Claudio

Above the stars
But beautiful 
Concealed
Darkness

…heard the most perfect music I had ever heard in my life. It was directed by the most famous Claudio Monteverdi … who was also the composer and was accompanied by four theorbos, two cornettos, two bassoons, one basso de viola of huge size, organs and other instruments…

Like a child
Waiting

For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven. Matt.18:10

Giovanni e Lucia, Wistreich (2007), p. 261

All the music is lost

(For Hugh’s son, who is now 22. Claudio is severely disabled)

.

Each day

each day
the light returns

immune to
sadness

wondrous

.

A curve of harbour

A curve of harbour
Below
Crisp light
Depths of history
Elemental
Fresh
Godliness

Here
I
Joined with my family

Kept
Love

My father at rest
Near

Oratory
Plain
Quiet
Religion
Silent
True

.

Havah

Certainly, we are not what we are,
for solitude can make us more, and kindness –
for what we are is tempered by a star,
see, its holiness, shining high.
Impassible, and yet, each night a wind.
Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel. For I
was lifted up – that we be intertwined.
A kinship – humility that is unshy.
On Friday morning I waited in the rain.

I prayed, Havah, the mother of children.
My lips became warm. Without complaint
a waning moon relinquishes its light,
for as a grain descends, a baptism,
a starry multitude, night’s quietism.

.

Claudius invading Britain

Claudius gathered together a formidable army.

The troops were indignant at the prospect of campaigning outside the known world.

A lighthouse was built at Boulogne by Caligula, to act a beacon for the craft passing across the channel.

As a monument to his success, he built a lofty tower, upon which he ordered lights to be burnt at night-time,
for the direction of ships at sea.

http://www.roman-britain.co.uk/the-roman-conquest-of-britain/the-claudian-invasion-of-britain-43-
ad/#google_vignette
Cassius Dio Cocceianus: The Histories of Rome, Book 80, Chapter 19.
Suetonius: The Twelve Caesars: The Life of Caligula, Book Three, Chapter 46.

(Claudio from Latin, Claudius)