Le campane del Lago d’Orta – a poem by Lizzie Ballagher

Le campane del Lago d’Orta

Across this mountain valley, bell
speaks to bell—tolling, turning, rolling:

first, that old flat bell—dead-march, riven with age—
so cracked the dumb mouth can no longer sing,
clapper a dull clang out of tune
with no echo for the air, none to knell
in limestone fissure or in rippled water.

Then a tenor bell sounds out: 
ringing tongue resonant, robust, 
reverberating from ruby trees far on the other side,
answered then by a third, a fourth, unseen
in shrines, in carillons higher up the mountain flanks.

Around.
A round of bells surrounding:
a roundel—note following note,
swinging in scale and semi-tone, resounding
in patterns of peals all rebounding to my breastbone, 

sound slow-flowing like glaciers
that once crowned the valley—aeons ago—
created waters that chimed, 
that chimed again with bells 
forever calling the simple:

to silence, to awe,
to prayer.

Note: Poetry on the Lake is an annual poetry festival that has been held on the shores of Lake Orta in Northern Italy since 2001. https://www.poetryonthelake.org/

One of the winners in Ireland’s 2024 Fingal Poetry Festival Competition and in 2022’s Poetry on the Lake, Lizzie Ballagher focuses on landscapes, both psychological and natural. She was a Pushcart nominee in 2018. Having studied in England, Ireland, and the USA, she worked in education and publishing. Her poems have appeared in print and online in all corners of the English-speaking world. Find her blog at https://lizzieballagherpoetry.wordpress.com/