More Poetry!

[melannen]

So I went digging through old photo albums from elementary school in search of photos of me as Anansi the Spider. I was deeply impressed by how very dorky we all are: I opened an album to a picture of Mom's birthday, looked at the candles on the cake, and said, 'Okay, 101010 - 2+8+32 - so Mom was learning the meaning of life - add to her birth year - subtract from mine - that means I was seven.' That means by the time I was seven, I already knew how to do binary candles. Dorky! (I'm not even going to get started on the clothes, or the science fair projects, or the piano recitals.)

Anyway, I didn't find Anansi pictures. The only remaining records of that must be in the library at my elementary school; if I ever have an excuse to go back there, maybe I'll ask. But I did find some pictures which precycled parts of the costume. I hadn't remembered that this isn't the the first year that I'll be a JLI member for Halloween. See:


The girl in the dorky glasses next to me is Queen Nefertari. We looked through Mom's big Egypt book, and my sister decided she wanted to be an Egyptian queen. But not just *any* Egyptian queen; it had to be Nefertari. I was bound and determined to be a bright blue scarab beetle. I never really knew *why* I felt the need to dress up as a blue beetle; I just *did*. (The costume was bloody uncomfortable, too. And it rained that year.)

And this picture just makes me happy.



***

Right, now that I've made you sit through silly pictures, here's some more poetry:
Alyssa Milano - To My Dear and Loving Husband (Anne Bradstreet)
Alyssa Milano - I think I should have loved you presently (Edna St. Vincent Millay)
Khandi Alexander - Dream Deferred (Langston Hughes)
Richard Rodriguez - I Hear America Singing (Walt Whitman)
Alfred Molina - The Unknown Citizen (W. H. Auden)
David Mason - Miniver Cheevy (Edward Arlington Robinson)
Alfred Molina - My Last Duchess (Robert Browning)
Angela Lansbury - Dover Beach (Matthew Arnold)
N.Scott Momaday - 13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird (Wallace Stevens)
Kay Ryan - I Heard A Fly Buzz (Emily Dickinson)
Michael York - O for a muse of fire! (Henry V)
Mel Gibson - Tomorrow and Tomorrow (Macbeth)
James Earl Jones - It Is The Cause (Othello)
Jane Alexander - Sonnet #30
Zoe Deschamel - Wherefore Art Though, Romeo? (R&J)

Comments

[zodiaccat.livejournal.com]

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!

*counts the w's...*

Hmm... maybe that should only be 12 w's... but still!

You play piano?

[melannen.livejournal.com]

I took lessons through elementary school, but it would be an exaggeration to say I 'play'. I can sight-read a melody; that's about it.

[theemptylife.livejournal.com]

Out of curiosity, is that a black cat costume with a shiny blue addition? If so, congrats.

[melannen.livejournal.com]

You knoew, I can't remember? That bodysuit, and the black tube-shaped things representing legs, and possibly the hat, were at various times a butterfly in my sister's class play, a spider in my class play, the scarab beetle, and (possibly several times) a black cat, but I have no idea which came first!

anansi!

[katrianya.livejournal.com]

wasn't that the story that we were in the media center for quite some time painting a backdrop on the huge sheet of brown paper for? something about a sun or a lion or both? i forget what grade...