Poem for Sunday

Parents
By William Meredith

What it must be like to be an angel
or a squirrel, we can imagine sooner.

The last time we go to bed good,
they are there, lying about darkness.

They dandle us once too often,
these friends who become our enemies.

Suddenly one day, their juniors
are as old as we yearn to be.

They get wrinkles where it is better
smooth, odd coughs, and smells.

It is grotesque how they go on
loving us, we go on loving them.

The effrontery, barely imaginable,
of having caused us. And of how.

Their lives: surely
we can do better than that.

This goes on for a long time. Everything
they do is wrong, and the worst thing,

they all do it, is to die,
taking with them the last explanation,

how we came out of the wet sea
or wherever they got us from,

taking the last link
of that chain with them.

Father, mother, we cry, wrinkling,
to our uncomprehending children and grandchildren.

--------

From Poet's Choice by Edward Hirsch in The Washington Post:

"In 1983, at the age of 64, William Meredith suffered a stroke that left him with expressive aphasia, which means that for the past 20 years he has been unable to say or write precisely what he means. 'I know it,' he will declare forcefully, 'but I can't say the words.' Meredith's body trapped and betrayed him, but he has borne up under the frustrating affliction with resilient grace and dignity....his condition gives special weight to the title of his new and selected poems, Effort at Speech (1997), which is preoccupied throughout with the poet's determined struggle to speak accurately and truthfully in hard times."

I posted these articles in and might as well link here for people who might be interested but don't do the A/M slash thing. First, Paul Bettany in Vogue, UK edition, February issue, Cate Blanchett on the cover. Very lovely pictures of Bettany, lots of gushing about him and some about Russell Crowe, page one, page two, page three and page four. Second, Bettany in Hollywood Life, again some nice quotes -- he's sick of discussing his bare butt, loathes working out, admits to having been intimidated by Peter Weir and compares talking about acting to sex -- page one and page two. (And since I am an already an admitted Loser Fan Girl, can anyone scan me the pic of Jennifer Connelly and their baby that was in People recently?)

Found this appalling news about the space telescope via , otherwise I might have missed it entirely, and it figures we had to hear it from the BBC!

Just had to post this, gacked shamelessly from , in case anyone managed to miss it from here via here:

[Nazz] Viggo you're now at the stage where you could get the majority of roles you wanted. You've had love scenes with Gwyneth Paltrow and now Liv Tyler. Is there anyone you aspire to have a love scene with, in the world?

Viggo: "Gimli? That was cut from the movie - maybe it'll be in the Extended Version."

[Nazz] I did hear about you and the bearded ladies.

Viggo: "There was a very nice beard tugging moment between me and Sean, if they ever go back and make a more extended version. You can ask Sean about it. He may pretend not to remember. And there were bearded ladies on this production, quite a few."

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