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Each day the perfectness Graces every Living thing With such glory It’s called the Golden Hour Vibrancy abounds Each color magnified The spender of nature In the Golden Hour This solis blaze To sip it’s sweetest flavor Honey dew filters all Awake the Golden Hour

Dancing quietly in my chair, To the quiet strains of a cheap Pinot Noir, Rhythm of the staccato drumbeats Of my fingers on your keys, As, in words of fantasy, I take you in my arms, Beneath an imaginary moon, Where I spend the evening Embracing your mind, Miming a close slow waltz. • Donovan Baldwin

Most beautiful flowers grow in earth, Becoming seductively delicious fruit, For nature is a sexy thing, Only enjoyed by those attuned To the sensual stimuli she offers Those who understand and gladly seize Her most unsubtle messages which So many, in mistaken virtue, ignore. • Donovan Baldwin

Fleeing through the European darkness, Leaving behind laughter and pain, Bringing joy or sadness, Onward rolls the Rome Express Pounding over the invisible German countryside, Where, in other times, the young men died. Faces tell stories, some of which are lies, A smile may cover sadness, A gloomy visage may hide a happy heart. Strangers, strangely intent on remaining strangers, Eyes avoiding eyes, souls avoiding souls, In dark windows of the cars, Outward looking eyes, Mingle with the stars. American soldier, German hausfrau, Turkish laborer, In the compartment, rich and poor mingled, Poured into this tiny, mobile room. Across the compartment sits a Sikh, With his uncut hair and beard. An old woman takes black bread and apple From her bag to make a meal. The train passes sleepy German villages In the night, Where, not too long ago A war was fought, Now, peacefully fading Into the night, And memory. • Donovan Baldwin Based on a ride I took, Germany, 1968

Writers from unknown lands Different language, Different clothes, Different customs, Different religions, Goes without saying, Atheists always different, Yet like me, friend, Or friendly enemy, Because we both Write and understand. • Donovan Baldwin I often run foreign language poems through Google Translate. The words may not be perfect, but I get so many beautiful ideas from the thoughts of other writers who write in another language.

Perhaps within my dreams As I wander bodiless, yet, With all the desires of Flesh and spirit, I find Another, a kindred soul, Whose words and being Match those of my aura Which floats about me, Our beings ethereal will Unite so solidly that Upon awakening we find That all has become real. • Donovan Baldwin

You take me places With your touch Exiling all that’s wrong The way your hands  Move over me  In tender loving ways You make me moan Knowing just where I need it most And when it's done I beg for more Expiring what I own I’ll miss your ways And scented oil Until next time

We find ourselves At a moment of wonder And are told that this Is an evil thing. How can this be that Such an exciting Exhilirating moment, The sharing of which Makes it exponentially More angelic for both Can be considered sin? I prefer a deity which Consecrates such times. • Donovan Baldwin

Tomorrow you’ll depart from earth never to return… It’s the last chance to enjoy all the foods for which you yearn. For on this new planet nothing is the same - the plants, the trees, the vines, the fowl and all the game. You can only have three of your foods to drink or eat so, what will you choose – a meat, a fruit – or something sweet? Without a second thought, I know what mine would be… Irish coffee, chocolate and some roasted chiles. A splash of Bailey’s in my cup warms my hands, clears my brain; and without a bite of chocolate, I think I’d go insane! Did you know that hot chiles take away the pain? There you have it – the three C’s coffee, chocolate, chiles – So, now I ask you this… What would yours be? ©Lorene Rogers Jan. 9, ‘23

The painting was commissioned by Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de’Medici, a cousin of Lorenzo the Magnificent. The theme was probably suggested by the humanist Poliziano. It depicts Venus born from the sea foam, blown by the west wind, Zephyr, and the nymph, Chloris, towards one of the Horai, who prepares to dress her with a flowered mantle. This universal icon of Western painting was probably painted around 1484 for the villa of Castello owned by Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de 'Medici. Giorgio Vasari saw the work there in the mid-sixteenth century – along with Botticelli’s other well-known Primavera – and described it precisely as "showing the Birth of Venus." The old idea that the two Botticelli masterpieces were created for the same occasion, in spite of their substantial technical and stylistic diversity, is no longer accepted. However, rather than a birth, what we see is the goddess landing on the shore of her homeland, the island of Cyprus, or on Kithera. The theme, which can be traced back to Homer and to Ovid’s Metamophoses, was also celebrated by the great humanist Agnolo Poliziano in the poetic verses of his Stanze. The Venus of the Uffizi is of the “Venus pudica” type, whose right breast is covered by her right hand and billowing long blond hair partially shrouds her body. The goddess stands upright on a shell as she is driven towards the shore by the breeze of Zephyrus, a wind god, who is holding the nymph, Chloris. On the right is the Hora of springtime, who waits to greet Venus ashore with a cloak covered in pink flowers. The seascape, stunning for its metaphysical tone and almost unreal quality, is illuminated by a very soft, delicate light. Like Botticelli’s other masterpiece, Pallas and the Centaur, the Birth of Venus is painted on canvas - fairly unusual for its time - using a technique of thin tempera, based on the use of diluted egg yolk, which lends itself particularly well to give the painting that aspect of extraordinary transparency, which brings to mind the pictorial quality of a fresco. The figure recalls classical sculpture and is very similar to the famous Medici Venus found in the Uffizi, which the artist certainly knew. The real meaning of this dreamlike vision is still under scholarly debate and investigation but is undoubtedly linked with the Neo-Platonic philosophy, widely cultivated in the Medici court. Like the Primavera, the Birth of Venus is also associated with the concept of Humanitas,or virtuous Humanity, a theory developed by Marsilio Ficino in a letter to the young Lorenzo. According to the interpretation by Ernst Gombrich, the work depicts the symbolic fusion of Spirit and Matter, the harmonious interaction of Idea and Nature. Nevertheless, the interpretations of this painting of extraordinary visual impact are numerous and diverse. The divine ethereal figure has been viewed as an allegorical representation of Humanitas upon her arrival to Florence, while the nymph holding out the cloak of flowers for the goddess may perhaps be identified as Flora, the same depicted in this masterpiece’s “twin”, the Primavera, where she may be seen instead as the personification of the city of Florence. From this work emerges clear evidence of Botticell’s strive to reach perfection of form that could rival with classical antiquity. It is for this reason that the humanist Ugolino Verino in his work Epigrammata, presented in 1485 to the King of Hungary, Matthias Corvinus, likened the Florentine painter to the legendary Apelles of Ancient Greece. Details Title: The birth of Venus Creator: Sandro Botticelli Date Created: 1483 - 1485 Style: Reinassance Provenance: Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici family collections Physical Dimensions: w2785 x h1725 mm Original Title: La nascita di Venere Type: painting Medium: Tempera on panel