Theatre, William Greenway
As Time Goes By, Herman Hupfeld
Mae West, Edward Field
Hamlet, Act II, Scene ii, William Shakespeare
Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend, Jules Styne
Main Character, Jimmy Santiago Baca
Elvis Kissed Me, T.S. Kerrigan
Provide, Provide, Robert Frost
Invictus, William Henley
To The Film Industry in Crisis, Frank O’Hara
Vogue, Madonna (excerpt)
Like This, Rumi
* * *
Movie House, John Updike
Ave Maria, Frank O’Harra
Stereophonic Sound, Cole Porter
There’s a Hollywood That’s Good, Cole Porter
Hollywood Elegies, Bertold Brecht
Popcorn, Linda Pastan
Brad Pitt, Aaron Smith
Cameo Appearance, Charles Simic
Double Feature, Robert Hayden
Movies, David Ray
The Movies, Billy Collins
Acting, R. S. Thomas
The Skokie Theatre, Edward Hirsch
My Father Laughing in the Chicago Theatre, David Wagoner
Kryptonite, Ron Kortge
Late Wonders, W.S. Merwin
C’est La Vie Say The Old Folks, Chuck Berry
Theatre
by William Greenway
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As Time Goes By
by Herman Hupfeld
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Mae West
by Edward Field
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Hamlet, Act II, Scene ii
by William Shakespeare
O what a rogue and peasant slave am I!
Is it not monstrous that this player here,
But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,
Could force his soul so to his own conceit
That, from her working, all his visage wann’d,
Tears in his eyes, distraction in’s aspect,
A broken voice, and his whole function suiting
With forms to his conceit? And all for nothing!
For Hecuba!
What’s Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba,
That he should weep for her? . . . .
Hum, I have heard
That guilty creatures, sitting at a play,
Have by the very cunning of the scene
Been struck so to the soul that presently
They have proclaimed their malefactions . . . .
I’ll have these players
Play something like the murder of my father
Before mine uncle. I’ll observe his looks,
I’ll [probe] him to the quick. If he but [flinch],
I know my course . . . .
The play’s the thing
Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King.
Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend
by Jules Styne
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Main Character
by Jimmy Santiago Baca
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Elvis Kissed Me
by T.S. Kerrigan
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Provide, Provide
by Robert Frost
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Invictus
by William Henley
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
To The Film Industry in Crisis
by Frank O’Hara
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Vogue (excerpt)
by Madonna
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Like This*
by Rumi
(translation by Coleman Barks)
If anyone asks you
how the perfect satisfaction
of all our sexual wanting
will look, lift your face
and say,
Like this.
When someone mentions the gracefulness
of the night sky, climb up on the roof
and dance and say,
Like this?
If anyone wants to know what “spirit” is,
or what “God’s fragrance” means,
lean your head toward him or her.
Keep your face there close.
Like this.
When someone quotes the old poetic image
about clouds gradually uncovering the moon,
slowly loosen knot by knot the strings
of your robe.
Like this?
If anyone wonders how Jesus raised then dead,
don’t try to explain the miracle.
Kiss me on the lips.
Like this. Like this.
When someone asks what it means
to “die for love,” point
here.
If someone asks how tall I am, frown
and measure with your fingers the space
between the creases on your forehead.
This tall.
The soul sometimes leaves then body, then returns.
When someone doesn’t believe that,
walk back into my house.
Like this.
When lovers moan,
they’re telling our story.
Like this.
I am a sky where spirits live.
Stare into this deepening blue,
while the breeze says a secret.
Like this.
When someone asks what there is to do,
light the candle in his hand.
Like this.
How did Joseph’s scent come to Jacob?
Huuuuu.
How did Jacob’s sight return?
Huuuu.
A little wind cleans the eyes.
Like this.
When Shams comes back from Tabriz,
he’ll put just his head around the edge
of the door to surprise us.
* Used with the kind permission of Coleman Barks. This poem and other Rumi poems can be found in The Essential Rumi, Translations by Coleman Barks (Harper Collins 2004).