The Peace Of Wild Things by Wendell Berry When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and children’s lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I … Continue reading →
Hannah and Her Sisters is a slow-paced, low-key film that begins and ends with the family coming together for Thanksgiving dinner. The film garnered three Oscars; they went to Woody Allen for Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen, Dianne Wiest, Best Actress in a Supporting Role and Michael Caine, Best Actor in a Supporting Role. A Woody Allen Manhattan mosaic, Hannah and Her Sisters concerns the lives, loves, and infidelities among a tightly-knit artistic clan. The eldest daughter of show-biz parents, Hannah (Mia … Continue reading →
A Room with a View is a 1986 Academy Award-winning feature film, with a screenplay by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. The film was directed by James Ivory and produced by Ismail Merchant. pensione in Italy that Lucy meets elderly Mr. Emerson and his handsome son, George. These men, although English, represent the forward-thinking ideals of the turn-of-the-century. They are the living embodiment of change, seeking to leave behind the repression and caution that was the norm in Victorian times. At first, the two Emerson men seem … Continue reading →
Music by: Ravi Shankar Paramahansa Yogananda is one of the greatest spiritual figures of the twentieth century, and also was one of the first Spiritual Masters to bring the Yoga of the East to the aspiring West. Yogananda was born in Gorakhpur, Bengal in 1893. Originally his name was Mukunda Lal Ghosh. He was given the name of Yogananda after his initiation as an Indian Swami (monk). Yogananda means “Bliss” through yoga (divine union with God) The title “Paramahansa” was given by his Guru Sri Yukteswar . Paramahansa … Continue reading →
Ophelia by John William Waterhouse Oil on canvas Roses George Eliot (1819 – 1880) You love the roses – so do I. I wish The sky would rain down roses, as they rain From off the shaken bush. Why will it not? Then all the valley would be pink and white And soft to tread on. They would fall as light As feathers, smelling sweet: and it would be Like sleeping and yet waking, all at once. George Eliot was the masculine pen … Continue reading →
The Blues by Langston Hughes When the shoe strings break On both your shoes And you’re in a hurry- That’s the blues. When you go to buy a candy bar And you’ve lost the dime you had- Slipped through a hole in your pocket somewhere- That’s the blues, too, and bad! Hello, and welcome back to Poetry Wednesday 6/24/09. You can sign in today and take the tour thru Thursday, so take your time. I’ll be your hostess again this week. My sister, Sans Souci, … Continue reading →
Life Is Fine by Langston Hughes . I went down to the river, I set down on the bank. I tried to think but couldn’t, So I jumped in and sank. I came up once and hollered! I came up twice and cried! If that water hadn’t a-been so cold I might’ve sunk and died. But it was Cold in that water! It was cold! I took the elevator Sixteen floors above the ground. I thought about my baby And thought I would jump down. … Continue reading →
Introduction: A tough kid comes to a new high school and begins muscling his way into the drug scene. As he moves his way up the ladder, a schoolteacher tries to reform him, his aunt tries to seduce him, and the “weedheads” are eager to use his newly found enterprise, but he has his own agenda. After an altercation involving fast cars, hidden drugs, and police, he’s accepted by the drug kingpin and is off into the big leagues. A typical morality play of the … Continue reading →
A Woman of Valor, called Eshet Chayil in Hebrew, is a hymn which is customarily recited on Friday evenings, after returning from synagogue and singing “Shalom Aleichem” and before sitting down to the Shabbat evening meal. This hymn is from the Old Testament, and the description of this model woman, who is a devoted wife and mother, is so appropriate. Eshet Chayil is a twenty-two verse poem with which King Solomon concludes the book of Proverbs (Proverbs 31). The poem has an acrostic arrangement in … Continue reading →
Maya Angelou Oil on canvas by BRUNI Sablan On The Pulse of Morning by Maya Angelou A Rock, A River, A Tree Hosts to species long since departed, Marked the mastodon, The dinosaur, who left dried tokens Of their sojourn here On our planet floor, Any broad alarm of their hastening doom Is lost in the gloom of dust and ages. But today, the Rock cries out to us, clearly, forcefully, Come, you may stand upon my Back and face your distant destiny, But seek … Continue reading →
