All the world's a stage, they say
You then invited me to play
Curtain-call
And in limelight we spoke our lines
Two characters acting out
life's mimes
Curtain drawn
And we are caught off-guard:
How to act when audience
and love depart?
myra
15.07.2003
Author notes
One cannot rehearse coping with agony, deception and loss ...
Thank you, Chris, for inspiring me.
Written July 15th, 2003
In a list
What did you think
Comments
1 - 32 of 32
-
Excellent Question
But I must question, when does love depart? That thought chills me more than the coping. Better to have ...well you know.
Dare I say it?
Encore!
D.
-
-
Ah.
You found this one.
I love it when you underplay the Script.
-
-
/
-
\"You make Shakespeare proud\" ~ Lewis
Lewis suggested this poem to me, and I am so glad he did!
Myra, this poem is amazing, I have no other words to describe it than.. "wow". My mouth still can't close yet!
Not only had it as Lewis said, "had a chill send down my spine.", it really inspired me to continue on this poem I am writing on. Oh man.... this poem really do deserve to be taught to the high schoolers, free-verse at its best.
---EMMA
-
I agree with Lewis here, there is genius in this piece.
"All the world's a stage, they say
You then invited me to play.."
Of all the people who stand on this stage, you marvel at how it came to be you found yourself under his spotlight.
"Two characters acting out
life's mimes"
You each played you part, stood watching one another while you receited your lines, but like a play, you read what script was given, maybe doubting, maybe questioning but powerless to make the script different...
And the end that was written, written in your stars, in your script - you find it takes you both by surprise,
"we are caught off-guard"
Oh, Myra, this is such powerful, enticing poetry.
Edited on Aug 13, 7:27 because ''. -
wonderful wonderful once once again again
Damn it! lol i just love this poem!
I keep on coming back to it....
It's just amazing, the metaphors, the imagery... ahhh!!!!!
You really need to get this published!
~ lewis -
also perfect
Most folk woulda put Life's Rhymes you know,
Nothing wasted here, or left out--
with as much dignity as we can muster, I suppose,
sigh. -
wonderful once again
After reading some more comments (ugh this poem is soo damn good... I had to read it again)... and how this poem can be intrepreted as a love affair I see:
All the world's a stage, they say
You then invited me to play ->> invited to have a love affair, they are seduced
Curtain-call
And in limelight we spoke our lines
Two characters acting out
life's mimes -->> in this segment they are having thier love affair, though the characters are acting out.. perhaps they are not going with thier principles. acting out thier desires and passions without inhibitions
Curtain drawn
And we are caught off-guard:
How to act when audience
and love depart? --> they are caught -- and what will happen when people leave them?
Once again a pleasure to read with a different viewpoint.
Damn.. this should be in literature books.
~ lewis
-
Thank you, Poet Friends - I am grateful ...
Whims and Danna, post 'em, Gals!
-
We began together on the same page;
a couplet beginning an epic romance.
Our past, a mere prologue which
seemed to foreshadow a manuscript
filled with great passion in the classic
theme of you and me against the world,
but we fell out of sync, and I don’t even
know where I left you behind. I am alone
delivering my soliloquy with all the fervor
I own, and you still can’t see, can’t see
my point of view! You are taking things
out of context, and I am reaching my
epiphany; Our romance is turning into
a modern tragedy with nothing to
look forward to but an anticlimax.
-
The lights go up,
the stage is set
and then it slowly grows.
Impromtu skits,
bring adlibed lines
inside loves cameos.
But when it fades,
as one act played,
to wait again for cue,
do all the lines
our roles defined
help then to see us through?...
~~whims
-
i like the form of description used...it is kind of choppy but that just adds to it...letting the reader create visuals and fill in the gaps...curtain call, curtain drawn, and what the hell do we do when we're all alone and the work is done? what to do...when i acted, we used to go have ice cream...that was really long ago though...i'm too shy to even step on a stage anymore...
but still, i liked the work...how each line fits almost precisely and expresses everything as you meant it...
it got me remembering my childhood...thanks
peace
chris -
First off...
I absolutely LOVE the picture. That is excellent. This I understood. It's very well said... And I too hate when a plays over. Especially when you're just getting into it. This is wonderful. The written part was well put and well expressed.
*.x.*Silent Tears*.x.*
~Kati.
-
i hate when a play is over...especially when you're in it and you despised it for so long and then it's weird, when it's over you miss it and want to perform it at least 5 more times. *cries* it signaled the end of freshman year...aahhh.
this remind me of sadness... -
great poetry MYRA!
i really liked it alot
deb
-
excellent
The curtain is raised on a beautiful love affair, that involves both a beautiful couple, and a beautiful audience [their friends]. The play is played in numerous phases, both by the lovers and their friends, who closely monitor every detail. The limit is pushed by both lover and friend, as both seek something........perhaps, unreachable? Goals unattainable, virtues disposable, and it ends, it ends.......well, you know when it ends, Myra.
