Poetry-Time Cafe with Emily Dickinson

254

"Hope" is the thing with feathers --
That perches in the soul --
And sings the tune without the words --
And never stops - at all --

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard --
And sore must be the storm --
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm --

I've heard it in the chillest land --
And on the strangest Sea --
Yet, never, in Extremity --
It asked a crumb - of Me.

A Most Blessed New Year to You!

Currently watching: The Beales of Grey Gardens

Poetry-Time Cafe with Anna Akhmatova

For us to lose freshness of words and simplicity of feeling,
Isn't it the same as for a painter to lose---sight,
Or an actor---his voice and movement,
Or a beautiful woman---beauty?

But don't try to save for yourself
This heaven-sent gift:
We are condemned---and we know this ourselves---
To squander it, not hoard it.

Walk alone and heal the blind,
In order to know in the heavy hour of doubt
The gloating mockery of disciples,
And the indifference of the crowd.

Musical Stylings with my girl Anika Noni Rose

I actually wanted to share a video of her singing, Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man of Mine, but the embedding code was disabled by request. Meh... Let me just post the url address then=) And you should really watch it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVYM51Q2iIY

You will witness Greatness... This girl can SANG! Duh.

Currently watching: Little Miss Sunshine

Fine Art House with Marc Chagall

Traum der Liebenden


?


?


Jacob Wrestling with the Angel

Musical Stylings with The Ebersole (Christine Ebersole, that is=)

Currently watching: Little Miss Sunshine

Poetry-Time Cafe with e e cummings

somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond
any experience, your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which cannot touch because they are too near

your slightest look easily will unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully, mysteriously) her first rose

or if your wish be to close me, i and
my life i will shut very beautifully, suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;

nothing we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility: whose texture
compels me with the color of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing

(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens; only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands

Currently listening to: Dreamgirls (1982 Original Broadway Cast)

Poetry-Time Cafe with John Milton

SONNET XIX

When I consider how my light is spent,
Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest He returning chide,
"Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?"
I fondly ask. But patience, to prevent
That murmer, soon replies, "God doth not need
Either man's work or his own gifts. Who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state
Is kingly: thousands at his bidding speed,
And post o'er land and ocean without rest;
They also serve who only stand and wait."

Currently listening to: Dreamgirls (1982 Orignal Broadway Cast)

Poetry-Time Cafe with Rainer Maria Rilke

ARCHAIC TORSO OF APOLLO

We cannot know his legendary head
with eyes like ripening fruit. And yet his torso
is still suffused with brilliance from inside,
like a lamp, in which his gaze, now turned to low,

gleams in all its power. Otherwise
the curved breast could not dazzle you so, nor could
a smile run through the placid hips and thighs
to that dark center where procreation flared.

Otherwise this stone would seem defaced
beneath the translucent cascade of the shoulders
and would not glisten like a wild beast's fur:

would not, from all the borders of itself,
burst like a star: for here there is no place
that does not see you. You must change your life.

I wish you a Beautiful Christmas

Currently watching: The Things of Life

Poetry-Time Cafe with Anna Akhmatova

LOT'S WIFE

And the righteous man followed the envoy of God,
Huge and bright, over the black mountain.
But anguish spoke loudly to his wife:
It is not too late, you can still gaze

At the red towers of your native Sodom,
At the square where you sang, at the courtyard where you spun,
At the empty windows of the tall house
Where you bore children to your beloved husband.

She glanced, and, paralyzed by deadly pain,
Her eyes no longer saw anything;
And her body became transparent salt
And her quick feet were roooted to the spot.

Who will weep for this woman?
Isn't her death the least significant?
But my heart will never forget the one
Who gave her life for a single glance.

~Anna Akhmatova

***
to Vera Ivanova-Shvarsalon

The park was filled with light mist,
And the gaslight flared at the gate.
I remember only a certain gaze
From ingenuous, tranquil eyes.

Your sorrow, unperceived by all the rest,
Immediately drew me close,
And you understood that yearning
Was poisoning and stifling me.

I love this day and I'm celebrating,
I will come as soon as you invite me.
And sinful and idle, I know
That you alone will not indict me.

