we are back here again,
offering up prayers to the patron saint of lost things.

we are haunted by eidolons of past states,
snapshots of perfect moments,
lingering phantom pain.

the monument is
swept away by an ocean
of time and desire,

lost to the seabed
and laid to rest.

Deus, Nossa Senhora e Santo António

Acredito em Deus com amor, convicção,
Rezo com a fé do coração.
Na estrada da vida e da sorte,
Deus nos dá a vida e a morte….

Virgem Maria, eterna Mãe e companhia,
Me iluminas com luz resplandecente,
Durante a noite e o dia,
Hoje, amanhã e sempre.


Santo António, de Padova , Lisboa saudosista,
Dos doutores Deus te abençoo,
Amor do Teu Deus te santificou,
Doutor celestial meu predilecto,
És meu Santo com afecto….


Tua linda catedral,
Te toquei com encanto divinal,
És santo com doce ternura,
Tudo por ti tem cura…

Victor Marques

I am Bic Pentameter
Bic Pentameter is my name
Rhythm is my business
Time management is my game

Short, Long & Sons employ me
To tidy up their verse
The satirists are not too bad
But Catullus is a curse

I have danced with Sappho
Brought Shakespeare home for tea
Swapped pretty tales with Byron
Bounced da Padova on my knee

Marlowe picked a fight for nought
Auden spiked my drink
Wordsworth was insomnolent
He never slept a wink

Yeats, now there's an anecdote
Worthy of the press
The critic's choice by all accounts
The brightest and the best

But listen to me prattling on
To my work I must attend
Performance, prosody, poesy
The rules of scansion do not bend

For metre is all important
When reciting off by heart
The classic works of yesteryear
And I shall play my part