Paul Goldfinger Photo. Pont du Gard in southern France. Click onceto enlarge. Tri-X collection.
Roman engineers designed this 3 tier aqueduct in the first century to provide water to the Roman colony of Nimes. It was used for centuries, but now it is mainly a tourist attraction. We posted a closeup of its structure on Blogfinger . The link is below.
Greetings from Manhattan. Over fifty years ago, my grandmother said a few things to me shortly before she died that I knew would eventually find their way into a poem. Here is “Grandmother’s Note” from my 2008 collection, Father of Water.
It’s April in Paris, right now. And it is a fine time to visit that most romantic of cities, but sometimes April there can dip down to the 40’s—sound familiar?
And, despite Yip Harburg’s lyrics for “April in Paris,” chestnuts in blossom don’t happen until May, and nobody is setting “holiday tables under the trees.”
In Luxembourg Gardens, blooms are starting to pop in April, and they have a bandstand there.
However, choose May to visit Paris.
This song, “April in Paris” was written by Yip Harburg and Vernon Duke for a 1932 Broadway show called, Walk a Little Faster.
“I never knew the charm of spring
I never met it face to face
I never knew my heart could sing
I never missed a warm embrace
“Till April in Paris.
Whom can I run to?
What have you done to my heart?”
Harburg also wrote the lyrics for “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”
Many have recorded “April in Paris,” but this is Kurt Elling’s version from his album The Messenger.
St. Sauveur Cathedral in Aix-En-Provence, southern France. Their organ is from 1745. Eileen Goldfinger photo.
JOHN COLTRANE: “I Wish I Knew” (1945) by Harry Warren (music) and Mack Gordon (lyrics). These two composers paired up to provide music for many Broadway shows and movies.
This song, “I Wish I Knew” was featured in the Betty Grable and Dick Haymes movie Diamond Horshoe. Another standard from that movie is “The More I See You. ”
“I wish I knew someone like you could love me
I wish I knew you’d place no one above me
Did I mistake this for a real romance?
I wish I knew, but only you can answer.”
The Musée D’Orsay is an art museum on the Left Bank in Paris. It has a large collection of Impressionistic and Post-Impressionistic masterpieces.
Those bare breasted women in the image above, probably early 20th century beauties, are relaxing in the Paris sunshine, proudly displaying their loveliness. And the other three women, the warm blooded variety of today, are enjoying their company without evident embarrassment.
The photograph above shows that nothing changes—that everything old is new again.