["Did you know . . . . . there's as
much water in the world today as there was thousands of years ago. Actually,
it's the same water. The water from your faucet could contain molecules that
dinosaurs drank. Perhaps Columbus sailed across it."-Message on the
Carolina Water Services bill, June 1997.]
Near Padua
the oval fields stretch wetly green and mown;
and at the museum, a Greek
heads the ball
on a terra cotta plate,
and Romans, it is written,
played the game to prepare for battle.
Athlete statues glide in grace, out of, into
other fluid days.
Near Padua, mud of ages
slides in streams and rivers,
chalk-mud, sweet fern-and-fossil mud,
bark-and-spore mud; mud of mystery cures
to soothe the joints of ancient ones and me.
Wrapped in mud
I'm damp with one of them right now,
centurion, I think, whose bones rest somewhere
in this hot and creamy salve.
Will I come out pregnant and beloved,
come out knowing, being, something new?
Near Padua
mud's made whole and warm again
by rains and thermal streams,
by Isabella's oceans
and Kalamata sun that
heals and dries the fields
near Padua and keeps the quicklime
crisp.
© 1998 Anne Harding Woodworth,
all rights reserved.
Contact publisher
for re-print possibility
Originally published in Potomac Review, Spring, 1998
Back to soccer literature
|
United States
|
United Kingdom
|
|
Germany
|
France
|
My Vietnam Related Websites:
Women in Vietnam
~ Not only nurses served . . .
Dusty's Home Page
~ Poetry and prose by a woman who was a nurse in Vietnam
Emily's
Poetry ~ By a Red Cross Donut Dolly
Battle Dressing ~ The Journey of a Nurse in Vietnam
Tim O'Brien's Home Page
~ National Book Award Winner and Americal Vet
Shrapnel in the Heart
~ The most moving book you will read on Vietnam
The
Irish on the Wall ~ An effort to locate the Irish who died in Vietnam
Project
Hearts and Minds ~ Help put Viet Nam back together
All About Vietnam
~ An annotated bibliography of books about Vietnam for sale thru Amazon
Worldwide!
Photos from a Holts' Military History Tour
~ My trip to
Vietnam, February 1998
Illinois
Vietnam Women's Memorial ~ Honoring all the Illinois women who served
My Other Websites:
Chicago
Theatre Z - A ~ This is the best theater town in the country!
Writers
Theatre of Chicago ~ And this is the best theater in town
Literature
of the Korean War ~ Don't let the literature be forgotten
Poetry
of the First World War ~ Owen, Hardy and others
Samuel
Pepys ~ One of my favorite authors
Gil
Thorp ~ THE Coach
Maybe
Later . . . ~ My Creative Nonfiction
Chi-COW-go
~ Cowz plus Commentary (this used to be a cow town)
Graham
Fulton, Scottish Poet ~ Charles Manson Auditions for the Monkees
Soccer
Literature ~ I'm a fan and I read
O'Leary
Lantern ~ Fire! Fire! Fire!
Other Important Websites:
PreviewPort.com
~ Connecting Authors and Writers Worldwide
Remember
Oklahoma City ~ Civil Service and Military Employees will never forget
|
|
|
Page last updated September 19, 2002
|
