Second session

Our second session, on February 24, included a monologue by Bernard Kelly entitled "The patient before me," a reading by Diane Bracuk of Czeslaw Milosz's poem "And yet the books," a short video by Courtney Fairweather entitled "The date," and a reading by Giovanna Riccio of her own poem "#1 — Vittorio."

In their own words:

Diane: As per your request, here's the poem by Czeslaw Milosz, the Polish poet who won the Noble Prize for Literature in 1980. I read it as a tribute to Val Ross, whose innate grace — both as a person and writer — I respected and admired. This is just another variation of "their words will live on" theme I suppose, but I like his suggestion in the last lines, that some works are derived from people, but also from divine inspiration.


AND YET THE BOOKS

And yet the books will be there on the shelves, separate beings,
That appeared once, still wet
As shining chestnuts under a tree in autumn,
And, touched, coddled, began to live
In spite of fires on the horizon, castles blown up,
Tribes on the march, planets in motion.
"We are," they said, even as their pages
Were being torn out, or a buzzing flame
Licked away their letters. So much more durable
Than we are, whose frail warmth
Cools down with memory, disperses, perishes.
I imagine the earth when I am no more:
Nothing happens, no loss, it's still a strange pageant,
Women's dresses, dewy lilacs, a song in the valley.
Yet the books will be there on shelves, well born,
Derived from people, but also from radiance, heights.

Berkeley; 1986

* * *

Courtney: I was glad of the opportunity to show my 10 minute video of "The Date", an improvised monologue delivered in front of a full length mirror while trying on various outfits for a blind date. Body image and the pressure women feel to please men were my central themes.

I appreciated the laughter and praise of those who viewed it. Watching it again, I could see points where a little editing would have been valuable.

* * *

Giovanna: #1 — Vittorio: A dramatic monologue with the listener identified — so an elderly widowed Italian man is being visited by his wife's sister. The ensuing dialogue is a reflection not on loss of the old country which will make it nostalgia, but on fragments of a life story that illuminate the character and unfortunate circumstances that result in a loss for everyone of a gifted voice.The circumstance are particular but hopefully transcend into the universal and describe a silencing that happens everyday in our world because of poverty and a forced immigration that results from it.