Libation

A gift of time measured
yet boundless
Promise and pain
within its presence
Joy and love
within its sharing
Life and purpose within its passing
Within this abnegation
lies the secret of grandeur
The giving over for the having
The offering for the receiving.

Rose Marie Raccioppi



Evelyn De Morgan (British, 1850-1919) *Eos Painting, 1895 Oil on canvas. , Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, South Carolina, USA

Known Be His Hand

If not for the depths of love and despair
Know I of God’s word and embracing care
Each moment of darkness, doubt or fear
Each loss, hurt, pain or tear
Awakens within a knowing sublime
God be ever present in blessings mine
A purpose unfolds, known be His hand
And held I in God’s loving command.

Rose Marie Raccioppi


The Creation of Adam (Genesis 1.26a, 2.7.) Michelangelo's portrayal of God's hand reaching out to Adam's
The Creation of Adam (fresco), detail from the Sistine Chapel ceiling.

Lure Divine

Pangs of a ravenous hunger pulse within this heart
Chambers void and barren when from you I depart
Prods of passion to awaken this questing soul
Yield I to the echo, the chime of the calling toll
Ascent these waves of emotion cresting free
From this depth of knowing I shall not flee
Piano, piano each key a seductive lure divine
Touch, and be known this heart, this soul mine.

Rose Marie Raccioppi


In Dedication to Sandro Russo on the occasion of his performance,
December 16, 2008, Bechstein Salon, NY

Life Times Unfold

Visions, shrouds, lifetimes unfold
Quest ever present, a story told
From torn and tattered threads of time
Woven new a swaddling divine
This silent call I am to heed
Revelation is Wisdom's way and creed
Cradled in TRUTH the muse is heard
Known is sweet slumber and known is God's WORD
Awakened by Spirit, Life's song to be sung
Each moment, each day, each lifetime begun
Memory of shadow, light ever cast
This melody of time now and past.

Rose Marie Raccioppi


The Protection of Baby Zeus, Rhea and Cronus

Heed Wise The Muse

Heed wise the Muse, your counsel of soul
God’s blessings to mark your goal
Another’s time and glory
And now ‘tis my story
Others have walked in the sun
My time has now just begun
Words of knowing within my heart
From this joy I shall newly start
Another’s creation in celebration
And I God’s eternal revelation
The plea from grace now known
I in gratitude for creation shown
The sculptor’s hand
In God’s command
Line and form to reveal
God’s beauty constant and real
Spectrum of color from a palette divine
Immortal the quest this moment be mine
The artist’s unveiling, the poet’s word
And the music, the music, to be ever heard
Heed wise the Muse, your counsel of soul
God’s blessings to mark your goal.

Rose Marie Raccioppi

Play I The Light

So sweet is this song of the winds I hear
Bygone yet heard within my heart so near
Strings to sound within this soul mine
Play I the light of the firmament divine.

Rose Marie Raccioppi


Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, best known as Guercino or Il Guercino, 1591-1666, Italian Baroque painter from the region of Emilia, and active in Rome and Bologna, St Francis with an Angel Playing Violin, Oil on canvas, 162 x 127 cm

Appassionata

"Appassionata"

This pulsating pleading passion

rapture and pain

ecstasy grasping for the eternal

fleeting frivolity

thunderous echoes of silence

maudlin, tempered and dark

despair dispelled

the sounding ascension

awakening

movements of innocence

joyful exuberance

the spirit as itself

all sound

all silence

being

quell not these passions

the yearning fires of the soul

devour pain and loss.



Rose Marie Raccioppi