The Music of Venice – Writing Assignment #26
The Music of Venice
All photos by Lynda McKinney lambert. Copyright 2015.
Walking by Inner Vision Journal
Writing Assignment #27
I always remember the special nuances of a place I have visited when I listen to the music that is created by the local musicians and composers. I always shop for CDs of that particular music and bring it home so I can enjoy it. When I listen my memories come alive and I remember specific little activities or places of that place.
One of my favorite places to visit is Venice, Italy. Every summer I visited Venice during the Redintore Festival in July. As soon as I arrived at my hotel, I purchased tickets to a Vivaldi concert. Of course, I bought the CDs of those concert performances and listen to them often throughout the year.
Photo: Lunch at the Guggenheim Museum and Restaurant with my students.
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Here is a link if you would like to take a little cyber visit to Venice today. You can listen while you read my blog!
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Another activity I did in Venice was to walk through the city, then select a place where I could sit down and write in my journal. Some times, I opened up my sketch book and did drawing of the people, buildings, boats, and I wrote notes in the sketchbook, too.
Later, when you are back home, you will love looking through your sketchbooks and reading your notes once again. 
I use my notes and sketches to bring back the details of a special day. I turn them into a poem.
Here is a poem I wrote from such an experience, very early one morning as I sat beside the Grand Canal enjoying the beauty of the new day.
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Venezia, 7 a.m.
I hear deep bell sounds
From the Renaissance tower
morning announcements
Arrive in waves
embrace me low
surround me deep.
A duet begins
To shape this early light
mingled with lapping
pushing
surging
waves in the lagoon.
Polished black boats are tied
to terra cotta stone piers
covered by slippery gray mists.
An undulating shrill voice
somewhere
out of view
soars over
aqua cleansing waters.
Four Chinese women pause
form a circle
their heads lean back
mouths open wide as they laugh
at fat pigeons taking staccato strides.
The thin man in green cotton pants nods
as he sweeps away the debris
from the all-night celebration
his long flexible broom
scrapes away trash and fireworks
scattering them into the heavens.
The scratching of his broom
mingles with the chorus
of bells, birds, water,
women’s chatter
and the movement of my hand
as I write in this journal.
It is the morning after
Redintore Festival
once again
the Redeemer’s fireworks
have saved us from the plague.
It has now been 400 years
the sparks have kept us safe.
Bon Giorno!
Bon Giorno!
Published in “Concerti…Psalms for the Pilgrimage,” Kota Press, 2002.
Copyright 2002, 2015. Lynda McKinney Lambert. All rights reserved.
Writing Assignment #26
Walking by Inner Vision Journal
Create a short writing piece or a poem from your memories of a place you have visited. You can use my example in this essay as a guide to developing your own memory writing.