<div class="line">1. <span style="font-style: italic;">Decide if buying a home is right for you</span></div>
<div class="line">Tomorrow morning, wake at dawn and look up at the sky</div>
<div class="line">consider if it might fall, crack open and/or turn</div>
<div class="line">and whether you ever want to see it again.</div>
<div class="line"> </div>
<div class="line">2. <span style="font-style: italic;">Decide if you should sell first</span></div>
<div class="line">In your head, price tag your belongings, weigh up</div>
<div class="line">the weights in your life and wait to see if they add up</div>
<div class="line">to a mass that has value, a total that others would want.</div>
<div class="line"> </div>
<div class="line">3. <span style="font-style: italic;">Decide on your budget</span></div>
<div class="line">Is that total, the sum of your life’s worth anything</div>
<div class="line">to anyone? Does it hold up to your self-worth</div>
<div class="line">and is it worth more or less than your intangible parts?</div>
<div class="line"> </div>
<div class="line">4. <span style="font-style: italic;">Get your finances in place</span></div>
<div class="line">Stack coins in order of cleanliness,</div>
<div class="line">notes in order of softness</div>
<div class="line">cheques in order of love.</div>
<div class="line"> </div>
<div class="line">5. <span style="font-style: italic;">Decide where you want to live</span></div>
<div class="line">Compare the surface of the sun with the moon,</div>
<div class="line">dredge up the pond and place the fish on the line,</div>
<div class="line">breathe in the air from every continent before dying.</div>
<div class="line"> </div>
<div class="line">6. <span style="font-style: italic;">Choose a specific property</span></div>
<div class="line">Make sure to lick each brick and twang the aerial,</div>
<div class="line">consider the lives that have passed by and if they looked</div>
<div class="line">in the window, imagined themselves living in the living room.</div>
<div class="line"> </div>
<div class="line">7. <span style="font-style: italic;">Make an offer – and get it accepted</span></div>
<div class="line">Offer skin, offer tea cosies, offer light,</div>
<div class="line">offer the tie around your neck, offer offal,</div>
<div class="line">offer more than you have by one single petal.</div>
<div class="line"> </div>
<div class="line">8. <span style="font-style: italic;">Arrange a mortgage</span></div>
<div class="line">Turn left at the hospital, go past the charity shop,</div>
<div class="line">turn right at the pharmacist, round the back of the library,</div>
<div class="line">opposite the primary school—there you’ll find the devil’s door.</div>
<div class="line"> </div>
<div class="line">9. <span style="font-style: italic;">Hire a solicitor or conveyancer</span></div>
<div class="line">File down a lucky coin and drag it along your palm,</div>
<div class="line">let the blood settle on tissue paper, the iron</div>
<div class="line">and fibres embracing on their desk.</div>
<div class="line"> </div>
<div class="line">10. <span style="font-style: italic;">Decide if you want a survey</span></div>
<div class="line">See! The cracks! Hear! The mice!</div>
<div class="line">Smell! The damp! Taste! The dust!</div>
<div class="line">Touch! The emptiness in every room!</div>
<div class="line"> </div>
<div class="line">11. <span style="font-style: italic;">Arrange a deposit</span></div>
<div class="line">Gather your friends and family, sit them</div>
<div class="line">around a fire, build that fire to the tallest tree</div>
<div class="line">and ask them to collect every ash flake.</div>
<div class="line"> </div>
<div class="line">12. <span style="font-style: italic;">Exchange contracts</span></div>
<div class="line">Eyes – Fish Tank – Rollerblades – Steak</div>
<div class="line">– Cape – Hatred – Job – Subordinates – Balaklava –</div>
<div class="line">Cocktails – Horses (contracts exchanged)</div>
<div class="line"> </div>
<div class="line">13. <span style="font-style: italic;">Final arrangements and negotiations</span></div>
<div class="line">I was engaged at four to my mother’s hairdresser’s</div>
<div class="line">daughter. I can still feel her tiny hand in my mine</div>
<div class="line">but I can’t remember her name.</div>
<div class="line"> </div>
<div class="line">14. <span style="font-style: italic;">Complete the sale</span></div>
<div class="line">Shake hands across the threshold, make eye</div>
<div class="line">contact for a second too long, make this uncomfortability</div>
<div class="line">part of the process, remember their joyful regret.</div>
<div class="line"> </div>
<div class="line">15. <span style="font-style: italic;">Take possession of your new home</span></div>
<div class="line">Lock the door, lie on the floor, stare at the ceiling,</div>
<div class="line">the new plaster sky that is yours to paint anew</div>
<div class="line">and a future you will make from someone else’s past.</div><figure class="wp-block-audio"><audio controls src="https://admin.rattle.com/audio/CoppolaHome.mp3"></audio></figure>

