Issue 3: Robert Rehder
The old town of Porto Maurizio
The old town of Porto Maurizio is stacked
On its hill—
Emotion is never exactly the same—
Building upon building, inconclusively,
And not
Like music finding its way—
Dome, roof, stairs, carruggio, loggia,
Balconies,
The unity is contingent.
Darwin doesn’t use the word, evolution
Anywhere in
The Origin of Species (1859).
The Genoese demolished the fortifications
And took
The Porto Marino in 1641—lock, stock,
And three barrel-vaults and the black stone
From Finale—
Back to Genoa, where it is today.
New anger remembers the old—and love,
The same.
The door of the gate between the old walls
And the new disappeared long ago.
The iron hinges
Are still embedded in the weathered stone.
Robert Rehder published two books of poems, The Compromises Will Be Different (Carcanet / Sheep Meadow, 1995) and First Things When (Carcanet, January 2009, a Poetry Book Society Recommendation). He is the author of King Lear, Wordsworth and the Beginnings of Modern Poetry (1981), The Poetry of Wallace Stevens (1987), and Stevens, Williams, Crane and the Motive for Metaphor (2004). He died on 6 April 2009 aged 74.
Copyright © 2009 by Robert Rehder, all rights reserved. This text may be used and shared in accordance with the fair-use provisions of Copyright law. Archiving, redistribution, or republication of this text on other terms, in any medium, requires the notification of the journal and consent of the author.
