Reading:
‘Don’t use the present participle or gerund unless you specifically mean a continuing state of being or doing. It’s bad English!’ Battersea Grammar School c. 1948 States of Being on the Aventino Drinking hot coffee with Almond croissants in bed In the Hotel San Anselmo, Listening to Gregorian chant Floating into our room from The Benedictine seminary hiding Behind high walls across the road. What are they saying in there, praying? Sitting in the shade of Orange trees in the Giardino degli Arancini - Their bitter fruit is not for eating - Observing newly wedded couples In their gleaming suits and trailing gowns Parading and posing for Their wedding photographs. Relaxing in late evening In the square of Piranesi Watching Chinese tourists Peeping through the keyhole In the gateway to the garden Of the villa of the Knights of Malta Photographing floodlit San Pietro With their mobile phones. Regretting we must leave for home Next morning. Last minute shopping In Testaccio. Already missing Rome Although we’re not departing till the Afternoon. Reading Messaggero when I should be packing. And wondering Why I keep forgetting when and how To form the gerund ending in Italian.
Peter Lloyd Jones 