dr_con Posted October 16, 2012 Share Posted October 16, 2012 After The Show No idea where Cut wood smells dust and metal cold electric sounds and pervasive plastics The sense it’s all happening out there The curtains are a clue Limbo that’s it and no memories except snatches of conversation that come and go with that casual maniacal feeling of time to move move Move Out front where the action is was will be again Behind the scenes how obvious certainty is death and choice radical liberation How comforting it must be to live in an impersonal cosmos Nothing can ever be private the ultimate blame game Ha Time to go out take that bow Goodbye or Hello That’s right one and the same the illusion of gesture See how pretty it is? Quote thegateless.org Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tinker Posted October 18, 2012 Share Posted October 18, 2012 Hi D_C, This allusion to the stage worked well. It had me comparing what we see with reality in so many directions... Politics, relationships..on and on... I liked it. ~~Tink Quote ~~ © ~~ Poems by Judi Van Gorder ~~ For permission to use this work you can write to Tinker1111@icloud.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benjamin Posted October 19, 2012 Share Posted October 19, 2012 Covers a lot of ground juris and leaves me thinking perhaps we live under umbrellas of imagery, idealism and imagination, avoiding the pragmatic. Love that line "the illusion of gesture". Your subtle poetry opens different cans of worms for different people. For me the well-used metaphor comes to mind that "life is like a bottle of milk and cream rises to the top"-- and we look to that for some sort of gauge-- but it's a misnomer. I believe that if people are satisfied with their lot wherever they figure in that bottle, then they are successful. All too often the cream (the rich and powerful) are rarely satisfied with their collective lot, unless they are inflicting their values on the rest of us. Ergo they are unsuccessful. And there are far more of us than them. Good poetry really does make you think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badger11 Posted October 31, 2012 Share Posted October 31, 2012 You do a lot of thinking Dr C. I too liked that illusion of gesture Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoelJosol Posted November 1, 2012 Share Posted November 1, 2012 You gave us a tour around the stage - 'move move Move'. I wondered what you were thinking behind the stage, are the curtains lifted, exposed to the audience, and nothing can be private? Quote "Words are not things, and yet they are not non-things either." - Ann Lauterbach Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David W. Parsley Posted November 4, 2012 Share Posted November 4, 2012 doc, the piece makes me all too conscious of the hour in which this "poor player frets and struts," telling my own idiot tale. Like all our best work, this one throws a strobing light on the sequence of unexpectedly true tableaux. Thanks, - Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dr_con Posted November 30, 2012 Author Share Posted November 30, 2012 Thank you all for taking the time to read and your insightful comments- Been a challenging couple of months- But know you all have my deepest gratitude! ;-) Dr. Con & Juris Quote thegateless.org Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dedalus Posted December 1, 2012 Share Posted December 1, 2012 Nice one! The Japanese have the expressions "tatemae" and "honne" : tatemae is what one reveals to the world, the image or the illusion on the stage of life, if you like, whereas honne is the way things really are, the true condition of things, which is generally kept deeply hidden, is rarely referred to, and may even be concealed from the individual by himself. Outbursts of honne are thought to be shameful and embarrassing in this society since they are disruptive of "Wa" or group harmony. What a contrast to the "let it all hang out" notions of the West! One classic example of this mental habit was the Emperor's radio address to the nation in August 1945 after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and just before Japan accepted unconditional surrender to the Allies. The conduct of the war, said the Emperor, "has not necessarily developed to our advantage". In literary terms one of the better examples of this conflict between reality and appearances can be found in "Dubliners", the short story collection by James Joyce. Each of these stories contains an "epiphany" when the honne intersects with the tatemae with often devastating consequences, as when Gabriel discovers that his wife of many years is still secretly pining over the death of Michael Furey, a young boy she knew before she and Gabriel met and married. John Huston's film of this story ("The Dead": his last film, as it happened) is an absolute classic of its kind and I would recommmend it unreservedly! It is only in the last ten minutes of the film that we realise that all the apparently random and inconsequential events that have taken place at the Christmas party of the Misses Morkan have been inexorably leading towards this climax. It is a subtly nuanced and absoloutely marvellous piece of visual story-telling. Quote Drown your sorrows in drink, by all means, but the real sorrows can swim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fdelano Posted December 1, 2012 Share Posted December 1, 2012 Like most of my own writing, this makes me want to have another shot of vodka and a pill. I loved it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dansalinger Posted December 22, 2012 Share Posted December 22, 2012 enjoyable read...we are all exposed on the stage of life Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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