A few days after my arrival in Rome I visited Santa Maria degli Angeli not far from Rome's main station.
It's a huge spacious building and I wandered in and was looking at walls and windows, looking for sheep and wolves (my current project). I came to a cordoned off area and looked down and there at my feet was this rather attractive sheep. I walked along a bit further: a cow at my feet (a previous poetic project); walked yet further and I saw twins. That was the moment the penny dropped. Across the floor of this enormous church is an astrological calculator.
I have a Literature Residency at the BR Whiting Library in Rome (funded by the Australia Council) and I'm exploring the stories, the symbols, the politics and histories around wolves and lambs.
Here's my response to the church I went into that day.
Santa
Maria degli Angeli
the angels are all here
they are stars
they constellate
across the centre of this church
earth’s ecliptic
laid out like an Italian feast
here is the ewe Aries
here is Queenie the cow
here the devilish twins
the old ones are here too
come to see the layout
the spread
across the transept
la
linea meridian
just as our ancestors did
here light falls
indicating the equinox
the ewe
the lamb tells us
with precision
when spring has come
