okay...so you all know how Dan likes to imagine himself in situations. We watched the 5-hour version of Pride and Prejudice by that brilliant author Jane Austin.
THough typical romance may be a bit formulaic, Austin is a master at the atypical examples, and I often sympathize with her realistic renditions of the follies and brilliancies of human nature. It helped, in part, to inspire my latest poem which I relate below, I hope you enjoy!
White and Black:
Beauty dances within eyes ablaze with snow...
The regal posture of laughter, preserved forever,
In the iron lock of black and white antiquity.
The portrait is a song--a song of life--a song of laughter, singing,
Far away where I don't know...and yet:
Eyes of white and eyes of black,
Heretofore my soul has lacked,
A cheerful word, a touch of tart,
A smile, dear, that breaks my heart.
In vain I've wrestled passion,
And I've fought and thought I'd won.
But just a word, and just a glance...
perpetuates my onward march.
My heart, ablaze, is little with the sun of morning smile,
And the locks of streaming hair,
That greet the farewells with their stare...
The setting of our friendship casts a pall on my delight,
And though I've struggled onward
I begin to wonder why...
What is my purpose in this world,
If not to love and not to hope?
There's little nurture to my soul
In math and school alone.
I study now, because I know
That one day it can serve.
And no dearer serve than that which brings
A light into my world.
If ever love did beat in heart,
I know that it bears true.
If ever man did raptures see,
Then I am that man too.
For never have I seen a girl more brilliant in my sight--
Then the woman I saw laughing, there, amidst the black and white...
How cruel to lock a mem'ry up,
To make it stare, and always look,
To make it make my heart take flight,
And crash...again...forsook...
Sometimes I stare, sometimes I look,
Sometimes I turn my back in shock,
For I can't bear the way she always
smiles in the chalk.
No rosy gleam,
No treach'rous scheme,
No smile but this pallid scene,
And yet that paleness is more dear
Than any other dream...
They say you live,
And move beyond,
They say you live to love again...
But I can't see
How that could be
When locked in white and black.
I've often wondered why it is,
I've often hated her for it...
But I can't shake my mem'ries
That are relics of my past.
The watches of the night have proved,
The hopelessness of light has doomed
My heart to ever suffer in this prison
Of the night.
A torture of the cruelest kind,
And totally without design,
For she can't see the sobs
That wrack my body day and night.
No other route remains, I guess,
I love a mem'ry, that is all...
But mem'ries have the way
Of gilded portraits on the wall...
The antiquated thoughts arise
And run through channels in surprise,
Though I don't see, why they persist,
In always asking why...
It's obvious I am in love
And nothing could be worse for wear,
For I can't quiet every fear
Within this beating chest...
I need my rest,
Please take me home.
I'm tired, tired of this past,
For I can't hope to ever last
Within this world of inner snow.
Blow! Blow! World of snow,
For I can't feel when I am cold.
Bring comfort to a world that's wracked...
With haunting eyes of white and black...
~Dan Midgett 11:30 PM 11/15/09
