…And also in Vermont!

Yep, you read it here first, folks. Well, probably not, but. Yay, Vermont! Vermont does not have a residency requirement either, so… so much for all the New Yorkers taking a trip to the midwest. Unless they decide to honeymoon here. 

Only thing is, they’ll have more of a wait if they decide to be married in Vermont. It does not go into effect till September. In Iowa, you can get your license on April 24 and be married three days later.

Palm Sunday

It is with some trepidation that I prepare to leave for Palm Sunday services. Rarely can I last through the entire thing without crying. Palm Sunday is just so emotional to me. The hymn (which counts as poetry) which always gets to me, as much as I remember of it, and I don’t have time to look it up right now:

All glory, laud and honor to thee redeemer king,

To whom the lips of children made sweet hosannas ring….

Tolkien Poetry

My 06 NaNo revolved around a group of Tolkien geeks, and so there was a great deal of Tolkien quoting going on. One character enjoys putting Tolkien’s poetry to music, and she sings the following to another character at sunset as they amble down the dirt road toward the lake.

The road goes ever on and on, down from the door where it began

Now far ahead the road has gone, and I must follow if I can,

Pursuing it with weary feet, Until it meets some larger way

Where many paths and errands meet. And whither then? I cannot say.

Gay Marriage in Iowa!

“Progressive Iowan” may be considered an oxymoron by many unfamiliar with my state. But, as of today, Iowa is one of only three states in the U.S. to have legalized same-sex marriage. Take that, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Illinois !

 On a more cynical note, this could give a boost to Iowa ’s economy as couples who are unable to marry elsewhere flock to our state.  In many cases, their home states that do not allow such marriages to occur will recognize marriages that occurred elsewhere, and Iowa, unlike many states, does not require that one be a resident in order to marry here.

In honor of this day, I am including below Shakespeare’s CXVI Sonnet. In the coffeehouse, this was ToddandViv’s poem. When they first met, Todd quoted this sonnet, and Vivian wrote the reference on his arm with a pen. Viv later inscribed Todd’s ring with CXVI ((gasp. They would now be able to come to Iowa to marry!)). Gothic Todd also scribbled this sonnet in a love letter to Gothic Viv. Ah! Those were good times.

Sonnet CXVI

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove:

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wandering bark,

Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.

Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle’s compass come:

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

    If this be error and upon me proved,

          I never writ, nor no man ever loved. – William Shakespeare

Poetry in The Haunting in Connecticut

Last night I saw The Haunting in Connecticut, and I skipped from the theater, delighted that one of the characters had quoted poetry! How serendipitous for the first day of National Poetry Month!  It also just so happened to be a poem that one of my own characters recently quoted to another character as they approached a dark stairwell in a bookstore.

Here is the poem in its entirety, though it’s usual to hear the first verse by itself:

Antigonish  by Hughes Mearns. 

As I was going up the stair

I saw a man who wasn’t there

He wasn’t there again today

Oh, how I wish he’d go away…

 

When I came home last night at three

The man was waiting there for me

But when I looked around the hall

I couldn’t see him there at all!

 

Go away, go away, don’t you come back any more!

Go away, go away, and please don’t slam the door… (slam!)

 

Last night I saw upon the stair

A little man who wasn’t there

He wasn’t there again today.

Oh, how I wish he’d go away.

 ((The other poem in the movie is a folk rhyme, author unknown, and there are multiple versions of it (read more here). Near as I can remember, the version in the movie goes like this:

One bright day in the middle of the night,
Two dead boys got up to fight,
Back to back they faced each other,
Drew their swords and shot one another,
A deaf policeman heard the noise,
Came and killed the two dead boys.))

 

More Spooky Poetry 

and yet more Creepy poetry

 

Thanks for stopping by! Leave me a comment and let me know why you decided to look up this poem after seeing the movie.

National Poetry Month

April is National Poetry Month, and a friend of mine says she posts a favorite poem every day of April.  Neat idea!  and I thought it would be fun to post poems that have something to do with things I have written ….

APRIL THE FIRST

OZYMANDIAS by Percy Bysshe Shelley

((this is the favorite poem of one of my characters))

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: `Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor  well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear –
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.’

“So’s Your Face!”

