“Behind the Leaning Tower of Pisa” by Richard Neuman
feet set upon faults
of a barren dark age
a Romanesque tower
arising from torpor
leans into an aura
of renaissance light
seven bells seven tiers
in precarious symmetry
lost of their plumb
arches flourished in
circular marble arcades
Galileo employed to
refute and invalidate
Aristotelean gravity
tall sacred portals
affording the
common and curious
prospect and perch
overlooking the cycles
of conquest and failure
by sovereign city-states
sorely afflicted
with habits of war
seven tiers seven bells
octave intervals
tuned to the scales
that awaken devotion
a calling to prayer for
the day and the morrow
a song of the future
a clarified music of hope
ringing high in the air
over desolate valleys
and unhappy hills
across torrents of time
undiminished its echoes
reach down through
the indifferent silence
of secular centuries
drowning the violent din
of fanatical heresies
echoes that live
just as long as the
evident beat of
one virtuous heart
