Tuscan Hillsides.

I thought I'd be a geek and share some poetry that I've written. It's not very good, and what there is of it is old, as it was written while I was in college. But a professor I respect had a good word for some of it at one time, so here it is.

A note about this first piece: I'd forgotten I had written it, and I'm not sure when I wrote it, as it's in a sketch book and is not dated. But it must have been in the fall of 1995, because I bought this particular sketchbook while I was studying abroad at Harlaxton College. The title is the same as this post, as that is what I was thinking about at the time. Here it is.

Tuscan Hillsides

Dew dappled fields of sun-kissed vine,
sweet honeysuckle and fragrance of thyme.
Knelling of bells in misty valleys of June,
jux't by the glimm'rous midsummer moon;
red rays of twilight cast their light
over the hills that I knew i' the night.
Down lonely roads we make our paces
through Tuscan hillsides and Etruscan places;
paths trodden by farmer, soldier, and serf,
forgotten tears wept in the war-bloodied turf.
I follow the ways as the bells toll my song,
sweet music echoes; I pause over-long.

These hills to my lonely heart do cry,
yet for my love I must bid them goodbye.

(c) Copyright Jezla 1995.