‘Florida parents upset by Michelangelo’s ‘David’ force out principal,” Washington Post, March 24: Firing a Florida charter school principal for forgetting to notify parents of sixth grade students of Renaissance classical art seems a bit of a stretch.

The Renaissance and I have a certain history. I first met a cast of “The David” in 1980s London. The Victoria & Albert Museum was on our list. Gobsmacked, I recalled the encounter in free verse:

“I passed unchallenged through the great cathedral doors of the Victoria & Albert Museum down on the Brompton Road.

My quest that day was open ended. A hopeful hope, that just

approaching art would, in turn, lighten my earthly load.”

I’d turned 50 with business never far from mind. We’d dreamed of and saved up to book a London flat for a week. Lured by Charles Dickens’ books, the city’s history, theaters, markets and walkability were on offer. Four of our children were well grown; the fifth was in England for a UMass junior year.

Back to the Victoria & Albert Museum.

“Rabbit soup-tureens, crimson dragon-desk from China way.

‘This,’ I thought, ‘is not my day.’ A passage yawned as I walked,

and there in stunned amazement, I stood and gawked!

By the time people reach 50, they’ve seen everything. So thought I until I took a chance to travel. It’s a big world out there, waiting for the open-minded. Education? Hah! Experience is what matters. Which necessarily takes time, a lifetime? One teacher’s positive comment about a forgotten sentence is alive and well. To hear in 2023 that AI, artificial intelligence, creates better and cheaper than wordsmiths is going to take some proofreading!

Michelangelo had over the centuries slapped me in the face, stopped me cold as ice; for facing me: large, naked and bold in that under-heated space loomed a plaster cast of “The David,” a beauteous giant man in muscled, marbled grace.

The AP picked up the Florida story, which made its way into the March 27 Daily Hampshire Gazette. Cecille Hollberg, director of the Galleria dell’ Accademia where the ‘David’ is housed, expressed astonishment at the controversy. “To think that ‘David’ could be pornographic means truly not understanding the contents of the Bible, not understanding Western culture and not understanding Renaissance art.” In 25 words, Ms. Hollberg put the state of Florida and America’s hunger for education to shame.

I knew:

When first unveiled he had caused

Florentine mobs to riot in their streets

I thought:

Frail life, in conscience, sobs,

When confronted with such feats.

I changed:

And we scribblers must resort

to this now necessary ode;

a poet’s first artistic battle report

viewed upon the Brompton Road.

This shock confrontation of Michelangelo and me appeared in my “A Winter Offering and A Second Collection.”

Dumb to the poem’s ekphrastic status, I went with my gut.

The London V&A gave an experience not duplicated until, unexpectedly, Florence, Italy beckoned in 1992. Once in a while life throws curveballs that transform into home runs. I had a long-delayed goal to finish an English degree. Professor Arthur Kinney welcomed me to his UMass Renaissance Center. I was twice blessed in meeting A.D. “Tony” Cousins, of Sydney, Australia, the center’s first visiting scholar. Tony and I remain fast friends.

In 1992, I had Pan Am Airways frequent flier miles that were going to expire with the airline. The British Institute of Florence offered two-week language and history of Florence courses. They were affordable providing you lived in student digs. I memorized the address “settenta nove via Capponi” for a contessa’s gorgeous prewar apartment. Despite my American accent, the taxi took us to her door. A surprise Italian holiday for students nearing 60.

Recounting two weeks in Florence, Italy — leading to Easter — is almost unfair. We had young legs and freedom unfelt for a very long time. Our rented room required long walks on Via Cavour, or figuring out transport. “Tabac” shops sold bus tickets to the city center. Enjoying a morning coffee followed by a sunlit walk along the green Arno is close to a heaven on earth experience.

Academia director Cecille Hollberg invited the principal, school board, parents and student body to view the “purity” of the statue. Maria Stone, head of the humanities department of the American Academy in Rome, said the Florida incident was another episode in escalating U.S. culture wars. She questioned how the statue “could be so controversial as to warrant a prior warning.”

To wit: Late night host Stephen Colbert asked CBS lawyers if he could show the “David” on his show. The answer: “Left of the screen — two seconds!”

A coincidence: Following near-death colon operations in 2011, I wrote 21 “True Dreams ” from an induced coma. Six years passed before, “The Pilot’s Satchel.” Its cover illustration, Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man drawing, is naked. With luck, ignorance may get my book banned in Florida. Twenty-one comatose poems and an examination of conscience are a hard sell up here.

I hate to be the one to tell these two educators that under bills by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, one complaint by an undereducated parent could remove certain library books. Guns are just dandy.

All this, when President Biden and Democrats are crying for legislation banning assault rifles, which we had from 1994-2004.

Followed by: le deluge! Millions of AR-15s!

Columnist Jim Cahillane lives in Williamsburg. His 2018 column called for the end of America’s AR-15 love affair. School shootings devour our kids. He’s inspired by Tennessee state representatives Justin Jones, Justin Pearson and Gloria Johnson. Surgeon, Dr. Jason Smith, of Louisville, Kentucky, is “weary” of gunshot victims!

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