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David Black

Looking Skyward in the Pantheon

  • You never took it for granted,

    the Rotunda—no matter that you passed it

    daily on your way to Mincer’s Pipe Shop

    or the University Diner for grilleds and ice cream—

    no matter that you and the Team once

    suspended a garbage can and blue flag

    flaunting a giant brassiere

    atop the flagpole just in front—

    no matter that you and Henry Taylor

    explored its innards at 2:00 A.M.

    through passages long since locked—

     

    once standing beneath that awesome dome

    you felt yourself in sacred space.

     

    And now, walking into the Pantheon,

    you feel that familiar weight, and more.

    Even without a guidebook, you see

    the perfect symmetry of the dome

    above the cube—sense the lunar cycle

    of the twenty-eight coffers

    in each row—find yourself in the path

    of the god’s eye centered above you,

    even after eighteen centuries

    still unwindowed and open to the rain.

     

    What manner of worship or sacrifice

    took place here, you do not know,

    but your heart bypasses all doubts

    and mysteries. A-tremble

    beneath this manmade sky, you find yourself

    going to your knees, no matter

    what god puts you there.

     

     

1 comment
  • David Black
    David Black The first part of this poem is set in Charlottesville, VA where I attended UVA, and Jefferson designed a building called "The Rotunda," modeled after the Pantheon in Rome. The second part comes from a visit to Rome and the Pantheon.
    January 20, 2011