Brown Penny~

I whispered, 'I am too young,' And then, 'I am old enough'; Wherefore I threw a penny To find out if I might love. 'Go and love, go and love, young man, If the lady be young and fair.' Ah, penny, brown penny, brown penny, I am looped in the loops of her hair.   O love is the crooked thing, There is nobody wise enough To find out all that is in it, For he would be thinking of love Till the stars had run away And the shadows eaten the moon. Ah, penny, brown penny, brown penny, One cannot begin it too soon. by W.B. Yeats  ~i love the scene in Must Love Dogs where Christopher Plummer (Capt. Von Trapp!!!) recites this...

Romeo + Juliet

Who doesn't love the bittersweet love story of literature's  most famous couple, Romeo & Juliet? Well I for one do. I've read the original play, watched three of the made movies, some over and over. I've come to know and have memorized scenes and lines by heart. Usually, I'm all about happy endings, still, I do love a great tragedy. "For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo." I love best how Baz Luhrmann has retold it in his 1996 masterpiece, Romeo + Juliet. The contemporary setting and the original dialogue amazingly went well together. I found the classic story much richer and profound through that film. That movie will always be my favorite Romeo and Juliet. So I'm posting here the lines of my (everyone's) favorite part from Act II Scene II.

ROMEO 

    But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks? 

    It is the east, and Juliet is the sun. 

    Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon, 

    Who is already sick and pale with grief, 

    That thou her maid art far more fair than she: 

    Be not her maid, since she is envious; 

    Her vestal livery is but sick and green 

    And none but fools do wear it; cast it off. 

    It is my lady, O, it is my love! 

    O, that she knew she were! 

JULIET 

    Ay me! 

ROMEO 

    She speaks: 

    O, speak again, bright angel!

JULIET 

    O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo? 

    Deny thy father and refuse thy name; 

    Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, 

    And I'll no longer be a Capulet. 

ROMEO 

    [Aside] Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this? 

JULIET 

    'Tis but thy name that is my enemy; 

    Thou art thyself, though not a Montague. 

    What's Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot, 

    Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part 

    Belonging to a man. O, be some other name! 

    What's in a name? that which we call a rose 

    By any other name would smell as sweet; 

    So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd, 

    Retain that dear perfection which he owes 

    Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name, 

    And for that name which is no part of thee 

    Take all myself. 

ROMEO 

    I take thee at thy word: 

JULIET 

    Art thou not Romeo and a Montague? 

ROMEO 

    Neither, fair saint, if either thee dislike. 

JULIET 

    How camest thou hither, tell me, and wherefore? 

    The orchard walls are high and hard to climb, 

    And the place death, considering who thou art, 

    If any of my kinsmen find thee here. 

ROMEO 

    With love's light wings did I o'er-perch these walls; 

    For stony limits cannot hold love out, 

    And what love can do that dares love attempt; 

    Therefore thy kinsmen are no let to me. 

JULIET 

    If they do see thee, they will murder thee. 

ROMEO 

    I have night's cloak to hide me from their sight; 

    And but thou love me, let them find me here: 

    My life were better ended by their hate, 

    Than death prorogued, wanting of thy love. 

JULIET 

    Thou know'st the mask of night is on my face, 

    Else would a maiden blush bepaint my cheek 

    For that which thou hast heard me speak to-night 

    Fain would I dwell on form, fain, fain deny 

    What I have spoke: but farewell compliment! 

    Dost thou love me? I know thou wilt say 'Ay,' 

    And I will take thy word: yet if thou swear'st, 

    Thou mayst prove false; O gentle Romeo, 

    If thou dost love, pronounce it faithfully: 

ROMEO 

    Lady, by yonder blessed moon I swear 

    That tips with silver all these fruit-tree tops-- 

JULIET 

    O, swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon, 

    That monthly changes in her circled orb, 

    Lest that thy love prove likewise variable. 

ROMEO 

    What shall I swear by? 

JULIET 

    Do not swear at all; 

    Or, if thou wilt, swear by thy gracious self, 

    Which is the god of my idolatry, 

    And I'll believe thee. 

ROMEO 

    If my heart's dear love-- 

JULIET 

    Well, do not swear: although I joy in thee, 

    I have no joy of this contract to-night: 

    It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden; 

    Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be 

    Ere one can say 'It lightens.' Sweet, good night! 

    This bud of love, by summer's ripening breath, 

    May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet. 

    Good night, good night!

ROMEO 

    O, wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied? 

JULIET 

    What satisfaction canst thou have to-night? 

ROMEO 

    The exchange of thy love's faithful vow for mine. 

JULIET 

    I gave thee mine before thou didst request it!

    Three words, dear Romeo, and good night indeed. 

    If that thy bent of love be honourable, 

    Thy purpose marriage, send me word to-morrow, 

    By one that I'll procure to come to thee, 

    Where and what time thou wilt perform the rite; 

    And all my fortunes at thy foot I'll lay 

    And follow thee my lord throughout the world. 

Nurse 

    [Within] Juliet! 

