In the Blue Immensity

A Pale Hung-Over Moon
Napping in the blue sweep of the morning sky,
after a long arduous night
of wooing stars.

Welcome!
Early Sunday morning greeted by
parapet figures on the roof
of the Upper Belvedere Palace.

Is this a little angel,
lifting up the pennant
to welcome a new day?

"Beau ciel, vrai ciel, regarde-moi qui change!
Après tant d'orgueil, après tant d'étrange
Oisiveté, mais pleine de pouvoir,
Je m'abandonne à ce brillant espace"

Quoted from
"Le cimetière marin"
by Paul Valéry

There was no blue sea
reflecting the brilliance of the sky, still,
under these early morning skies,
of "mille et mille idoles du soleil",
so close to midsummer,
a feeling of new beginnings overcame me,
in the spirit of Valéry's concluding stanza:

"Le vent se lève! . . . il faut tenter de vivre!
L'air immense ouvre et referme mon livre,
La vague en poudre ose jaillir des rocs!
Envolez-vous, pages tout éblouies!
Rompez, vagues! Rompez d'eaux rejouies
Ce toit tranquille où picoraient des focs!"

Photographed by Merisi
early Sunday morning,
June 14, 2009,
at the
South façade of the
Upper Belvedere Palace,
while the Sphinx
kept to her inscrutable smile.