I want to share today, my recording of Robin Saikia’s poem,
‘Song For A Dying Gondola.’ The first time I read it, I fell in love
with it. Many of you now know, that I admire the poetry of Robin very much. I am a fan who devours every new poem he posts:)
He actually said to me, in a comment, he would enjoy hearing me read this one…so here it is Robin, to the music of Marc Corominas Pujadó
The Storm Clears, watercolor by Katia Margolis.
Now in the twilight shed of the squero,
where resin dreams and sea-salt dust collect,
they ease you from your stilts,
old swimmer of the city’s veins,
and let your spine uncoil.
For years you slipped along the brackish dark,
a long black marine animal,
half-seal, half-syllable,
sounding the soft grammar
of tide against tarred ribs.
You bore the tribes of Venice,
shopkeepers, mourners, lovers, liars,
your lacquered hide reflecting
the untranslatable sheen of their days.
You once carried Byron rehearsing his vanity,
Hahn and Melba stitching moonlight into song,
Stravinsky drifting toward the quiet island.
Eight woods composed your body:
lime for its calm, oak for its conscience,
mahogany for the dark vowels of water,
walnut and cherry for ornament’s pulse,
fir, larch and elm for the patient bones
that remembered every correction of balance,
every deft asymmetry the masters learned
from centuries of listening.
You were obedient,
not with the obedience of servants,
but of beings perfected
by attention:
a craft shaped by equations of faith
and the slow mathematics of hands.
Now your prow,
once a silvered jaw
biting softly into the night canals,
rests dull on the carpenter’s bench.
Your flanks, crusted with barnacle ghosts,
exhale the perfumes of spent voyages:
salt, varnish, funerals, flirtations,
the whole Venetian gospel.
They will unmake you tenderly.
A few good boards
will be carried off to serve again;
others will crack like old metaphors
too tired to bear another century.
Your rust-mottled ferro will hang on a nail,
a fossil of the lagoon’s long memory.
But listen:
in some future tidepool of the mind
your outline will skim by,
ever a black syllable of grace,
teaching the living what it means
to be built for purpose and pageant,
for ceremony and simple errands,
for carrying a city without complaint.
Sleep now, long creature.
Your voice is already ash and echo
in the green throats of the canals.
Let the lagoon decide
what remains of you tomorrow:
a ripple, a reflection,
a brief obedient brightness
crossing the shoal of time.
Footnote: Robin’s blog can be found here: https://robinsaikia.wordpress.com/
Digital Rabbit Hole 
Beautifully penned
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Yes! Robin is a true poet and one of my very favorites here on WordPress:) I hope you enjoyed my spoken word of it too:)
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Yes loved it 😊
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Thank you so much for listening:)
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Pleasure to me’
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Oooh lovely reading (and music) of an amazing verse. You’re both so good!
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Awww thank you Dale…I’m glad you enjoyed it…and yes, the verse is amazing, visual…wonderful…:)
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Oh what an amazing reading of Robin’s amazing poem which gives this wonderful poem them voice that brings it to life and sits still inside our soul. Bravo, Karima! So well done!! ❤️❤️
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Ohh thank you so much Cindy for listening, reading and this comment. I always feel a special responsibility when I am reading another’s poem and I only hope when Robin finds it….he will enjoy it:) 🙏 The poem is so well -written, I had to give it my very best too:) Thank you for telling me you feel it worked:) 🤗
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You’re so very welcome!!!! Yes, I get it Karima and the trust in you says it all and I know he will love it..!!!! Promise. You did it justice and more!!!! don’t forget to send me links.. they never work here. ❤️
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A gorgeous reading, Karima. And those ending lines were exquisite:
Let the lagoon decide
what remains of you tomorrow:
a ripple, a reflection,
a brief obedient brightness
crossing the shoal of time.
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Thank you so much Tracy for listening to it. I will never get tired of how visual his writing is. It puts me in every scene and i am very pleased you think my reading did him justice.
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Very vivid imagery in his writing!
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What a beautiful recitation. The poem, with its sensitivity and profound gaze, envelops the soul of that being who was a bridge, a memory, and a movement. Each image is filled with nostalgia and beauty. Thank you for sharing something so evocative.
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Thank you so much Lincol for appreciating Robin’s poetry and my spoken word of this remarakable poem that captured my heart and my imagination, the first time I read it:)
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That was a wonderful poem! I immediately looked up the poet’s website — what a delight — and you recite this poem with such grace that I felt I was there and could see, hear, and smell the gondola on its last stop. What a start into the day. 💖
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Thank you so much Joey, Robin is a great writer, with the talent you describe… he puts you right there and I tried to capture that in my reading. I’m so glad you enjoyed how it turned out!! Big hugs to you 🤗
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Beautiful, Karima! I can see why you enjoy this poet’s work.
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Thank you so much Dawn, for listening to it. Yes, “I am a total “fan-girl” He has a great gift of painting a whole scene in just words…but just the right words to transport you there:)
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Wonderful verses got a mesmerising voice. Well done, Karima!
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Thank you so much Kaushal..Robin is an amazing poet and I was very honored when he asked me to read this one. I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
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Truly my pleasure, Karima! You’re welcome 🙏💐🌹
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A beautiful poem and so beautifully rendered Karima
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Thank you sister, I’m happy you enjoyed my reading of it:)
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You’re most welcome dear friend
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