CT Poets’ Corner: Jim Finnegan’s poems explore our transitory existence – Hartford Courant
Giotto’s Circle
by Jim Finnegan
As Vasari’s story goes, Giotto’s signature
was a single perfect circle. Drawn in red, freehand
and quickly, almost casually to send a message to a Pope.
A circle that rippled over the seas…around the earth,
and widens still.
Confidence in one’s talent and facility
is a funny thing. It can come and go. By now
you must know that art is that circle. One that both
widens and tightens. It lets us in, but then as easily
it holds us out.
Sometimes we are inside the bait ball of small fish
that larger predatory fish keep reforming
and perfecting with their teeth. Sometimes the wobble
of a far planet means a dead star disturbs its orbit,
slowly reels it in.
It took a long time to realize your gift would never
be Giotto’s. That whatever circle you might draw
would be more like a tire that needed air. One hears
it throb and moan over miles of pavement, but
O, it rolls on.
Like Hartford’s renowned poet Wallace Stevens, poet Jim Finnegan of West Hartford works in insurance.In his poetry, Finnegan looks at our transitory existence and explores the mystery and anonymity of the self.
Source: CT Poets’ Corner: Jim Finnegan’s poems explore our transitory existence – Hartford Courant