Graduation

Synapses and Stardust

A Step-by-Step Guide to Buying a Home

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><a href="https://admin.rattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/sarah-jane-crowson.webp"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="908" height="908" src="https://admin.rattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/sarah-jane-crowson.webp" alt="" class="wp-image-47655" srcset="https://admin.rattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/sarah-jane-crowson.webp 908w, https://admin.rattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/sarah-jane-crowson-300x300.webp 300w, https://admin.rattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/sarah-jane-crowson-150x150.webp 150w, https://admin.rattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/sarah-jane-crowson-768x768.webp 768w, https://admin.rattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/sarah-jane-crowson-600x600.webp 600w, https://admin.rattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/sarah-jane-crowson-100x100.webp 100w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 908px) 100vw, 908px" /></a><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Image: &#8220;Diaphona&#8221; by <a href="https://sarah-janecrowson.com/">Sarah-Jane Crowson</a>. &#8220;My Animal Understudy Replaced Me in the School Production of <em>The Tempest</em>&#8221; was written by <a href="https://twitter.com/mrluigicoppola">Luigi Coppola</a> for <em>Rattle’</em>s Ekphrastic Challenge, February 2022, and selected as the Editor&#8217;s Choice. (<a href="https://admin.rattle.com/ekphrasis/EEFeb22.pdf">PDF</a> / <a href="https://admin.rattle.com/ekphrasis/EEFeb22.jpg">JPG</a>)</figcaption></figure><div class="line">Cast as Caliban, my shuddered spine</div>
<div class="line">and wrung hands hid me in the wings</div>
<div class="line">when my cue came. I sweated through</div>
<div> </div>
<div class="line">the makeshift costume of tissue feathers</div>
<div class="line">and glued fur and plastic teeth and rubber</div>
<div class="line">claws and cardboard scales and rug skin</div>
<div class="line">and tinfoil tusks and foam horns and wire</div>
<div class="line">wings and a sting that flopped behind me,</div>
<div class="line">an amalgamation of animals, both free now</div>
<div class="line">and fossilised then, all brought to semi-</div>
<div> </div>
<div class="line">life offstage. Paper mâché hooves clung</div>
<div class="line">to the boards, treading a stillness that</div>
<div class="line">couldn’t be moved no matter how much</div>
<div class="line">the teacher/director/failed actor push-pulled,</div>
<div class="line">shout-whispered, tug-shoved at my stuffed-</div>
<div> </div>
<div class="line">bursting frame. Then something inside me</div>
<div class="line">stepped out: part me, part free; part human,</div>
<div class="line">part animal; part thought, part instinct.</div>
<div class="line">I watched from my wingless wings</div>
<div class="line">and envied what I heard and saw and</div>
<div> </div>
<div class="line">felt: every word spoken spotlighted;</div>
<div class="line">every step stilled the air; every gesture</div>
<div class="line">so weighted they shook the hands of all</div>
<div class="line">that watched. The servant acted equal</div>
<div class="line">to the master—and so was, amongst</div>
<div class="line">the noises, sounds, and sweet airs of the isle,</div>
<div class="line">the aisle, the stage, and this brave new world.</div>
<div> </div>
<div class="line">The applause lasted the length of a storm.</div>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em><br />Bonus: </em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Luigi turned this poem into a song and lyric video—view that <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m68GmJV9Ifg">here</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><iframe loading="lazy" title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/m68GmJV9Ifg" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p><figure class="wp-block-audio"><audio controls src="https://admin.rattle.com/audio/CoppolaUnderstudy.mp3"></audio></figure>

Salmon Shreds in Gravy

Ekphrastic Challenge

Back to the Beginning Which Is to Say I Am the End

My Animal Understudy Replaced Me in the School Production of The Tempest

<p class="author"><i>Luigi Coppola | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/poetrypreacher/">@poetrypreacher</a></i></p>
<div class="body-text"><a href="https://admin.rattle.com/rattle64/eCoppolaFind.jpg"><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter" style="border: 2px solid black;" title="Find by Luigi Coppola" src="https://admin.rattle.com/rattle64/eCoppolaFind.jpg" alt="Find by Luigi Coppola, poem written computer screen" /></a></div>
<div class="body-text"><b>poetrypreacher</b> #poetry #instapoetrylib #friends</div>


Dear God

The Facts

Find

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><a href="https://admin.rattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/vasu-tolia.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="861" height="1024" src="https://admin.rattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/vasu-tolia-861x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-49597" srcset="https://admin.rattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/vasu-tolia-861x1024.jpg 861w, https://admin.rattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/vasu-tolia-252x300.jpg 252w, https://admin.rattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/vasu-tolia-768x914.jpg 768w, https://admin.rattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/vasu-tolia-600x714.jpg 600w, https://admin.rattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/vasu-tolia.jpg 1000w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 861px) 100vw, 861px" /></a><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Image: &#8220;Belle of the Ball&#8221; by <a href="http://www.vasutolia.com/">Vasu Tolia</a>. “My Mother Was a Dancer and She Never Looked Back” was written by <a href="https://www.luigicoppolapoetry.blogspot.co.uk/">Luigi Coppola</a> for <em>Rattle’</em>s Ekphrastic Challenge, January 2019, and selected as the Editor&#8217;s Choice.</figcaption></figure><div class="line">and why would you when up ahead is vermilion,</div>
<div class="line">gold, when the dress you wear is billowed</div>
<div class="line">by poise, hemmed with every minute</div>
<div class="line">of every hour you practised, each step a step</div>
<div class="line">forward, each twirl gathers momentum</div>
<div class="line">for the next movement, the soles of feet</div>
<div class="line">parallel, straight, laced, hair tied tight, draped down</div>
<div class="line">a shoulder, taut in tense air where hopes spring</div>
<div class="line">up like sped-up film, seed to flower in seconds</div>
<div class="line">and that is how fast life feels—if you turn your head</div>
<div class="line">for a moment you’ve missed it, left wondering</div>
<div class="line">where has my partner gone, where is the audience,</div>
<div class="line">who has been judging me this whole time?</div><figure class="wp-block-audio"><audio controls src="https://admin.rattle.com/audio/CoppolaDancer.mp3"></audio></figure>

Shopping Cart
items

August 2, 2019FindLuigi Coppola

Sign up for our Newsletter

August 2, 2019FindLuigi Coppola

Related

A Step-by-Step Guide to Buying a Home by Luigi Coppola

My Animal Understudy Replaced Me in the School Production of The Tempest by Luigi Coppola

My Mother Was a Dancer and She Never Looked Back by Luigi Coppola