May 29: "Italian Palindrome," Small Claims Court, "Really Good at Heart"

Billy Collins gets poetic in two languages . . . 

Italian Palindrome

by: Billy Collins

A man.

A plan.

A canal.

Canaletto!

Now, here's a poem that needs a little context.  Giovanni Antonio Canale was an Italian artist who is famous primarily for his incredibly detailed paintings of cities, especially Venice, with its canals and boats.  Of course, Collins is playing in this poem with both Canaletto's name and subject matter, as well as sound and music.  

The original palindrome this poem is based upon goes like this:  "A man, a plan, a canal--Panama!"  (Go ahead, read it forward and backward.)  So, Collins is also doing what poets should do in their work--making something old new again, and he does it in a pretty witty way.

Here is my palindrome for this evening:  Mad dog goddam.  (I'm too tired to come up with something smarter and funnier.) 

Over the past year, I've written about how my little puppy (Juno) was attacked by a much larger dog and severely injured, requiring two major surgeries and hours of physical therapy.  I've also written about my struggles with getting all the medical bills (including my ER visit--the attacking dog did a good job chewing up my hands, as well) paid for by the other dog's owner and the owner of the business where the attack occurred.  It has been a little ugly.

Today, we finally had our day in small claims court.  I had no idea what was going to happen.  The judge asked us once again to sit down together and try to work things out before we moved forward with the case (something that failed abysmally the last time we met with the court mediator) .  I'm not going to go into detail about what was said during the meeting today.  However, we reached an agreement, and it's done.

This whole situation has really tested my faith in the goodness of people.  I always try to believe the very best about every individual I meet.  Unfortunately, I have come to the conclusion that people just plain suck sometimes.

Saint Marty has the scars on his hands to prove it.

Really Good at Heart

by: Martin Achatz

Maybe Anne was right

about people, but tonight

I prefer a dog's soft

chin on my knee to

the traffic jam of words

honking on the interstate

between my ears.