Literature and the Other Arts Classes

And why I like attending them -

Sick

and reading.

I like Sexy by Jhumpa Lahiri (Interpreter of Maladies)

Colorblind - Counting Crows

I am colorblind
Coffee black and egg white
Pull me out from inside

I am ready
I am ready
I am ready
I am

Taffy stuck, tongue tied
Stuttered shook and uptight
Pull me out from inside

I am ready
I am ready
I am ready
I am...fine

I am covered in skin
No one gets to come in
Pull me out from inside

I am folded, and unfolded, and unfolding
I am
colorblind

Coffee black and egg white
Pull me out from inside

I am ready
I am ready
I am ready

I am...fine
I am...fine

I am fine

The Portrait of a Young Artist as a Dead Man

And I wish you'd stayed to see how the Joker lives on...



Congratulations, you will be remembered like nobody else

(Artwork credit - http://faithmouse.blogspot.com/2008/07/joker-ledger.html)

And while we're on the subject

Of loved things and when love doesn't hurt,

let me share with you -

This

by Kelsey Sparkle Rakes

(who writes glittering bits of brilliance like you change clothes)

Three Songs.

Three songs by Cassini's Division about resurrection, rejuvenation and rebirth that I absolutely love.

Higher

life is all about losing and finding
crossing bridges, changing tracks
moving ever onward to newer destinies
yesterday’s bittersweet memories
give way to new forged links
bridge across forever
shaping new thoughts

now we've got to get
higher, higher than we've ever been before
higher on the highest love

the future is hard to foretell
offering endless mystery
finger touching wind in momentary caress
shed the dragon, shed the beast, shed the fang and the claw
move into the vision, gently embracing

now we've got to get
higher, higher than we've ever been before
higher on the highest love

Only for a while

loneliness my friend
emptiness my second skin
when will this be over
and when will i get over it
the pain i feel inside
the pain the second nature
when will i exorcise my ghosts
and learn to make the most of it

tear away these chains
break out of the cage
walk out into sunlight
even if it's only for a while

ugliness i see
dreariness come over me
when will this be gone
and (when) when will i overcome
the loss that has me hurtin
loss that takes all hope away
when will my hurting disappear
when will i beat my fear of it

tear away these chains
break out of the cage
walk out into sunlight
even if it's only for a while

even if it's only for a while
gotta step out, live it up in style
find a little hope and sunshine
even if it's only for a while

even if it's only for a while

loneliness my friend
emptiness my second skin
when will this be over
and when will i get over it
the pain i feel inside
the pain the second nature
when will i exorcise my ghosts
and learn to make the most of it

tear away these chains
break out of the cage
walk out into sunlight
even if it's only for a while

Rumble


you think what you see is real
but it's just a polaroid point of view
you know, the lens is perfect but pictures crack up
one way or another...one way or another…

flying through the canopy of clouds must be exciting,
it's a perfect day for rain, and I can feel a drop or two on my skin
electric eyes, a streak or two of lightning
and begin to wonder why it doesn't rumble

you think what you touch is hot but its not
Its just a melting point of view
the glass is perfect but reflections bend
up one way or another… up one way or another

flying through the canopy of clouds must be exciting,
it's a perfect day for rain, and I can feel a drop or two on my skin
electric eyes, a streak or two of lightning
and begin to wonder why it doesn't rumble

So True.

Don't stick around trying to prove a point to someone who will always see themselves as the victim. Don't live in the false hope that your point of view, pain, time, tears or anger will be validated. Don't think that anger is a bad thing when you can use it in a productive way that will help you to protect yourself.

Because in the end, it won't matter. It will be a whole episode of lost time where you were lying to yourself, bending and breaking to save something that wasn't there in the first place. And don't let them tell you you can't make it alone. If I'd met me earlier, hell I wouldn't have needed anyone else.

:)

PS - Negative people attract abusers. Positive, independent people attract good, sensitive, healthy relationships with other positive people. Life lesson.

(If you don't believe that, then look at the relationship history of any person and see if you can find a pattern - the healthy ones will have broken relationships too, but the reasons for those relationships breaking down will be very different from those with abusive patterns. Codependent people have these relationships on and on, while people with abusive tendencies have superficial non intimate relationships most of the time no matter how intense it might seem to an outsider, the victim or even to the abuser. And see who an abusive person is attracted to or can connect with - someone whiny, or visibly depressed, or really vulnerable. Someone they can control, whether they know this is what they're seeking out, or not.)

Major yellow stage attack.

Affirmation exercises are the best.

I've had it with trying to look at the world through your eyes. It's exhausting and it hurts me.

Look who I met today

Itteh Bitteh Stinkeh Kitteh

Because

And because I love, and because I have to let go,
I write today.
Because the fire that burns when a little air
Touches it lovingly burns out when the strong gust of wind
Turns its fury towards it, and little embers die quiet little deaths
While blinking in the night.
Because the water meets the earth again and again, and the earth will
Not have enough, until it is eroded and lovingly flows into the cruel big waves
That wink so disarmingly in the calm after the storm, lapping gently against
The beaten earth turning around in its sleep.
And because I am the one who loses, and because I love,
I cry today.

Josefina Baez and the Mother Flowers

So many things have happened since I last posted. It just goes to show how you can't be certain about anything, and the only thing you have is yourself, your own guts and brains and sheer strength to help you through anything at all.

But what I specifically wanted to post about is one woman who breezed into the lives of 24 university students and touched every single life. For five days, we learned about theatre and beyond. She would insist that "it's just theatre, it's not a cure for AIDS" but what I took back from knowing her for those five days, from what she taught us will stay with me. There is so much to write, and this time I've actually started. It's important to continue, to keep you here with us, to carry on what you taught us. Until we meet again :)

She laughed and laughed when I told her the blog address - motherflowers.blogspot.com