Source: Brain Aneurysm Foundation Memorial: For my late husband Rian Butler – who I lost in 2018… 100% non-profit donations to research and screening … at
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Author: a love letter to rome and italy!
love and the colosseum
The Colosseum from an off the beaten path vantage point in Rome, where we all want to feel beauty and find love.
Rather than just street views up close, some of the ruins can be viewed from greenery, captured like a stolen moment between lovers.
The sun breaking through the “windows” of the colosseum still inspires excitement in me after 20 years in Rome.
See how small we are in this world, and how the ancients wanted to remind us of that?
The view of more centuries of history mashed together from atop the crowds, with the ancient symbol of fecundity a pomegranate in bronze.
Arches built for faded triumphs, still gazed upon thousands of years later.
The verdant hills of the Palentine whisper of a pastoral Rome found normally on the winding road of the interminable Appian Way.
Angels were found in Classical Antiquity, and have guided me along my own travels in the Eternal City.
The marble of Roma seems the only thing built to last some days.
A Roman bride as bright as a white dove sent as some augur of hope amidst the ruins.
Love can not wait for time to take over and wreak havoc.
A Renaissance fountain and umbrella pines tucked away quietly from the crowds.
Water and moss glint in the sunlight and shadow.
The present is pulled between the past ashes and the future hopes.
When in Rome embrace love, life, and passion in the moment… bathe in warm sunshine before the sun crawls west and the moon rises in the east again, except for two days of the year.
The moment is now, the touch is palpable, the hum of machinery is drowned out by the flight and song of sparrows, the cypress and umbrella pines wave in the breeze, and the scent of wine and food beckons like a kiss from nearby.
Laugh in the face of death while you still can, make love in the dying of the light to make your embers burn deeper, richer, more wildly.
The gods have left their dice behind, we only have to roll them.
Remember what has been, recognize who you are, breathe it all in, and then move with the traffic to the next thing.
The vestiges must be broken from something solid and beautiful before we are all dust.
widowhood
I want my own bed again
and I want to be alone
because that’s what
life is now
a series of good nights
to memories
private moments
which others
invade temporarily
in symbolic acts
of contrition and intimacy
merely signifying
soft betrayals
exhumed in the
burning of daylight
now
not afraid of the abysm of death, afraid of the abyss within.
Protected: good-bye lion heart
beautiful and inexpensive art prints of italy
Interested in buying any of my images of Rome or in Italy?
The site sends professional lab large prints or posters direct to you.
You can make cards & books too. http://romepix.smugmug.com
Don’t see an image you wanted? Let me know, I add daily. rebecca@romepix.com
Have a poster printed of the Eternal City Rome. The Ruins and the Roman Forum shot on fine art portra 400 film with cupolas and marble and a sweeping view of Roma. Frame or tack up a stunning 16″x 24″ inch poster at the incredible price of a mere $79-$95!
Beautiful 12″x18″ Fine Art Roman Print of Venus / Aphrodite at the Vatican Museum. This is a GORGEOUS statue. 12″x18″ Glossy Shiny Kodak Endura professional paper finish, brighter than Matte only $40 PERFECT for framing or hanging on its own as wall art.
Beautiful 8×12 Portra Fine Art Film Print of Capri from the ruins of an Emperor’s palace. 8×12 Metallic – lustrous Kodak Endura professional paper – only $18.00 or rich 8×12 Lustre, Glossy, or Matte $17-$17.50
eternal city
Spend some time in the eternal city and you will feel death like a whisper on the back of your neck.
Go there young, when you still feel invincible, and watch the tombs and monuments to a crumbled past deathmask-smile at you.
Return after you’ve loved and lost a little, when you’ve begun to collect possessions interchangeably with memories, hold hands past paupers and ruffians and the modern courtesan; the tourist liaisons hovering by menus, beckoning, offering, waving.
Return again after you’ve lost more than you’ve loved but you still have a bit of youth on your side, and you can take in the big picture.
Return next when you’ve hit your peak and now the edges are fraying a little. When fountains and paintings once trumpeting romance and pleasure are grimier and more worn than you remember. When the seducers and the money takers suggest more pallid languor than…
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sunset on the tyrrhenian sea
On a little boat floating around the island of Capri we gazed up at the rocks and watched as the sun slipped slowly down behind the cliffs.
Old barricades, canon heavy forts by the English and later the French, ancient walk ways of Romans and shepards, medieval paths with goats grazing on them, modern swimming clubs and fashion designer villas now sprinkle the soaring cliffs of Capri.
The sea is calm for a moment, the south wind changes, the sun slinks further down and there is an upheaval in the waves.
The boat rounds the entrance to another hidden grotto.
The famed Faraglioni rocks, with a boat passing under it’s arch. We are about to enter it ourselves.
Another boat races us to get there first. And yet we are all at a leisurely pace here. We are on “Capri time” as the locals say.
The shadows and light meet…
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let us lose ourselves
Are they a shadow now? Can they hear your thoughts now that they’re ether, a chimera, soon to be dust? What becomes of love when you lose the object behind it?
To think you will join them one day; older, wiser, less you than they remember.
Your dust will never become theirs. There is no map to follow, no compass, no ship or footpath to take, no direction to fly in except to fling oneself back into space.
The will of love, the struggle, the battle for tender ownership is gone. They have vanished, you will vanish, it appears life is lived to once more succumb.
What are subterraneans to each other but cells divided once more and spread through the earth? That cold science of it, when emotions which once ran hot have now ended.
What is love but a bargain with a dream to not yet wake up?
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a love letter to rome 