Currently listening to: Build a Bridge

Fine Art House with Edvard Munch

The Dance of Life


Death in the Sick Room

Currently listening to: Bernarda Alba (2006 Original Off-Broadway Cast)

Fine Art House with Kathe Kollwitz

Female Nude with Green Shawl Seen From Behind (1917)

Currently watching: Cesar & Rosalie

Poetry-Time Cafe with Pablo Neruda

SONNET LXIX

Maybe nothingness is to be without your presence,
without you moving, slicing the noon
like a blue flower, without you walking
later through the fog and the cobbles,

without the light you carry in your hand,
golden, which maybe others will not see,
which maybe no one knew was growing
like the red beginnings of a rose.

In short, without your presence: without your coming
suddenly, incitingly, to know my life,
gust of a rosebush, wheat of wind:

since then I am because you are,
since then you are, I am, we are,
and through love I will be, you will be, we'll be.

(thank you "III")

HAPPY 30th ANNIVERSARY TO MY PARENTS!!!

Currently watching: L'important C'est D'aimer

The Proust Questionnaire...? Not so! (He just answered the questions)

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Not doing what I love to do. My mom's sadness.

Where would you like to live?
NYC, London, France, Italy

What is your idea of earthly happiness, your dream of happiness?
Doing what I love to do, which is to act, and making money doing it, then giving that money to my family and to those in need. Spending time with my loved ones and talking for hours in cafes.

What to your mind would be the greatest of misfortunes?
Not being able to share my gifts. Not loving and not being loved.

To what faults do you feel most indulgent?
Laziness. The level of bitchiness I choose to be.

Who are your favorite heroes in real life?
Gandhi, the Dalai Lama, the Farmer in Lynn Redgrave's NIGHTINGALE

Who are your favorite heroes of fiction?
Atticus Finch

Who are your favorite heroines in real life?
My Ma, Little Edie Bouvier Beale, Romy Schneider, Meryl Streep, Lynn Redgrave, Vanessa Redgrave, Gena Rowlands, Molly Craig and her sister Daisy and her cousin Gracie

Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?
Rosalind, Celia, Molly Gibson, Margaret Johnson, Clara Johnson, Elizabeth Bennet, Josephine March

What historical figures do you most admire?
Jeanne d'Arc, Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman, Martin Luther King, Jr

What historical figures do you most despise?
Those that want to wipe away lives.

What event in military history do you most admire?
Any that involved a handshake, an open-mind, understanding of the other's culture, listening, PEACE.

What reform do you most admire?
Have we really put reforms into action? Yeah, we have. BUT when we have, have we really stuck to them to make them work and grow and thrive? Have we really progressed to a better society (i.e. racism, segregation)?

Your favorite painters?
Käthe Kollwitz, Marc Chagall, Gustav Klimt, Edvard Munch, Amedeo Modigliani

Your favorite musicians, composers?
Chopin, Bach, Strauss II, Barber, Joni Mitchell, Christine Andreas, Christine Ebersole, Nat King Cole, Dionne Warwick, Ella Fitzgerald, June Christy, En Vogue, Chet Baker, Judy Garland, Tina Turner, Michel Legrand, Lizz Wright, Stevie Wonder

The quality you most admire in a man?
Honesty, communication, intelligence & genuine sensitivity

The quality you most admire in a woman?
Maternalness, intelligence & a sense of humour

Your favorite virtue?
Patience & forgiveness

Your favorite occupation?
Acting

Who would you have liked to have been?
Romy Schneider's and Natalie Wood's Best Friend

What would you like to be?
A healer

Your most marked characteristic?
Passion

What do you most value in your friends?
Their friendship

What is your favorite color?
Purple

What is your favorite flower?
Sampaguita. Beautiful, powerful, delicate smell from such a small flower.

What is your favorite bird?
Doves (is that cliché, or what?), cranes, nightingales

Who are your favorite prose writers?
Shakespeare, Chekhov, John Cassavetes, Federico Garcia Lorca, Nilo Cruz, Mary Zimmerman, Jose Rivera, Elizabeth Gaskell

Who are your favorite poets? Shakespeare, Anna Akhmatova, Rainer Maria Rilke, Emily Dickinson, Sylvia Plath, Edna St Vincent Millay

What are your favorite names? Whatever I name my children (if I have any).

What is it you most dislike? Idiots, douchebags, displaying self-pity to garner "sympathy" from others, meanness, rudeness, apathy, lack of understanding, laid-backness, closed-minds, violence

What natural gift would you most like to possess?
Dancing

How would you like to die?
Of natural causes in my sleep

What is your present state of mind?
Unfocused

What is your motto?
Jump out of the plane. Also...Pray for peace within each individual before praying for "peace on earth."

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY DADDY!!!

Currently reading: Cymbeline (Arden Shakespeare Second)