July 29, 2017

BELLS

Do you have any bells ringing

and they send their sound through your windows from a nearby church?

Listen! 

Maybe you do 

and you don't hear them.

Do you have any prayers

coming in your windows

from a nearby church or person?

Listen! 

Maybe they are sounding 

or praying for you and you don't hear them.

© Andy Costello, Reflections  2017

HOME  AGAIN 

Do we have to go home again

to figure out why we left home

in the first place? Distance does

make the heart grow fonder as

well as make the mind go wander.

Sometimes we have to see another

doing what we did, in order to see

what we did in the first place. Life….

© Andy Costello, Reflections  2017

Scenes from the movie, Brooklyn

BACK  TO  SCHOOL: 

DANTE ALGHIERI 

Have you read Dante's Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso?

Before you die - before the Divine Comedy is over or begins, before you enter  Paradiso (Please God, please!) read Dante and see how close he was to how we pictured the hereafter.

Here are a few YouTube presentations on Dante. Go  through the lectures etc. before you read his Divine Comedy.

BACK TO SCHOOL: 

HIERONYMUS  BOSCH 

Once one looks at the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch, we sort of can't forget them. They are tattooed onto one's memory.  

That happened to me.  

When I had the chance to visit Vienna, Austria in 1984, I had on my list of "Must See!" a museum that had some of the paintings of Bosch. "Woo!"  was my reaction.

Then when I was in  Bruges, Belgium, I saw some more of Bosch. Once more I thought, "Woo" and "Woe!"

The following are some talks and some stuff on Bosch. Visit these YouTube videos and find yourself in the middle of some fascinating imaginings. 

You can also find a lot more by going into Google and typing in "Hieronymus Bosch" - as well as, "YouTube Hieronymus Bosch".

July 28, 2017

DAILY   HELL

What was going on in the lives

of Hieronymus Bosch and Dante

Alghieri that they described their

daily life the way they did? Inferno!

My life:  not a golf course of horrors

like Bosch’s canvasses of naked

people jabbing people with spears and

gigantic knives cutting people in half.

Nor like a dark wood - in a midlife

crisis - like Dante’s journey through

an Inferno in the nine circles of hell,

navigating its hills and horrors.*

Daily hell? Of course there are everyday

problems like the crush and rush of

traffic jams - but there are also ice cream

cones on a hot summer night: Paradiso.

So Dante and Bosch - you’re a bit too much.

But Dante and Bosch - when I read your words

and look at your pictures, I’d have to admit,

I want heaven and to be far from hell. Amen.

© Andy Costello, Reflections  2017
*"Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita."

Dante [c. 1265-1321]
Great Nose

Dante listening to Dante

with his ear buds....

JULY  27, 2017

MORE THAN WORDS

Talking to each other is much

more than words. Sometimes

the other hears our tone, our

volume, and hesitations and

our pauses - and what we are

not saying. Words, words ….

It’s so much more than simply

saying, “I’m listening. I’m here.
I love you. How are you today?”

  

© Andy Costello, Reflections  2017

July 26, 2017

DADDY’S  CHAIR 

My dad made this chair.

I don’t know who painted it last,

but my dad made this chair.

It was down our cellar in Brooklyn

all through our childhood and it

was perfect for our game, “Who’s king!”

He made it from wood he found

on the beach near the 69^th Street pier

at the water of  Brooklyn’s Narrows.

My sister told me later on in life

what I never knew all through his life,

“Oh yeah, daddy  made that chair.”

And it’s taken me a lifetime to realize

he made me as well. So dad, king,

sit down and tell me what else you made. 

© Andy Costello, Reflections  2017