Somehow, a family trip to the Des Moines Art Center deteriorates into a “so’s your face” showdown….

 ~~~~

~~~~

~~~~

  

Upon viewing a Matisse:

     “It’s like some kid colored it with magic markers.”

     “So’s your face!”

Upon eating in the art center’s restaurant: 

     “The sauce on the noodles smells like vinegar.”

      “So’s your face!”

Upon finding out that some artwork had been removed due to water damage from a leaky ceiling: 

     “Right there, you can see they haven’t fixed it yet totally. The wall is full of yellow stuff leaking down.”

     “So’s your face!”

Occasionally, a variance was introduced.

Upon viewing a square-within-a-circle piece of artwork: 

     “It’s various chunky corners.”

     ”So’s your butt!”

 

We viewed Grant Wood’s American Gothic, and I was dying to take a photo. As interesting as it was to view the painting, viewing viewers’ reactions was almost more so. At one point, the painting was perfectly framed by the heads of shorter and taller people leaning in, and I thought, What a great photojournalistic moment!

 

But I think when you have a brand new camera, everything seems like a great photojournalistic moment.

 

The most surreal moment of the day came while gazing upon American Gothic and listening to my nursing student daughter relate to me how she had witnessed her first caesarian section and how the uterus looked awesome, like one of those squishy toys filled with shiny, swirly fluid. 

            So’s your face.

OSCAR NIGHT PREDICTIONS

 

Since I love being wrong, I am posting my guesses for tonight’s ceremony.

  

BEST ACTOR:  I wish that Sean Penn would win for his landmark role in the inspiring film Milk, but I predict that Mickey Rourke will win for The Wrestler. That movie was the most depressing thing ever, which draws Oscar like no other. [Edit: I was never so happy to be wrong! Sean Penn won, and didn’t you love the comment about “How did Sean Penn play straight men all those years?”]

 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:  Josh Brolin, Milk. They’ll award it to the guy playing the straight guy in the film about gay activism, mainly because everyone loved him in last year’s No Country for Old Men. [Edit:  Wrong!  What was I thinking? Of course, Heath Ledger would get this award. I never saw the film, so I have no opinion on his performance, but it was sad to see his family accepting the award.]

 

BEST ACTRESS:  Kate Winslet, without a doubt.

 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:  I haven’t seen very many of these, but I am guessing Marisa Tomei for The Wrestler. [Edit:  Wrong!  Penelope Cruz. That’s fine, but I will say that Marisa had my favorite dress of the night.]

 

BEST ANIMATED FILM:  Wall-E, because of its anti-Wal-Mart message.

 

CINEMATOGRAPHY:  Slumdog Millionaire. The unforgettable images of India’s underbelly will win this.

 

COSTUME DESIGN:  The Duchess. I mean, c’mon. It’s the only.

 

DIRECTING:  I’m going to say Slumdog Millionaire. Yes, I am going out on a limb here (not).

 

MAKEUP:  Why are there only three nominees?  I think The Curious Case of Benjamin Button will win, but I’ll do the happy dance if Hellboy II gets it. [Edit: No happy dance here. L]

 

FILM EDITING:  How do they even decide on this one? I mean, to truly make an informed decision, wouldn’t you have to see all the footage that was edited?  I just don’t ‘get’ this award. But I’m picking The Dark Knight, ‘cause it seems like, often, one of the off-films wins this.  [Edit:  Wrong!  Slumdog.]

 

BEST SCORE;  Hm. This is a toughie. None of the films’ music really sticks out in my head. Wild guess? Slumdog Millionaire.

 

BEST SONG:  There are only three nominated. Two are from Slumdog Millionaire, so that will tend to split the vote. Besides, Disney always wins this, so I’m going with Wall-E.  [Edit:  Wrong!  Slumdog did it again,  with “Jai Ho.”  A friend pointed out to me that Wall-E is Pixar, not Disney. However, Pixar IS Disney. Or they’re partners. Or something. See here, it says Disney on the box.]

 

SOUND EDITING AND SOUND MIXING:  What the hell is the difference?  Only your sound man knows for sure. I’m going to guess that The Dark Knight wins for both. [Edit:  I was half right. Dark Knight got Editing;  Slumdog got Mixing. Can someone explain?]

 

VISUAL EFFECTS:  The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, though it doesn’t deserve it.

 

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:  Ooo. I would almost pick Frost/Nixon, but generally this goes to the winner of Best Film, so I must guess Slumdog Millionaire.

 

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:  In Bruges deserves to win. It was fresh, surprising, dark, witty, memorable, but the film came out so long ago that voters have probably forgotten it. I think voters will go with Milk, wanting to give it a consolation prize.

 

BEST PICTURE:  It’s bound to be  Slumdog Millionaire, but as long as ANYTHING other than The Curious Case of Benjamin Button wins, I will be content. (Dark horse possibility:  Milk.)

 

Those are my guesses. Historically, I suck at predictions, so we’ll see.

[Edit:  6 wrong, 12 right! Not bad, at least as far as my record goes. But this was not a difficult year for guessing.]

New Camera

I went ahead and bought a new camera. Same brand, etc, but only about half the size of my year-and-a-half old camera. Here is the first image taken with it: the sunrise reflecting on the frozen lake.

 

The broken camera? I gave it to my daughter, which, in a way, is rewarding her for having broken it. Hey, I never claimed to be a good parent.

The camera works (sort of)

You can still take a picture… you just can’t see what you’re taking it of or what you took it of until you connect to a computer.

Snowfall

The dots? Those are snowflakes!