Pic and a Word Challenge #185: Hairway to Steven

Let’s begin seriously, with a photo or two from all the churches, basilicas, cathedrals and the like that I have seen from the inside in the last seven years. The poem, my second ever villanelle, comes at the end because it’s silly.

Here are about twenty churches from Italy and Slovenia with a photo apiece (some get two photos because they cheat) but some are missing because I have no photos from there (for example Ljubljana Cathedral). Plenty for a non-believer, and yet, these are some of the most amazing places that I’ve seen.

We start with five in Rome, continue to Tuscany with a couple of abbeys and Siena Cathedral (haven’t been to Florence’s yet), make a quick stop in Muggia/Milje on the border between Italy and Slovenia and finish there, in my country of origin, with a couple of colourful ones and four locations in Piran for the end.

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  The last: The Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels and the Martyrs, Rome.

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  The first in 2012: St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican.

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  The Pantheon, Rome.

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  St. Paul’s Outside the Walls, Rome.

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  Basilica of Our Lady in Trastevere, Rome.

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  Sovana Cathedral.

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  Pitigliano Cathedral.

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  Abbey of Sant’Antimo.

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  Siena Cathedral.

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  Piccolomini Library inside the Siena Cathedral.

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  Abbey of San Galgano (without the roof).

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  One more from Abbey of San Galgano.

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  The sword in stone in Rotonda di Montesiepi above the Abbey of San Galgano.

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  The ceiling of the Rotonda di Montesiepi.

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  The church in Castagneto Carducci.

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  Duomo di Muggia.

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  And now a hop to Slovenia: Church of St. Michael, Lokev.

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  Saint Martin Parish church in Šmartno in Goriška Brda.

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  St. George’s Parish Church, Piran.

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  Piran Minorite Monastery.

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  One of smaller Piran churches.

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  A surprise in St. Clement and Punta Madonna church in Piran: A migrant scene withe the “Police line, do not cross”.

As for the poem, you will soon realise that it’s not just a villanelle but something else as well.

Hairway to Steven 

 This monkey’s gone to heaven.
 “Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens.
 Heaven knows I’m miserable now.”

 “I’m so tired, I don’t know what to do,
 feels like I'm knocking on Heaven's door!”
 This monkey’s gone to heaven.

 Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow:
 “I sold my soul to the company store.
 Heaven knows I’m miserable now.

 I’m so high, the sky I scrape.
 Blood on the rise, it’s following me.”
 This monkey’s gone to heaven.

 “I started a joke which started the whole world crying
 but I didn’t see that the joke was one me.
 Heaven knows I’m miserable now.”

 If man is five then the devil is six
 and if the devil is six then God is seven,
 this monkey’s gone to heaven
 and heaven knows he is miserable now. 

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That’s right, it’s a cento too, fully made from other people’s words. (Well, it was a lazy Sunday.) Here are the resources in order of appearance:

• Hairway to Steven: Butthole Surfers (Album title)
• Monkey Gone to Heaven: Pixies
• Heaven: Talking Heads
• Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now: The Smiths
• I’m So Tired: The Beatles
• Knocking on Heaven’s Door: Bob Dylan
• Life on Mars: David Bowie & Everything Zen: Bush
• Sixteen Tons: B. B. King/The Platters/Johnny Cash etc.
• In My Tree: Pearl Jam
• Peace Frog: The Doors
• I Started a Joke: Bee Gees/Faith No More

In response to Patrick Jennings’ Pic and a Word Challenge #185: Heavens