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Paestum, situated on the wide gulf of my home town, Salerno, is the place where my mother and father used to take me for picnics on bank holidays, where brides and their espouses go to be taken photographs, where tourists wonder like wasps with prickling cameras around these temples, where there are the most striking temples of the ancient world. Jamie McKendrick and I when we lived there used to travel often to Paestum even just for the sake of passing by the site by car at noon while aiming to reach Paestum, wide beaches of fine sand. In Jamie's last collection of poems The Marble fly (also in Sky Nails) there is a poem about Paestum. (The collection Marble Fly is in fact named after an ach-way in Pompei where there is a huge stone door on which we found hidden among thousand of other insects and micro-animals embossed in the white marble of this arch-way. If you click on this address, you will view one of the three temples. If you wish to see more just click on the arrow at the side of the photos and you will be given the entire list of available pictures of Paestum. It is a wonderful place. People normally go to Pompei, but rarely visit also Paestum. It is only 20 miles from it down the south passed Salerno. Erminia ----- Original Message ----- From: erminia <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Wednesday, October 20, 1999 12:16 AM Subject: Re: OLYMPIC INJURY & NOTHING BROKEN > Dear Hugh, > > I am terribly sorry to hear > of your injury at the Istituto Italiano di Cultura. > I really curse those steps that have made you fall > and hurt your elbow. > > The poem I wrote contains 2 (little, this time) > misprints (Sidney for Sydney and "or" instead of "of"). > It is also accompanied by a web-site address where by clicking you could > view > the picture of "La tomba del tuffatore", in the Museum of Paestum. > The picture was found painted in the internal wall of a massive stone > tomb during the archeological excavations (Salerno - Italy) > of the ancient Paestum (still named like this) where there are three intact > temples identical to those in Athens (and Syracuse). > The tomb belonged to a diver. The scene reproduces this young > athlete in the act of symbolically splashing into the eternal waters of > death, but also > represents his daily training from a trampoline for his Olympic > competitions). > I am adding it here the web-site again for you to view the tomb of the diver > in case you missed it.) > > http://www.comune.capaccio.sa.it/galleria_fotografica/35.htm > > Ciao and get better, > > Erminia > > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Hugh Tolhurst <[log in to unmask]> > To: <[log in to unmask]> > Sent: Wednesday, September 27, 2000 6:17 AM > Subject: OLYMPIC INJURY & NOTHING BROKEN > > > > Dear Helen & Erminia > > > > Thanks for your poems, which seem > > very much in the spirit of Sydney, though > > we've been given wonderful contasting > > New Zealand accounts earlier from Scott H. > > Everybody write whatever they feel like. > > > > I've been slow getting back through injury: > > my new shoes let med down on the stairs > > at the Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Melbourne. > > Nothing broken, but my elbow is bruised > > beyond writing comfort, and my lower back > > is not too flash. > > > > For these reasons, plus a holiday coming up > > near Byron Bay, I'm evacuating the poetry > > etc stadium for some time. > > > > I'll read the late September and October archives > > for Olympic Poems posts, of which I hope to see > > many more. My thanks to all poets concerned. > > > > Weren't the Iranian weightlifters good! > > > > Bye for now > > > > Hugh Tolhurst > > > > PS HEAT 15 is out in orange, apparently the first > > series is dead, long live HEAT (& Ivor Indyk) volume > > Two. The title poem of my second collection may be > > found on page 271. Uni of Newcastle made Ivor an offer > > he couldn't refuse, apparently. > > > > > > %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%