“In the stillness of the sundial,
time whispers its secrets.”

Curved lines and arches of thought,
Domed moments and vaulted meanings,
Sculptured language, light and shadow,
Twirling colonnades of connotation—
Suspended between dream and memory,
Like a line of poetry drawn across violin strings,
Painted beside a faded rose, reflected on glass.
Your verse, a harpsichord gliding
Along velvet stairs and mirrored salons,
The Baroque colliding with the modern—
Though the grandeur of your vision,
Like a sundial in a Sicilian garden,
Remains rooted to the wisdom of your land.

Author’s Note

Lucio Piccolo (1901–1969), Baron of Calanovella, was a Sicilian poet whose richly
textured, baroque verse evokes the decaying grandeur and dreamlike atmosphere of his
native land. He was the first cousin of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, author of The
Leopard. In fact, it was Piccolo’s late literary debut and subsequent recognition that
inspired Lampedusa to begin writing his only novel. The two shared a deep affinity for
European literature—especially Proust—and a melancholic sensibility rooted in the
fading world of the Sicilian aristocracy. This poem is a tribute to Piccolo’s ornate and
elusive style, which remains suspended between memory and myth.