JULIET 

    By and by I come.--But if thou mean'st not well, 

    I do beseech thee-- 

Nurse 

    [Within] Juliet! 

JULIET 

    By and by, I come:-- 

    To cease thy suit, and leave me to my grief: 

    To-morrow will I send. 

ROMEO 

    So thrive my soul-- 

JULIET 

   A thousand times good night! 

ROMEO 

    A thousand times the worse, to want thy light. 

    Love goes toward love, as schoolboys from their books, 

    But love from love, toward school with heavy looks. 

JULIET 

    Romeo! 

    At what o'clock shall I send to thee? 

ROMEO 

    At the hour of nine. 

JULIET 

    I will not fail: 'tis twenty years till then.

    Good night, good night! parting is such 

    sweet sorrow, 

    That I shall say good night till it be morrow. 

*the young Leonardo diCaprio & Claire Danes brought so much sweetness to these classic words. so love!

Waking Life~

One of the most beautifully written movie for me is 'Before Sunset'. I absolutely love that movie, watched it over and over again. Most people find it boring since it's just the two of them talking and walking and talking... but for someone like me - a hopeless romantic, undeniably a sentimental fool and a lover of words - it just perfect and wonderful, and most unforgettable. So when I heard this song, they always play it at my favorite cafe, I knew it sounded familiar. The song was not really a song. It's a bit like Baz Luhrmann's 'Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen), there's two people talking along with the music. Their conversation was dreamy and wonderful. I knew it sounded familiar because the two people were Jesse and Celine, but it was not from Before Sunset, but from another movie from the same director, Waking Life. I tried to find that song that's not really a song but I couldn't. But I did find this, it's their conversation....


Jessie: I keep thinking about something you said.
Celine: Something I said?
Yeah. About how you often feel like you're observing your life from the perspective of an old woman about to die. You remember that?
Yeah. I still feel that way sometimes. Like I'm looking back on my life. Like my waking life is her memories.
Exactly. I heard that Tim Leary said as he was dying that he was looking forward to the moment when his body was dead but his brain was still alive. You know how they say that there's still six to twelve minutes of brain activity after everything else is shutdown. And a second of dream consciousness, right, well, that's infinitely longer than a waking second. You know what I'm saying?
Oh, yeah, definitely. For example, I wake up and it's 10:12, and then I go back to sleep and I have those long, intricate, beautiful dreams that seem to last for hours, and then I wake up and it's ... 10:13.
Yeah, exactly. So then six to twelve minutes of brain activity, I mean, that could be your whole life. I mean, you are that woman looking back over everything.
Okay, so what if I am? Then what would you be in all that?
Whatever I am right now. I mean, yeah, maybe I only exist in your mind. I'm still just as real as anything else.
Yeah. I've been thinking also about something you said.
What's that?
Just about reincarnation and where all the new souls come from over time. Everybody always say that they've been the reincarnation of Cleopatra or Alexander the Great. I always want to tell them they were probably some dumb fuck like everybody else. I mean, it's impossible. Think about it. The world population has doubled in the past 40 years, right? So if you really believe in that ego thing of one eternal soul, then you have only 50% chance of your soul being over 40. And for it to be over 150 years old, then it's only one out of six.
Right, so what are you saying? That reincarnation doesn't exist, or that we're all young souls like where half of us are first round humans?
No, no. What I'm trying to say is that somehow I believe reincarnation is just a - a poetic expression of what collective memory really is. There was this article by this biochemist that I read not long ago, and he was talking about how when a member of our species is born, it has a billion years of memory to draw on. And this is where we inherit our instincts.
I like that. It's like there's this whole telepathic thing going on that we're all a part of, whether we're conscious of it or not. That would explain why there are all these, you know, seemingly spontaneous, worldwide, innovative leaps in science, in the arts. You know, like the same results poppin' up everywhere, y'know, independent of each other. Some guy on a computer, he figures something out, and then almost simultaneously a bunch of other people all over the world figure out the same thing. They did this study. They isolated a group of people over time, and they monitored their abilities at crossword puzzles, right, in relation to the general population. And they secretly gave them a day-old crossword, one that had already been answered by thousands of other people, right. And their scores went up dramatically, like 20 percent. So it's like once the answers are out there, people can pick up on 'em. It's like we're all telepathically sharing our experiences.


It's beautiful don't you think? I dream of conversations like these...well, someday. ♥

a poem for a night~

the poem written by the street poet for Jessie & Celine in the movie "Before Sunrise".

Daydream delusion, limousine eyelash

Oh baby with your pretty face

Drop a tear in my wineglass

Look at those big eyes

See what you mean to me

Sweet-cakes and milkshakes

I'm a delusion angel

I'm a fantasy parade

I want you to know what I think

Don't want you to guess anymore

You have no idea where I came from

We have no idea where we're going

Lodged in life

Like branches in a river

Flowing downstream

Caught in the current

I carry you

You'll carry me

That's how it could be

Don't you know me?

Don't you know me by now?