Author(s): Lesley Synge; Steven Moriarty (Cover Design by)

Poetry

Signora Bella can't resist touring Italy before she delivers a poetry workshop in Ravello. She beaches herself in Sicily, adds her caress to the worn cobblestones of Naples and Genoa, gets into alpine lakes and valleys, then swans around the medieval town of Ravello above the Amalfi Coast. In a three-line form somewhere between the haiku and Dante's terza rima, she hints at financial and other hardships, but these wounds do not dampen her love for the beauty and depth of Italian civilisation. She knows no-one gives a damn about whether she has adventures or not so she has them anyway. Her external journeys to Italy's north, centre, south and islands simultaneously pay homage to her Western literary heroes whether Shakespeare, DH Lawrence or Lampedusa She remains steadfastly under the influence of the East in the Zen practice of Japanese master poet, Basho. As the persona of Signora Bella searches for a complete alphabet in polished pebbles that are shot through with quartz giving the appearance of writing, she obliquely reveals a deeply personal purpose to her external and literary journeys. There is a hint when she is introduced to Baroque artist Artemesia Gentileschi in Naples. Finally, in her Author's Note, the writer reveals that, like Artemesia, she knows what it is like to be the victim of a sexual assault and her alphabet obsession is in fact preparation for an impending trial when she returns to her home in Australia.