I was the Cheshire Cat

ART: Paul and I go back to the sixth grade where we grew up, in Queens. They cast the two of us in the elementary school graduation play, Alice in Wonderland, and, I was the Cheshire cat, and ah... it's been a lot of laughs ever since. With a few interruptions this year would be the 50th anniversary of this friendship that I deeply cherish.

PAUL: We met when we were 11 years old in... Alice in Wonderland and... I was the white rabbit, the leading role... And Artie was the Cheshire cat, supporting role... Very important, very important supporting role...

Simon & Garfunkel. Old Friends. 2004 Concert.

min. 24:55

Love & Freedom V - Wings

The tame bird was in a cage, the free bird was in the forest.
They met when the time came, it was a decree of fate.
The free bird cries, "O my love, let us fly to wood."
The cage bird whispers, "Come hither, let us both live in the
cage."
Says the free bird, "Among bars, where is there room to spread
one's wings?"
"Alas," cries the cage bird, "I should not know where to sit
perched in the sky."

The free bird cries, "My darling, sing the songs of the
woodlands."
The cage bird says, "Sit by my side, I'll teach you the speech of
the learned."
The forest bird cries, "No, ah no! songs can never be taught."
The cage bird says, "Alas for me, I know not the songs of the
woodlands."

Their love is intense with longing, but they cannot find how to fly wing
to wing.
Through the bars of the cage they look, and strong is their wish to
know each other.
They flutter their wings in yearning, and sing, "Come closer, my
love!"
The free bird cries, "Can it be? I fear the closed doors of
the cage!"
The caged bird whispers, "Alas, are my wings powerless? Dead?"


Almost Rabindranath Tagore's Poem 6, from The Gardener

Through the Looking Glass I - El flotante espejo de plata Parte 5

Mientras tanto, los vestidos de seda y terciopelo de la princesa Momo se habían gastado. Ahora llevaba un chaquetón de hombre, viejo, demasiado grande, y una falda de remiendos de todos los colores. Y vivía en unas ruinas.

Aquí se encuentran un buen día. Pero la princesa Momo no reconoce al príncipe Girolamo, porque ahora es un pobre diablo. Tampoco Gigi reconoció a la princesa, porque ya no tenía ningún aspecto de princesa. Pero en la desgracia común, los dos se hicieron amigos y se consolaban mutuamente.

Una noche, cuando volvía a flotar en el cielo el espejo mágico, que ahora estaba vacío, Gigi sacó del bolsillo la imagen y se la enseñó a Momo. Estaba ya muy arrugada y desvaída, pero aun así, la princesa se dio cuenta en seguida que se trataba de su propia imagen. Y entonces también reconoció, bajo la máscara de pobre diablo, al príncipe Girolamo, al que siempre había buscado y por quien se había vuelto mortal. Y se lo contó todo.

Pero Gigi movió triste la cabeza y dijo:

- No puedo entender nada de lo que dices, porque tengo un nudo en el corazón y no puedo acordarme de nada.

Entonces, la princesa Momo metió la mano en su pecho y desató, con toda facilidad, el nudo que tenía en el corazón. Y, de repente, el príncipe Girolamo volvió a saber quién era. Tomó a la princesa de la mano y se fue con ella muy lejos, a su país.


Fragmento de Momo, de Michael Ende. 

Moments of Being III - That moment. Right then.

To M.

And I remember thinking to myself: So, this is the beginning of happiness. This is where it starts. And of course there will always be more. It never occurred to me it wasn't the beginning. It was happiness. It was the moment. Right then.
-Clarissa Vaughan, The Hours

Among all the things you desired
That afternoon
Close again to another end
You wished just for one

It wasn't my body
Nor to call me your own
It was not my voice singing to you
nor my tears mourning you
It wasn't even to spend
at least one night together
or even just to sleep side by side

You wished for a gift
Something not for yourself
but for me
You wished for something
that would end up driving me
even farther away from you
Something that could only do me good
Or someone, that is
Someone who would treat me right
Someone who could never hurt me
You insisted I deserved it
You almost demanded it of me
that promise
That I would take nothing other than that

That moment
That wish

Perhaps that's the closest to being loved
I have ever been

En busca del tiempo perdido XIX

Y de pronto todo el edificio resucita, surge de la tierra, crece, se eleva ante los ojos y la mirada que lo siguen: no es sólo el recuerdo, es la experiencia, intacta. La gramática precisa y elocuente de un sueño ignoto.

El alma siempre es ave.

Lloroncita III - Te soñaba dormida (con la verdad por delante)

Love & Freedom IV - Either/or

                                        Why can't lust be

love and love be lust? you're always asking,

even now as the slugs begin their sluggish

withdrawal - each complete in love and lust;

each mother and father to what they've made

together; each alone, content, and free.

(It's either fucking or marriage, I say,
saying more than I mean).                          

Why Can’t Lust be Love? / The Poetry Magazine Podcast : The Poetry Foundation

(Go to minute 6:24)

 Thoughts borrowed from Conversation with Slugs and Sarah, by Jennifer Chang

Love & Freedom III - Wild love

Your wild love, don't tame your love

Your wild love, don't blame your love

Love & Freedom II - Fidelity

Lloroncita II - Pero déjame llorar

Que la causa de mi llanto

Es una prenda que yo adoro

Y por eso lloro y canto

Moments of Being II - I can't carry it for you, but I can go with you

Samwise Gamgee. You weren't so thrilled about the comparison, but I did find it flattering. I've always thought Sam is the true hero of the story. You'd rather be that other character, the human, as you described it, but no, you'd have to be Sam. If I could choose... I said, and prefered not to end the phrase. I thought it would be best to argue in favor of Sam as the true hero of the story, since he was the only one who stayed with Frodo 'till the end, and without whom he would've ended up bulking up the belly of that huge spider, or would not have been able to get rid of the ring at all. You don't have to carry no ring, you said. I didn't think you'd understand what I was trying to say. Actually, I hadn't realized I was trying to say it until after you did. I'd go with you, anyways, you said.

Samwise Gamgee. He married some girl when they all went back home. And probably had tons of boys and girls. And surely was a good father. And lived merrily.