Dream in Pienza and Other Poems: Selected Poems 1963–1977

By Toni Ortner

Dream in Pienza was originally published by the Timberline Press in a hand-set and hand-printed limited edition. The title poem, written in Rome, sings of the passion of unrequited love in another century. From birth through resurrection, we sweep our separate shores for sight of stars. Although the angels may have left us to our devices, we become the measure of what we believe. This is God’s gift to each of us.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Feb 2, 2016
• ISBN: 9781504029124

Toni Ortner

Toni Ortner lives in Brattleboro, Vermont where she is Vice President of the Write Action Board, a nonprofit organization that sponsors evengts and readings for writers in New England. She is the point person for the Write Action Radio Hour and hosts her own show the fourth Sunday of each month where she interviews writers and they read work. The program can be streamed on line at wvew.org Toni has had l4 books published by fine small presses. In 2012 Summoned (Goose River Press) was published. It is about six famous women who heard the call of the Divine and altered their lives to change history. These women speak in first person. Reviews of Summoned are online at Amazon reviews. The book can be ordered through gooseriverpress.com or as an e book. In 2012 Writing With Our Blood was published by Moon Publishing Company. The book honors 20th century women: writers, artists, survivors of war. There is a section devoted to Lyn Lifshin based on letters, a section on mothers and daughters and women friends The book can be ordred at www.moon publiishing. com or as an e book. In 2013 three new books will be published. A White Page Demands Its Letters and Traveling, a Perspective will be ;published by unboundcontent.com. Traveling, a Perspective is about a woman' transition after divorce. It is an honest, breathtaking account. Review by Lyn Lifshin can be seen on web.me,com/Ver,ontviews/vermontviews/Reviews Old%26New.html. Double Jeopardy will be published by Finishing Line Press. Toni is available for readings and teaching.

Book preview

Soft spring sing

for the long white path through the pines

is lined with fallen leaves like years

still we sweep our separate shores

for sight of stars.

Margot

I say

once white horses rose in the dawn

underneath my words

flow long days of laughter

sudden

sadness.

Sam, the Tailor Man

O tell them you’re not dead

there’s no such thing as death

you only turned left

at the green arrow

we

could not

follow

Dream in Pienza

The way to this place

took a long time in coming;

it is always like this

when one arrives through dreams

in the final place

where it is not possible

to stay;

part of the heart rebels

leaps out blind with the rage

of wanting,

grasps each moment with stiffened claws

and succeeds only

in entombing liquid gestures

like a marble monument,

ruins all the lovely hills with

monuments.

I sang the sunny part of the day

when white oxen grazed on trees,

the song of a child without thought

for whom things are as they are

not a forgetting;

long curved horns pierced the sky,

the earth a burnt sienna

the mountains huge and faded

to a soft and luminous blue

like a sleeping woman’s breasts,

the sky a fiercer blue at noon

had come down upon the land

lay flat and still upon her

and she waited white with heat.

Darkness came swiftly, as we rode

I lay back and saw

the sun, a yellow ball,

passing through the leaves

the rows of poplar trees

turned to the right then left

like giant spears

that Caesar’s troops had seen.

The sky a milky blackness

and the stars were clear

turned first to the right then left

and dizzied me.

It is dark and still;

we walk along the center road

that leads us out of town

and the ground is white behind us.

We step long steps in our shadows,

on either side

the cypress trees tower like black spires

and Scorpio