Just in time for Valentine's Day...

Hearts by Jim Dine

Kiss & Don't Tell

Sweetness, Always - Dulce, Siempre

SWEETNESS, ALWAYS by Pablo Neruda

painting, Mary Heebner; translation, Alastair Reid

Why such harsh machinery?

Why, to write down the happenings

and people of every day,

must poems be dressed up in gold,

in old and grim stone?

I prefer verses of felt or feather

which scarcely weigh, soft verses

with the intimacy of beds

where people have loved and dreamed.

I prefer poems stained

by hands and everydayness.

Verses of pastry that melt

into milk and sugar in the mouth,

air and water to drink,

the bites and kisses of love.

I long for eatable sonnets,

poems of flour and honey.

Vanity keeps nudging us

to lift ourselves skyward

or to make deep and useless

tunnels underground.

So we forget the joyous

love-needs of our bodies.

We forget about pastries.

We are not feeding the world.

In Madras a long time since,

I saw a sugary pyramid,

a tower of confectionery—

one level after another,

and in the construction, rubies,

and other blushing delights,

medieval and yellow.

Someone soiled his hands

to cook up so much sweetness.

Brother poets from here

and there, from earth and sky,

from Medellín, from Veracruz,

Abyssinia, Antofagasta,

do you know how to make a honeycomb?

Let’s forget about all that stone.

Let your poetry fill up

the equinoctial pastry shop

our mouths long to devour—

the mouths of all the children

and the poor adults also.

Don’t go on without seeing,

relishing, understanding

so many hearts of sugar.

Don’t be afraid of sweetness.

With us or without us,

sweetness will go on living

and is infinitely alive,

and forever being revived,

for it’s in the mouth,

whether singing or eating,

that sweetness belongs.

DULCE, SIEMPRE

Por qué esas materias tan duras?

Por qué para escribir las cosas

y los hombres de cada día

se visiten los versos con oro,

con Antigua piedra espantosa?

Quiero versos de tela o pluma

que apenas pesan, versos tibios

con la intimidad de las camas

donde la gente amó y soñó.

Quiero poemas mancillados

por las manos y el cada día.

Versos de hojaldre que derritan

leche y azúcar en la boca,

el aire y el agua se beben,

el amor se muerde y se besa,

quiero sonetos comestibles,

poemas de miel y de harina.

La vanidad anda pidiéndonos

que nos elevemos al cielo

o que hagamos frofundos túneles

inútiles bajo la tierra.

Y así olvidamos menesteres

deliciosamente amorosos,

se nos olvidan los pastels,

no damos de comer al mundo.

En Madras hace un tiempo largo

vi una pirámide azucarada,

una torre de dulcería.

Cada unidad sobre otra y otra

y en la arquitectura, rubies,

y otras delicias sonrosadas,

mediovales y amarillas.

Alguien se ensució las manos

amamando tanta dulzura.

Hermanos poetas de aquí,

de allá, de la tierra y del cielo,

de Medellín, de Veracruz,

de Abisinia, de Antofagasta,

con qué se hicieron los panales?

Dejémonos de tanta piedra!

Que tu poesía desborde

la equinoccial pastelería

que quieren devorar nuestras bocas,

todas las bocas de los niños

y todos los pobres adultos.

No sigan solos sin mirar

sin apetecer ni entender

tantos corazones de acúcar.

No tengan miedo a la dulzura.

Sin nosotros o con nosotros

lo dulce seguirá viviendo

y es infinitamente vivo,

eternamente redivivo,

porque en plena boca del hombre

para cantar o para comer

está mituada la dulzura.

**Pablo Neruda (1904-1973) was born in Parral, Chile. In 1971 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Alastair Reid, a poet and translator of Latin American writers, is originally from Scotland. He won the PEN Kolovakos Award for Translation in 2001. Mary Heebner is an artist based in Santa Barbara, California. Her work is published alongside Neruda's poems and Reid's translations in Intimacies: Poems of Love by Pablo Neruda.

(Post)Modern Love: Goodbye to Monument Valley

by Courtney Heins

I remember us dancing on the kitchen tile

You had John Wayne’s rhythm and Gary Cooper’s smile

And just like in the movies

Away you stole

I fell asleep before the ending

And cried…as the credits rolled

Why does everything certain

become everything changed

I turn my back to hang the curtain

My whole life gets rearranged

And I’ve fallen hard

And I’ve fallen fast

And I’ve never caught the moment

‘Fore its fallen to the past

Well I’ve worked all day long at this Circus Saloon

Flirted with the cowboys

And waltzed with the broom

But love don’t pay the bills

Just like minimum wage

It’s the least I can get

But the most I’ve ever made

Is this really me

Is this the life I’ve laid

If I trusted the moon

He’d be the first to fade

And I’ve fallen hard

And I’ve fallen fast

And I’ve never caught the moment

‘Fore its fallen to the past

Well you made your reservations on the first-class car

But you didn’t have the courage to go very far

You’re just a second-hand, second-class silver-screen star

Drinkin’ love on the rocks

And smokin’ homespun cigars

Well I danced with a dreamer

Then stepped out of the light

And realized you just weren’t that cowboy in white

You left your girl on the tracks for some villain to steal

And its about time you noticed that this life ain’t real

Goodbye to Monument Valley I’m not your Natalie Wood

You don’t have to save me

Not that you ever could

‘Cuz I’ve fallen hard And I’ve fallen fast

And I haven’t caught that moment

‘Fore its fallen to the past

The doors are locked

There’s rice on the stove

Understand Your Man playin’ on my radio

But the window’s cracked

The gas won’t light

And it looks like its just me and Johnny tonight

‘Cuz see he’s fallen hard

And he’s fallen fast

And he’s come to make me see

Some things are better in the past

He’s fallen hard

And he’s fallen fast

But he’s come to make me realize

If it’s a great love, it will last

Courtney Heins is an Americana singer/songwriter with roots in Indiana and Boston. She currently resides in Los Angeles with her cool dog, Creedence. Her music can be found on iTunes or at www.refolk.com.

L.O.V.E.

A Creative Romance - Almodóvar & Cruz

Pedro Almodóvar discusses his new film Broken Embraces, in particular his work with Penélope Cruz:



The trailer:

La Dolce Gilda

From an SNL spoof of a Fellini film, back in the '70s. They re-aired it shortly after Gilda Radner's death. Video is nowhere to be found, but a most beautiful piece, especially the ending:

Gilda: You're still following me? Stop! Leave me alone! [ walks away, then turns around and smiles] I'm just teasing. Come here. Come.. closer. You know I love you, my little monkey. But leave me my dreams. Dreams are like paper, they tear so easily. I love to play. But every time I play.. you win. Ciao. [ she walks away ]

[ a mime holding a balloon opens his coat to reveal a paper heart glued to his chest, then releases his balloon.]

"Part of you pours out of me in these lines from time to time..."

A Case of You by Joni Mitchell

The Kiss by Gustav Klimt

Writing exercise:

What does this painting/image conjure up for you? Write for three minutes uninterrupted starting...now!

The Wedding Scene

From Rob Reiner's The Princess Bride starring Robin Wright.

Mawwage, "...that dream within a dream..."