' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' Mille Serpi Divoranmi Il Petto(A Thousand Serpents Devour My Breast) - Poem For Onelia Poem by Dónall Dempsey

' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' Mille Serpi Divoranmi Il Petto(A Thousand Serpents Devour My Breast) - Poem For Onelia

Rating: 2.7


Ah mia...Violetta!
Violetta Valéry.

I was but a young
IL TRAVIATO

falling under
the spell

of a woman
made only of music

demi & semi
quavers

of a voice
made only of sorrow & joy.

Your famous act 1
fainting spell

catching at
my untutored teenage heart

meeting you
in the flesh

at dear last

when my opera singer girlfriend
broke my heart

singing that 'Misteriosa! ' bit

as I laboured
('Shit! ')

more poet
than plumber

to unblock
the blocked-up loo
backing up on me now
it all coming back

'Aw shit! '
I can't help myself

crying once again
the tears I cried then

when first
you lived in me.

********

LA TRAVIATA I first encountered only as a piece of music on a sunny sunny day when I lived my life as a child. I didn't know the story or the words or what was happening...I only knew the music entering my heart for the first time and I just cried and cried....without knowing what I was crying for.

I grew to love it more and more and understood it now but still the music bypasses my mind and my heart is blind with love and longing. It is always Teresa Stratas I hear and see singing this in Zeffirelli's sumptuous 1983 movie delighting both the eyes and ears. I love the cabeletta SEMPRE LIBERA and the duet with Dimingo UN DE FELICE, ETEREA.

I love when she is being a social butterfly and proclaiming that love is foolish and she will just live for joy and he cuts across her with that big deep 'Misteriosa...' and she clutches at her heart and sings a little gasp as if his voice has reached in and taken hold of her heart. A moment of magic. It strengthened my belief that indeed 'Love is the heartbeat of the universe...the entire universe! '

Ain't it de truth.

My girlfriend the opera singer used to practice her scales as I cooked dinner or sing snatches of LA TRAVIATA as I bravely attempted to unblock a stinking loo. Such are the times that come and go in the mind when one falls in love with the music all over again and again and again.

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Onelia Avelar 08 February 2010

I feel as if I am...falling under the spell of a man made only of poetry...

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Dónall Dempsey

Dónall Dempsey

Curragh Camp, Co. Kildare, Eire.
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