"She danced all night and all the way home": I would rather look at you... #11-15

#11
WRITE A POEM

So that is how I learned the lesson that everyone is alone. And your eyes must do some raining if you are ever going to grow. But when crying don’t help and you can’t compose yourself, it’s best to compose a poem, an honest verse of longing or a simple song of hope. And that’s why I’m singing, “Baby, don’t worry, cause now I got you back. And every time you feel like crying, I’m gonna try and make you laugh. And if I can’t, if it just hurts too bad, then we will wait for it to pass, and I will keep you company through those days so long and black.”

-Bowl of Oranges by Bright Eyes

As I previously mentioned, I envision myself somewhat of a writer (still delusional, I think), and I have actually written some poetry before, but I want to write a beautiful poem, not necessarily about something profound or life changing, or love or death, just something beautiful. I have so many favourite poems and pieces of writing that I would love to share with you, but there are so many...but I really want you to read them all...but there are so many...dilemma...

My favourite poet is E.E. Cummings. I'll share my favourite poem of his a bit later, but the following one is also beautiful (via bippity boppity boo):

Let It Go

let it go
the smashed word
broke open vow
or the oath cracked length wise
let it go
it was sworn to go

let them go
the truthful liars
and the false fair friends
and the ‘boths’ and ‘neithers’
you must let them go
they were born to go

let all go
the big small middling
tall bigger really
the biggest
and all things
let all go dear

so comes love.

One of my favourite bloggers, bibbity boppity boo, also shared her favourite poem on her blog, here. It goes like this...

Litany

“You are the bread and the knife,

the crystal goblet and the wine.

You are the dew on the morning grass

and the burning wheel of the sun.

You are the white apron of the baker,

and the marsh birds suddenly in flight.

However, you are not the wind in the orchard,

the plums on the counter,

or the house of cards.

And you are certainly not the pine-scented air.

There is just no way that you are the pine-scented air.

It is possible that you are the fish under the bridge,

maybe even the pigeon on the general’s head,

but you are not even close

to being the field of cornflowers at dusk.

And a quick look in the mirror will show

that you are neither the boots in the corner

nor the boat asleep in its boathouse.

It might interest you to know,

speaking of the plentiful imagery of the world,

that I am the sound of rain on the roof.

I also happen to be the shooting star,

the evening paper blowing down an alley

and the basket of chestnuts on the kitchen table.

I am also the moon in the trees

and the blind woman’s tea cup.

But don’t worry, I’m not the bread and the knife.

You are still the bread and the knife.

You will always be the bread and the knife,

not to mention the crystal goblet and-somehow-the wine.”

- Billy Collins

Two beautiful pieces of writing, The Invitation and The Dance by Oriah will change your life...trust me. I'll give you a little preview of each, but please go and read them both. They are both beautiful and extraordinary.

The Invitation

...I want to know if you can be with joy mine or your own if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, to be realistic, to remember the limitations of being human...

The Dance

...Take me to the places on the earth that teach you how to dance, the places where you can risk letting the world break you heart. And I will take you to the places where the earth beneath my feet and the stars overhead make my heart whole again and again...

And when the sound of all the declarations of our sincerest intentions has died away on the wind, dance with me in the infinite pause before the next great inhale of the breath that is breathing us all into being, not filling the emptiness from the outside or from within.

Don't say , "Yes!"

Just take my hand and dance with me.

I also recently saw the movie Beastly. It's a modern day version of Beauty and the Beast. Not great, but worthy of a look if only to remind us of the age-old lesson that beauty is only skin deep and how you treat people is far more important than what you look like or own. As part of an assignment the two lead characters (instructed by a blind teacher played brilliantly by a hilarious Neil Patrick Harris) need to analyse a poem and this is what they read (it was also the inspiration for the title of this post). It is called Having a Coke with You:

Having a Coke with You

is even more fun than going to San Sebastian, Irún, Hendaye, Biarritz, Bayonne

or being sick to my stomach on the Travesera de Gracia in Barcelona

partly because in your orange shirt you look like a better happier St. Sebastian

partly because of my love for you, partly because of your love for yoghurt

partly because of the fluorescent orange tulips around the birches

partly because of the secrecy our smiles take on before people and statuary

it is hard to believe when I’m with you that there can be anything as still

as solemn as unpleasantly definitive as statuary when right in front of it

in the warm New York 4 o’clock light we are drifting back and forth

between each other like a tree breathing through its spectacles

and the portrait show seems to have no faces in it at all, just paint

you suddenly wonder why in the world anyone ever did them

I look

at you and I would rather look at you than all the portraits in the world

except possibly for the Polish Rider occasionally and anyway it’s in the Frick

which thank heavens you haven’t gone to yet so we can go together the first time

and the fact that you move so beautifully more or less takes care of Futurism

just as at home I never think of the Nude Descending a Staircase or

at a rehearsal a single drawing of Leonardo or Michelangelo that used to wow me

and what good does all the research of the Impressionists do them

when they never got the right person to stand near the tree when the sun sank

or for that matter Marino Marini when he didn’t pick the rider as carefully

as the horse

it seems they were all cheated of some marvellous experience

which is not going to go wasted on me which is why I am telling you about it

-Frank O’Hara

#12
CALL IN SICK TO WORK ONE DAY AND SPEND THE DAY DOING WHATEVER I WANT

I might be giving away my age here, but think Ferris Bueller's Day Off, a movie released in 1986...yes, 1986. It's an old school classic. Make your way over here to take a look at the trailer.

#13
ACCEPT MY BODY

These words were written by E.E. Cummings...it gives me goose bumps every time I read it.

I, with the utmost certainty, assume that this will be on my list forever...yes? No? Maybe? Hopefully not!! I have come to the conclusion that this is a decision you have to make every day. Decide to love your body. Every day! And find somebody who will love your body every day. Real men will fall in love with who and what you are, not what you look like.

I fell in love with her courage, her sincerity, and her flaming self respect. And it’s these things I’d believe in, even if the whole world indulged in wild suspicions that she wasn't all she should be. I love her and it is the beginning of everything.”
-F. Scott Fitzgerald

#14
SEE A FIREFLY, CATCH IT IN A JAR AND LET IT GO