Mongrel Doorway

Mongrel Doorway

The Sangemini doorway recycles stone

from Roman ruins, and statues that fell inscribed;

Two half lions crouch from pre-Romanesque times;

In the doorway jambs there is asymmetry;

On the right jamb’s top the diamond has no tip;

The tip is incised into the lintel stone;

Yet the grapevine beside the diamond pattern

Grows straight without break onto the lintel;

When it reaches the lintel the jamb-centred

plain vertical moulding becomes bead-and-reel;

Only the grapevine has a smooth transition;

The acanthus vine and leaves vary in style;

The ornamental styles are exuberant:

Different stone masons meet at their edges;

Sprawling acanthus vine with wild animals

and hunters Langobardise the left jamb;

pear faces ripen under Umbria’s sky;

Ready to feed the hot and hungry reapers,

A kind angel bears a fresh-baked panini,

And a cook blows his horn and stirs the porridge;

a bird eyes her chicks while a snake slithers close;

and three hounds harry tomorrow’s wild-boar feast;

The line of acanthus leaves on the lintel

Stands out in a crisp Byzantine silhouette

And stretches across with a sure Syrian touch;

The carved stag-to-stag is a Christian symbol;

But the eagle between the stags is pagan;

The quatrefoil rosettes and the leafy sprays

Chant their tune in plain Gothic naturalism.

Marble migrant in the Metropolitan,

This hand-made cultural cosmopolitan,

Had its home on the Flaminian Way,

Once held to the lintel by travertine blocks,

in the ruined abbey church of San Nicolo,

Founded by the old counts of Sangemini

Who bound the monks to say unceasing prayers

for the salvation of their Umbrian souls;

Its dazzle lies in its lively mongrel mix;

Human beings must effloresce exuberant

In the vitality of diversity;