Robert Polito is a poet, critic, and a professor at The New School in New York City. In 2013 he was named President of the Poetry Foundation.

". . .  this hour I tell you things in confidence,
I might not tell everybody, but I’ll tell you.
The world is a road under the wall to the church,
the world is a church, & the world is a road,
& the world is a stone wall.
Still, he wanted her the way the Cardinal wanted the Caravaggio,
& when the ill-advised possessor of the painting resisted —
one night Papal Guards searched his house.
Of course contraband came to light, some illegal rifles,
& when the ill-advised possessor of the painting went to prison —
the Cardinal got his Caravaggio.
But I wasn’t a Cardinal, nephew to the Pope,
and you —
you were not a Caravaggio.
So I asked you to be in my movie."

— from Hollywood & God