Show You Love - Jars of Clay

Speak- say the words that no one else will ever say
Love- love like the world we know is over in a day

I'm gonna show you a love in every language
I'm gonna speak with the words that need no form
I'm gonna give you what you never had before

You're beautiful and I am weakened by the force of your eyes
So shine bright to separate the truth from the lies
I'm gonna show you love

I'm gonna show you a love in every language
I'm gonna speak with the words that need no form
I'm gonna give you what you never had before

So tie me to a tree and let the smoke and ash collect
No, I won't regret to let love do what love will let
We can drown in mixed emotions or walk across an angry sea
This is the cost of being free

My old friend!

How good to see you again.

Your smile from across the table
is the best garnish for this
pumpkin and carrot soup gone
cold over time.  That joke
we laughed over long ago now
seems new again and funny,
so funny.  Have we grown that old
already?  All our shallow small
talk, tales, and tunes; what
have we really learned
from these nothings we swapped
to kill time and fill space?
How are you now?  Tell me
about this newfound love you keep
smiling over.  That café there
seems ideal for mulling over
love and other losses.  I wish
I’d counted the number
of cups of coffee between us all
this time.  They must be countless
as beats of heart and breaths of air.
I remember how there were less lines
on our faces.  Time changed us, or
we changed time.  In any case,
mine is running out.  This is good, though.
I’m so glad to see you again.

The Touch

I seem to have lost my touch,
and it is really making me sad.
I used to write, you see.  I used to
be able to write. But now I can't
even hold a pen
right.  My penmanship is
getting worse everyday.  The words are
not coming.  No, they are, but they are
not the ones I want. Not the right ones.

I used to love the touch.
I would hone it and sharpen it on the roughest
of words, the most grating ideas.  And smooth
it down till it was fine like
silk and warm water on skin. And words
that flow, I bathed in them. But now I can't
even type a phrase
right.  The embossed letters on
the click-clacking keys bother
my fingertips - braille for the wordless
poet.  They disturb, they tickle
the nerves.  And  still the words,
the right words do not come.

I would love to have the touch
back.  Again and again in a back
and forth motion my pen
scrawls across cheap yellowing sheets,
nudge dormant verses come
awake from lethargic forgetfulness.
My old typewriter's keys singing
an old song.  That song that my fingers
used to play on the black and white.
I used to write.  But now I can't
even remember the feeling of touching
words.  They do not come. 

Radiohead - Fake Plastic Trees

Her green plastic watering can
For her fake Chinese rubber plant
In the fake plastic earth
That she bought from a rubber man
In a town full of rubber plans
To get rid of itself

It wears her out, it wears her out
It wears her out, it wears her out

She lives with a broken man
A cracked polystyrene man
Who just crumbles and burns
He used to do surgery
For girls in the eighties
But gravity always wins

It wears him out, it wears him out
It wears him out, it wears him out

She looks like the real thing
She tastes like the real thing
My fake plastic love
But I can't help the feeling
I could blow through the ceiling
If I just turn and run

It wears me out, it wears me out
It wears me out, it wears me out

If I could be who you wanted
If I could be who you wanted all the time

All the time...
All the time...

Sleeping Beauty

I would rather not see

the world without him

who shall love me.

This bed shall be haven

and Hell will not have me

until he finds me here,

under the dust I shall be.

What is a hundred years;

what is a moment? No, time

does not matter. It does not

hold me, does not

curse me. Still I shall wait

in dreams. In dreams I'll live,

as I'm dead awake. Unkissed,

untouched, until he.

E.B. White - Charlotte's Web

What an unforgettable story.  I first read this book back when I was in elementary school.  I loved it then and I love it more now that I’ve re-read it in my thirties.  A tale of true friendship that is so simply and honestly told, it could only tell the truth.  Every person, young and old, should read it.

I especially love the way death is presented in this story.  It is not something that is to be feared.  It is sad, yes, but it is merely part of nature and life, just like the changing of the seasons and the growth of children.  How elegantly and gracefully it was handled.  How very beautiful.

Departures (おくりびと)

This is one of the most gracefully told stories I have ever witnessed.  Upon having seen it, it’s really no wonder why it won all that acclaim.  The plot revolves around Daigo, who lost his job and ended up going back to the countryside and landing a job that he assumed had something to do with being a travel agent.  This is a story about the trials that people face in life, a search for a purpose, the human concept of death and the loss, grief, and acceptance that go with it.  It is about family and the relations we have with those people around us who shape our lives.  All of these and more wrapped in an exquisite presentation of Japanese culture and tradition.  How precise and elegant every moment of this film is!  Nothing was overdone.  The music, the performance of the cast, the pacing of the story, everything just flowed smoothly and went straight to the heart.  Every laugh and tear that the movie elicits is well worth it.  “Departures” will be one of my high-ranking favourites from now on.