[Video: Rita Wilson discusses why a movie whose emotional peak involves the Empire State
Building is beautiful; Tom Hanks and Vincent Garber prefer a more… prosaic sort of beauty.]
From whiskey river (italicized portion):
I shrugged my shoulders, muttered “back soon,” and plunged into the darkness. At first I couldn’t see anything. I fumbled along the cobblestone street. I lit a cigarette. Suddenly the moon appeared from behind a black cloud, lighting a white wall that was crumbled in places. I stopped, blinded by such whiteness. Wind whistled slightly. I breathed the air of the tamarinds. The night hummed, full of leaves and insects. Crickets bivouacked in the tall grass. I raised my head: up there the stars too had set up camp. I thought that the universe was a vast system of signs, a conversation between giant beings. My actions, the cricket’s saw, the star’s blink, were nothing but pauses and syllables, scattered phrases from that dialogue. What word could it be, of which I was only a syllable? Who speaks the word? To whom is it spoken? I threw my cigarette down on the sidewalk. Falling, it drew a shining curve, shooting out brief sparks like a tiny comet.
(Octavio Paz [source])
…and:
The Ant
The ant moves on his tiny Sephardic feet.
The flute is always glad to repeat the same note.
The ocean rejoices in its dusky mansion.Often bears are piled up close to each other.
In their world it’s just one hump after another.
It’s like looking at piles of many melons.You and I have spent so many hours working.
We have paid dearly for the life we have.
It’s all right if we do nothing tonight.I am so much in love with mournful music
That I don’t bother to look for violinists.
The aging peepers satisfy me for hours.I love to see the fiddlers tuning up their old fiddles,
And the singer urging the low notes to come.
I saw her trying to keep the dawn from breaking.You and I have worked hard for the life we have.
But we love to remember the way the soul leaps
Over and over into the lonely heavens.
(Robert Bly [source])
