Venice by Joyce Goodwin

This poem was written by Joyce Goodwin about my piece, Billow, for the 2014 Poetry Meets Art event at Seymour Art Gallery.  Joyce's words: “Larissa Blokhuis with contoured coloured glass has imagined billowing smoke and steam.  But I with my Venetian memory am transported to a place of pink glass and palaces." 

Billow

VENICE

Aristocratic, defiant, aging mistress of the Adriatic, elegant still, her imperious look defying the ravages of time and history.  Cold as dawn, sharp as glass, rich with privilege she carries in her bones renaissance memories, of palaces and princes.  Secreted behind a crumbling facade, enlivened by pink glass, she is vulnerable to the sea that once brought her silk, spices and all the perfumes of Arabia.