Allegro

Walking in I find you, already inside;
I guess I left a window open.
I still can't abide just standing inside
and letting you walk in whenever you want.

And I breathe a sigh when I catch your eyes.
You know how they say that the eyes never lie?
I throw you a wave, but there's someone behind me,
then I see...
you're looking over my shoulder.

This place is so old, it's thin and it's cold,
I don't know why I sometimes come back here.
It'll never be ours, it's already sold -
a small man in glasses bought it.

He says it's all right, it gets enough light,
but sometimes it leaks when it rains.
It just ain't the same as his old place in Spain,
where he spent his youth in a studio,
that belonged to a girl,
who was sunny and sharing,
who he loved very much,
who sold all his records...

And I breathe a sigh when I catch your eyes,
I see you smiling and I see
your mouth moves around without making a sound,
and then I see...
you're eating an apple.

Response Paper to "The Little Prince": Drama 252 (2004)

“The grown-ups are very strange…”
-The Little Prince

Oh Antione –
scraping the depths of human reason
with naught but your hands,
you bring up from the deep
the simple gift of worth.

Matters of consequence mean
naught to matters of heart;
thus spake your golden-haired angel
to one who’d forsake the roads
of virtue and beauty.

To the hapless soul who met
your Little Prince upon the desert sands,
you dissolved the false mantel of pride
he wore about his shoulders so piously,
never knowing what truths he missed.

You gave the pilot wings on which
to travel the realms of simpler planes of thought,
that, no less complex than matters of consequence,
should teach us more about ourselves and life
than numbers, figures, and objects of material.

These values you taught us:

Take not seriously words spoken without import;
they glimmer and glow when first uttered,
but their light fades and their fire burns, quick,
leaving nothing but dead ash behind.

Never run from your doubt;
journey till your travels yield to you what you need to know,
to understand what you need in order to return.

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you;
one must require from each only the duty they can perform.
But don’t require from someone
things you have no need for.

Pay no attention to the vain, for the vain pay none to you -
nor do they lend an ear when it would be
the most helpful to another than he.

Substituting a problem
to overcome another problem,
does nothing but add to your problems.

Take pride in what you have.
Appreciate the value in what you have.
But leave the unobtainable where it lies,
if it truly cannot be claimed by you.

That which is beautiful in meaning
is truly useful.
Beauty can be found in many places;
don’t judge value by what you see, but rather
by how it may be applied.

Knowledge is nothing without experience.
Even when the mind has knowledge of the experience,
it cannot possibly substitute for what is felt through the body itself…
…and you always know less than what you think you know.

Don’t overlook values;
only through experience and reflection
can you truly learn about the world and yourself.

“Hold fast to your friends,” your Little Angel spoke,
“not everyone has had a friend before.”
Friends may come in the strangest of guises,
but it is not guise which makes a friend,
it is love and need.

Friends shed new light on old shades of life,
add new depth to old memories,
dredge fresh love where old love glossed itself over.
But most of all a friend will fill you,
and not leave you beautiful and empty.

“It is only with the ear that one can see rightly;
what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

After blessings of friendship were breathed into a newly-met stranger,
your Little Prince ascended back to Heaven in a flash of yellow,
so much like the hair on the wise head of the young boy,
so much like the golden scarf that graced his youthful neck.

And with that he passed away from this world,
this hellish world of material needs,
and returned to his things of beauty, his life of meaning.
And we are most grateful to you, Little Prince,
for showing us just how grand life can be.

“…Children, watch out for the baobabs!”

--January 29th, 2004, Drama 252 Response Paper: “The Little Prince”

Passing Fancy

We are but a scance to fairer lands,
a passing race entwined
to fancy’s brief desires, changing
ceaselessly with time;

The briefest glance of sun upon
the morning mists, so pale and grey,
that yearn for one to bind them whole,
upon the break of day.

The passing years change not the lands,
they yield no crop to sway the plagues.
The likes of we, who steal the seeds,
are scratched by thorns upon our legs.

Until a river split the fields in
twain, we cannot say
that hope for beauty’s flower
has been lost to us again.

