a portrait depicting the young wizard in early allegiance with Sprezzatura

Definition: sprezzatura: 1: studied nonchalance: perfect conduct or performance of something (an artistic endeavor) without apparent effort
2: to display an easy facility in accomplishing difficult actions which hides the conscious effort that went into them


ODE ON SPREZZATURA


My mother told me as a child that all the baptismal water in Italy
has traces of a glimmering amber,
and that this tinge of color in the colorless is the only
physical evidence of sprezzatura in its purest and most single self.

It otherwise moves in a willfully disguised spirit
through men and women crafting their lives privately
in a tireless fine-tuning,
only to glide through public life as if hatched from a race of grace.

"You can make the World move at your own pace,"
my mother would say to me,
as she mixed that same glimmering amber into my tea.
"You just need to master your eccentricities..."

And so I imbibed the counsel of you, Sprezzatura,
Godparent of skills sown secretly.
You stepped out of your infamy
and I saw the fruits of your handiwork:

wristwatches worn over the shirt cuff
a necktie used as a belt
unabashing, cleverly unmatching socks
toothpicks as accessories......
you and your monk strap shoes,
worn unbuckled and flapping like leather flags,
waving in what would appear as indifference to the winds of this world...

But what no one should know
is that you are the wind itself, invisible manipulator,
wind with agenda,
Always intentional in all your unintentionals.

I have been a sloppy disciple,
not for my lack of trying, but for letting it known how I do try.
I perspire in my aspirations.
I don't mind admitting how I've worked on this Ode alone for 14 years,
And I'll sometimes publicly regret choosing to have worn saddle shoes
to my first Holy Communion.

Help me, Sprezzatura. Silence my explanations.
I don't want to be read like a textbook,
I want to move like mythology, no apologies,
in allegiance forever with you and the eloquently elusive.