Poem for Thursday

The Well
By Pablo Neruda

At times you sink, you fall
into your hole of silence,
into your abyss of proud anger,
and you can scarcely
return, still bearing remnants
of what you found
in the depth of your existence.

My love, what do you find
in your closed well?
Seaweed, swamps, rocks?
What do you see with blind eyes,
bitter and wounded?

Darling, you will not find
in the well into which you fall
what I keep for you on the heights:
a bouquet of dewy jasmines,
a kiss deeper than your abyss.

Do not fear me, do not fall
into your rancor again.
Shake off my word that came to wound you
and let it fly through the open window.
It will return to wound
without your guiding it
since it was laden with a harsh instant
and that instant will be disarmed in my breast.

--------

My day was about as hectic as I expected -- running kids around from school to dentist (where older son learned, to his distress, that he must have a tooth pulled in a couple of weeks) and then rushing to get older son to his Bar Mitzvah tutoring, which was complicated by the fact that he had lost the notebook in which all the stuff he was given at the first tutoring session had been put! I threatened him with no video games for the rest of the year if he did not find it. He got lucky in that his father, who had been apprised of the situation, found the notebook where it had either fallen or been stuffed between the couch and the end table. Graaaar.

The rest of my day was relatively unexciting (covering Shatner's 75th birthday and plans to release the Trek shows on bargain DVDs with no extras, making mac and cheese for dinner while hubby was picking up son from the Hebrew tutoring) until evening, when TV Land's night of specials made my week! First the TV Land Awards were on, which were far more fun than they should have been. I put it on to see the Dallas cast because I can't resist seeing Hagman and Gray together any chance I get (and Duffy and Tilton and the rest are just gravy), and they got the first big award of the night, with clips of the "Who Shot J.R." episode making me nostalgic for eighth grade when my French class put on a dramatization of "Qui a fusille J.R." with me playing Sue Ellen. But oh! Jonathan Kent singing The Dukes of Hazzard theme song! And then Joey Scarbury doing The Greatest American Hero and DONNY AND MARIE doing "Get Back, Honky Cat" on old tape and taking the stage! Donny is a grandfather and has five children, Marie has eight -- eee!

Shatner was there too, saying, "with all due humility, I'm wonderful. But enough about me until later," then introducing Batman (which turns 40 this year like Star Trek, though Star Trek got no airtime, I guess because TV Land does not run it). "You'd have to be a real joker not to love Batman," explained Shatner, introducing Adam West and Burt Ward, who announced that they would show off their incredible crime-fighting physiques, which are not, err, quite as trim as they were. Then they did a feature, Grey Anatomy, about all the older actors who'd played doctors -- Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman was stuck in the elevator and Doc from The Love Boat was hitting on Hot Lips Houlihan!

I never really watched Good Times but the tribute was actually rather touching -- what it meant to black families. And there were other lovely moments like Kermit and Miss Piggy presenting an award about something they truly care about -- FOOD -- and an award to the best Oscar winner who started out in television, including Hilary Swank (who won), Jamie Foxx (in a dress) and George Clooney, who had the best hair ever on The Facts of Life! They finished with Diana Ross looking good and singing the theme from Mahogany but I was rooting for Sonny and Cher's reunion on Letterman (where they made me cry!) to win for musical moment on TV.

And after that, we watched Living in TV Land: William Shatner! Where I am not going to cut as a spoiler the fact that THEY SHAMELESSLY SLASHED KIRK AND SPOCK ALL OVER THE PLACE! Shatner talks about himself as a singer, asking, "Who does this guy think he is?" Then the special cuts to him forty years ago, "This is Captain James T. Kirk of the Starship Enterprise," and then T.J. Hooker and Denny Crane introducing themselves. And then a cut to an interview with Leonard Nimoy saying, "I don't know if I would call Bill a singer." Would Nimoy call himself a singer? His "If I Had a Hammer" is more painful than Shatner's "Mr. Tambourine Man," which is really saying something! Though I prefer Shatner's more recent "You're Gonna Die" (there are clips of him performing from Has Been all over the special).

There are also awesome cameos, including one by the late John Spencer saying he's a fan of Shatner's and he wouldn't sing theme song of The West Wing at the Emmys the way Shatner sang the Star Trek theme song. Candice Bergen is all adoring of him reinventing himself -- I get the impression they had so much fun working on those Miss Congeniality films together. On the plane to a convention, Kate Mulgrew asks Shatner whether he thinks he might be stigmatized as Captain Kirk (clearly she feels stigmatized as Janeway despite all her "Blah blah I love Star Trek" stuff she spouts in front of partisan audiences). At the Las Vegas con, Shatner objects to the fact that Patrick Stewart gets louder applause, but the two appear genuinely to like each other which makes me so happy.

But the best Trekkie aspect of this special is that Shatner sings a LOVE SONG to Kirk/Spock. Okay, maybe the TV Land producers made it look that way, but he's singing, "Don't change because you think I might like that. I fell in love with you," while they are showing Kirk staring at Spock, then Shatner elbowing Nimoy. Later they show Nimoy on T.J. Hooker, and as Spock fighting with Kirk, while Shatner is singing, "I love what you wear because you're wearing it, I want you to be you..." Oh MAN I love Shatner! And, I mean, Brad Paisley and Mark Valley also have crushes on him, so I have nothing to apologize for. Even his son in law loves him! And Rene Auberjonois!

In other entertaining news, I am sure everyone who cares already saw this, but "Oldman Locked For Potter -- Finally!". And for the archaeology geek in me, "Ancient Sarcophagus Unearthed in Cyprus".


A little owl at the National Zoo.

Another very early morning tomorrow. I must get to bed. I didn't get any laundry folded and I don't even care! ETA for : The Shatner special reruns next Wednesday night at 10 p.m. Eastern time!