on doggy dreams

"Let the lamp affix its beam.

The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream."

Wallace Stevens

Venice

  "And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp’d towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yes, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind."

Hecht’s “Venetian Vespers” 














And recommended http://gregorydowling.com/my-walk-across-desolate-venice/

Italian Trip; Detail of Sculpture

"As the sunrise to the night,
As the north wind to the clouds,
As the earthquake’s fiery flight,
Ruining mountain solitudes,
Everlasting Italy,
Be those hopes and fears on thee."

To Italy by Shelly

The Farm

"Yesterday, I lay awake in the palm of the night."

from The Names by Billy Collins

A couple days of snow and extreme cold is breaking, but not the coronavirus fears which are just beginning.

"Time does not pass when snow is falling —

only the silence falls. Trees glisten, trembling

as a body trembles beneath a white sheet,

the room cold, "

from The Snow

by Bruce Meyer

Waiting for Waffles

“Dogs are here to remind us life really is a simple thing. You eat, sleep, take walks, and pee when you must. That's about all there is. They are quick to forgive trespasses and assume strangers will be kind.” 

from The Marriage of Sticks
Jonathan Carroll

March 2020

“Death doesn't make you sad- it makes you empty. That's what's so bad about it. All of your charms and beliefs and funny habits fall fast through a big black hole, and suddenly you know they're gone because just as suddenly, there's nothing left at all inside.” 

from Bones of the Moon
Jonathan Carroll

Walk about

  “It took me less than half a lifetime to realize that regret is one of the few guaranteed certainties. Sooner or later everything is touched by it, despite our naive and senseless hope that just this time we will be spared its cold hand on our heart.” 

Jonathan Carroll

Venice Sept 2019

Anyone who follows this blog knows how much Helen and I love Venice. So we are quite sad to see that after problems with terrible flooding, the coronavirus has now emptied the city of tourists. We have met many wonderful people who rely on tourists for their livelihood in our trips to the city. We can only hope things will improve for them. Guy and Helen

"and you were the sound of the serenade
being sung outside for me, the words
of which, I know now, are of freedom
cast in stone forever."

from Stone Bird

Pattiann Rogers

House Sparrows

  Still a bit sad here. I think the other dogs seem a bit subdued as well. We are still coming to appreciate what a towering presence and forceful personality Shaun had, despite his size. Our weather as been quite good, especially by comparison with the rest of the country and world. We have been around zero without a lot of snow. It is snowing today however and it made for a slippery walk where it covered the ice. I took these photos a couple of weeks ago when we had blue skies and a lot of sun. We have been getting lots of sparrows, drawn by the seed, suet and water. At one point it seemed that there were fewer sparrows and more house finches but the ration seems to have changed again. Although they are common, oft overlooked birds, a close look in good light does reveal their beautiful colours and delicate markings. 

'The only sparrows I heard

I was told were the ones

other people had brought"

"the sparrows said one thing

but only to themselves

and each other"

"over and over they said

here here 

yes here"

from Only Sparrows

by W.S. Merwin