Tritina for Orvieto
by Connie Soper
Let us partake of red wine; of bread dipped in oil from Umbrian olives
grown and plucked from silvery groves rooted into the hills
above Orvieto. Let us be filled with feast, because today
we are here, inhabiting that space between yesterday and tomorrow. Today
little shops offer bowls glazed with lemons, pomegranates and olives
as we wander twisting streets of this town balanced on a hill
high above the ordinary. The bones of saints rest atop the cobblestoned hill—
amid a chaos of angels born from the hand of Signorelli, dead 500 years but today
we receive the fruits of his imagination. Handed to us as like a gift, a sprig of olive
like those on the hill—olive trees spreading branches into the long reach of today.
grown and plucked from silvery groves rooted into the hills
above Orvieto. Let us be filled with feast, because today
we are here, inhabiting that space between yesterday and tomorrow. Today
little shops offer bowls glazed with lemons, pomegranates and olives
as we wander twisting streets of this town balanced on a hill
high above the ordinary. The bones of saints rest atop the cobblestoned hill—
amid a chaos of angels born from the hand of Signorelli, dead 500 years but today
we receive the fruits of his imagination. Handed to us as like a gift, a sprig of olive
like those on the hill—olive trees spreading branches into the long reach of today.
Connie Soper is an Oregonian who finds inspiration while hiking or beachcombing. Her poems have received recognition from the Oregon Poetry Association, Calyx, and the Neahkahnie Poetry Prize. Other publications include Catamaran, Canary, Cider Press Review, One Art, Willawaw Journal, and elsewhere. Her first full-length collection of poetry, A Story Interrupted, published by Airlie Press in 2022, celebrates walking and witnessing her native terrain.