Sunday, May 14, 2006

a dream, a film, a cemetery with lilacs

i dreamed of writing a poem last night. as far as i remember, it did not make any sense. the strange thing is that i woke up once, and later dreamed of writing that poem again. i am sure of this. now what did that tell me? to pick up the pen and start writing again? is it that simple? looks like, because i did write a poem this morning, the first since i finished the last round of 30 at the beginning of april. it starts with a line i thought of last night before falling asleep: We had a plan. We worked it out in whispers .... it's not the greatest i have ever written, but it is something.

rachel has challenged me to write a song lyrics cento, and arlene has kind of asked me to come play with nigel once again, so we shall see.


we went to see capote yesterday. i am very impressed by the acting. brilliant. and what a strange man that truman capote must have been. i found the film very interesting in that it did not scream at me "he only used them!" or "he was only interested in himself!" at least, i did not feel it did. i thought it was interesting to ponder what must have gone on inside him. did he use the two murderers? to what extent? did he know that he was caught up in all that was going on, emotionally, more than he realised? the quote that i remember best, what i found very revealing, is this: capote says to nelle (harper lee) that he could not have done anything to save them, and she says "maybe not" but that in truth "you didn't want to".

anyway, i must put in cold blood on my reading list. i've only read his breakfast at tiffany's.


before the movie, we spent a couple of hours at the old cemetery at st. marx in vienna's third district.



i had long wanted to go there, because it is supposed to be especially beautiful when the many lilac trees are in bloom.



i think last weekend would have been even better but i did not think of it until wednesday. on our way there, dark clouds moved in, we heard thunder twice, but the rain did not come. the cemetery has not been used for over 130 years, so everything is *really* old. so many headless statues, many wingless angels, faceless madonnas, crumbling inscriptions.



what i found fascinating were the hundreds and thousands of caterpillars that have conquered plenty of trees, spun strange webs among branches, around half-eaten leaves and yellow blossoms.



of course we took many more photos (especially me, as usual). you can find them in the st. marx photo album.
there's also another album with miscellaneous pictures taken after the visit to st. marx.


today's song: dum maro dum, kronos quartet with asha bosle.

6 comments:

Pris said...

What gorgeous photos!! Love them. I read In Cold Blood literally years ago. I remember it was chilling but very good writing.

Do we get to see your poem from the dream??

Arlene said...

ha-ha! i set another 30:30 trap in your subconscious, of course. this time i calculated my hand-holding device with ethel more accurately.

anyway, it's great to see you writing again. if they didn't sack me as railroad tycoon, i'd never have gotten back to it or my hang-up on nigel.

do you like myrtle? that's another sucky name, isn't it?

60% weird arl

Unknown said...

loved the pic "notadeadcat" after all the ones of headless, armless staues. lol. that's a facinating place though--eerie, yet somewhat calm. I liked the tree cross monument--that one was cool. and the Levi-jean butt headstone--that one was very realistic--looked real. *wink*

Arlene said...

okay, you win. nigel is dead. i killed him today after recalling all your cemetery pictures and his little feet.

teehee,
arlene

michi said...

nobody needs to die, arlene ... i just don't want him, and as you know, he does not want me anymore either. he wants angela.

m

pris - re the poem: not yet.

jenni - my husband's glad that he looks "realistic". :))

Rachel Mallino said...

michi,

LOVE the pictures. Wish I could see the cemetary first hand.

hhctk?