Wonderful write, Myra, read it at least ten times [one virtue of short poetry], and I am still not sure I got the meaning right. But I guess, poetry has two sides; what it means to the poet, and what it means to the reader of the poem, is it not so?
Thank you for this, Brazos -
Oh, you've gone and done it again! A piece everyone can grasp, everyone can feel, and poets can admire for its form, voice, tone, pace and twist. It must have been written inside out, so the stitches never show, and when worn, it fits like jeans - so human and so right.
-
Thank you, my poetry Friends, for your comments ... Wow, Lewis, now THAT was done with zest GRINZ I love your thoroughness
Some of your words I'll ... erhm ... skip
-
WHOLY POTATOES!
wholy shit --- this is an amazing poem!
ugh -- the other comments don't do justice to this --- they don't see the genius.. haha jk, no but really this is an awesome poem, though it does have some problems (i'll talk about those later) here I will analyze this line by line:
The world is a stage, they say --> taken from macbeth, the speach he says before he gets killed by macduff, "life's but a play told by an idiot" or something like that.
You then invited me to play --> here, the reader just thinks that one person invited another to play too, as in join the life of the speaker
Curtain-call --> this line hits you hard. to play curtain call.. to play as the killer? or the one to be with you when you die? this is a very powerful line.
And in limelight we spoke our lines
Two characters acting out
life's mimes --> two people living together perhaps (mmm life's mimes seem a bit forced, the rhyme that is)
Curtain drawn --> the curtain is drawn and the lives have ended
And we are caught off-guard: --> lives ended suddenly....
How to act when audience
and love depart? --> if so suddenly what should the dead do when they miss the living, if so suddenly what should the living do to deal with the dead?
very powerful piece you have here... i read it and had a chill send down my spine.
mm okay now as for problems, i do see some.
i think that punctation can be a very powerful tool... and perhaps you can implement that somehow more strongly in this.. without the punctation, the form seems weak, vulnerable.
mm -- wow --- super super super poem... im shaking seriously, lol.
this is so deep and profound. shakespeare will be proud.
~ lewis
Edited on Jul 17 because '"tool" was mispelled as "tool"'. -
curtain falls, depression sets in
or so I have been told by the actors on the stage!!
bravoo, as always!
/
Tamara -
I like poetry with a message that makes one think. This certainly has one.
Nice. -
this was nice... i like the way to compare love to acting, cause in all my experience, thats what it is, all acting and games (well, alright, mostly anyway...) anyway, it was a great write... really enjoyed it, although i was hoping for some macbeth references... loved that play!!
-
How to act when audience
and love depart?
makes me think of how hosts behave after the guests leave. and the fighting begins, , good poem and well written, sometimes it seems that there are no more commetns to make
peace be with & blessed be;
shaggy wolf -
Concise, yet within these few words
a lifetime of images.
This audience member is standing
and applauding.
Again, Bravo Myra!
-
That was so poignant and beautiful. It was short and too the point and had more truth in those little lines than some have in hundreds of stanzas. That was just the greatest.
Abby -
So much truth in this write, Myra! And, you are so right! One cannot rehearse . . . Beautiful and thought-provoking! Wonderful! (Still waiting for your fairytale.) Love, light and peace to you!--Kel
-
Thank you, Tiffany and Captivated88, and RoR - your real name also Chris??? I'd love to play reality ... and Chris Ingham - Let's collaborate! and Creep ... Blue cheese? Must I blush? I do not know anything about the metaphoric references of the youth ... I left 15 lo-o-ong ago
-
Considering I have the attention span of a...well, let's be politically correct here..."mentally challenged" goldfish...I enjoyed this poem much. Very succinct...but very powerful. Nice job.
::J'aime le fromage bleu:: -
Oh Myra! This is magnificent. I'm so proud to have inspired something as beautiful and as wistful as this. We should actually try writing a poem together sometime. Pity we live so far apart, it would be fun drinking wine and creating together. I have not written much of late; I seem to have lost inspiration. But, I suspect that the Muse may be returning. Love, Chris.
-
Perhaps the audience is hoping to see our real faces more than the magnificent masks we wear from time to time, perhaps not. In any event the conditioning at this end is gradually crumbling. Not because I am unable to prevent it, but because I want it to. I expect communication to become both more bizarre and beautiful as a result of this view. We have the stage and an infinity ahead. As far as the eye reaches there are stages all around us where every audience becomes a group of actors, some wearing masks, some not. Some stages bathing in light, others unlit. Let's play.
Chris -
concise, but still thought provoking.
-
this is great! gave me something to think about..life may be a movie or a play but there are no second takes. very cool.
Adding your comment:
1 - 32 of 32