--for Farran

Nameless-Faced Stranger

You look to me as if you need
A friend or helping hand.
I wake up in the morning and hear your
Silence greet me every time.
The open window like a porthole
Shows me thoughts you’d never release.
I only wanted to ask you if everything was okay, once or twice,
Or ask about your day
As you puffed on another cigarette, another breath to face the world
And bobbed your head to unspoken conversations, proving your point with talking hands.
You’ll never know this song was meant for you,
My nameless faced neighbor, who labored by her stairs
To make sense of the world around her.

--for ?

Looking at the World through a Straw

I focused on a smaller part of life,
ignoring the rest that gapes so wide.
A circle drawn on life material,
a hole cut in the world outside.
And through this shrunken view,
the shadows lighting up my eye,
I glimpsed through time to grasp
this bit of pain you keep inside.

Opposed to the open mind,
no breath of life for wandering eyes.
A little glimpse of loneliness,
a little taste of what is blind.
Perhaps I could have looked at
this small view of yours before,
and perhaps you’ve shown it too me
at a time, and shown me more.

So after all this time has passed,
all this time I’ve thrown away,
all the chances I could get to know you,
all the chance to let you be,
your light has been extinguished
through this telescopic view of mine;
and burned out from too-bright hope that never
found a means to share a life.

I apologize; my choice has led
its way to your demise.
But choice was choice and I forsook
the higher path of staying kind.
Yet I’m sorry that I looked at all
the face around your eyes,
and missed that little glimpse of pain
you’ve always kept inside.

--for Many

Wings

Friendship gave you wings with which to fly.
You triumphed over the bonds of iron and chain that shackle so many,
like paltry fools, into the dismal plane of acquaintance,
and conquered the wind and sky.

You showed me that friends can matter more
than anything else in the world,
and with these wings you soared above and let the world see
how beautiful a friend can be.

--for David, 2002

Casual Tones

In my moments of reflection
I think of what I felt for you,
one time,
and how that emotion is now changed.
Once you were mine. Once you were everything;
my light, my flame, that which comforts in the midst of deepest shame,
the inspiration for notes struck gently in the dark...
and now we talk in casual tones.

The fingers of my heart no longer reach out
to touch your skin,
to graze your cheek,
to cup your face;
they hang now, slack at my sides,
or locked together in folds upon my lap.
We didn’t end in tears, or half-choked voices filled with grief.
We made a new beginning, you and me...
and now we talk in casual tones.

I sat by our fountain for a time,
laughing softly to myself,
plucking wishes from the water and rubbing away the copper covers
that hid the dullness inside both them and me,
while meandering thoughts traced themselves in the dust,
my fingers trailing the words away...

I laughed at my foolishness,
my false pride,
the irony of unused freedom won,
and the gloom my shackles, lost, retain.
So I wept,
and sang,
and hoped for you again;
but I wrap the fingers of my heart around you, still...
amidst our casual tones.

--pour Camille, 1999

Christmas Break Rap

So on the flight home from Maui, my brother and I decided to have a "Rap-Off". During the first 45-minute flight (followed by the six-hour flight to Seattle, thaaaank God for drinking all day that induces sleep on a plane) ;D, we decided that we would each write a rap about our holidays and compare at the end of it. Fun times. *Ahem* So, without further ado, here is my "Flight Tangent; New Year's 'Wrap'"

Lookin' out the window, glancing at my watch,
hopin' to catch a view of Santa Claus
'cause Im' flying on Christmas Eve (sleigh bells),
flying on Christmas Eve (in da air!)

Through the air I'm soaring, bustin' out a phat
rhyme on a dime 'cause it's Christmas time,
while the North Star this metal bird follows,
spreading my verse of peace like my man Carlos
Santana: when will this metal bird landah?

I'm heading to the beach of Maui,
hookin' up wid hot honeys and chill wid-da-family,
and these Maui girls got me crazed, I'm just starin
at the little-hoola-skirts they're all a shakin' and a wearin',

to feed my erection as I stare at her body; perfection'
she's got that little taste of island that make me
wanna get down with guava, baby, uh -
get down with guava.

And as this little plane lands I'm right out on the sand,
rollin' wid my brotha and my best-made-man
and we're taking the island by storm (take it easy),
like Katrina we break up the norm (too soon?)

As I walk, I give a shout "Hey girl, Mele Lalikemaka,
come here and lemme show ya how to throw a REAL 'shaka'!"
And all my island peeps call me their number-1 'brah',
'cause I'm the best thing to hit since Haleakala.

:D I think it's fun.