Non-Sequiturs
Established in techniques
With sonnets at your will,
Changed tempos, meters,
Shifted, altered accents,
You have rights to sillinesses
Of your choice;
The mind of voice
Says what it must
Without busting
A gut.
With sonnets at your will,
Changed tempos, meters,
Shifted, altered accents,
You have rights to sillinesses
Of your choice;
The mind of voice
Says what it must
Without busting
A gut.
^&^
His mind all but lost,
His soul still intact,
He carried on being
Until he lost that.
His soul still intact,
He carried on being
Until he lost that.
^&^
Sitting here, looking at
the rain outside,
The rhododendrons middle distance,
Bushy, pink magnificence;
Pink on-the-porch umbrella neatly folded,
And I think,
“What would I do with K not here?”
Then I remember Deborah Kerr,
A fifties film:
She’s widowed in a stately home,
She struggles on,
Gardening alone
To honor him, to prove herself.
It doesn’t work. It was his work.
So, finally, and breaking free of memory,
Responsibility not real, she sells,
(As I might have to) – rhododendrons, all this land,
Our tiny mansion,
Moving to an
I-don’t know. And just as well.
The rhododendrons middle distance,
Bushy, pink magnificence;
Pink on-the-porch umbrella neatly folded,
And I think,
“What would I do with K not here?”
Then I remember Deborah Kerr,
A fifties film:
She’s widowed in a stately home,
She struggles on,
Gardening alone
To honor him, to prove herself.
It doesn’t work. It was his work.
So, finally, and breaking free of memory,
Responsibility not real, she sells,
(As I might have to) – rhododendrons, all this land,
Our tiny mansion,
Moving to an
I-don’t know. And just as well.
Deborah Kerr in "The Assam Garden"
The "K" is Arlene's beloved Kent Andersson, but she quickly segues to a discussion of another K -- Deborah Kerr, one of the biggest film stars of the 1950s; she was nominated for Best Actress Oscars six times -- for roles in "Edward, My Son" (1949), "From Here to Eternity" (1953), "The King and I" (1956), "Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison" (1957), "Separate Tables" (1958) and "The Sundowners" (1960), but never won, though she did receive an Academy Honorary Award in 1994 for her career. She was also nominated for 4 BAFTA Awards for Best British Actress: "The End of the Affair" (1955), "Tea and Sympathy" (1956), "The Sundowners," and "The Chalk Garden" (1964). Similarly, she got 3 Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress -- Motion Picture Drama for "Edward, My Son," "Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison," and "Separate Tables," and an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or a Special for "A Woman of Substance" (1984). One of her other memorable roles was as the recently widowed and somewhat cold Mrs. Graham in "The Assam Garden." When she discovered that her late husband's expansive garden, that he had devoted his life to, has been selected for consideration as a "Great British Garden" she devoted herself to tending it in hopes of acheiving that recognition. But she also learned that she may have to sell her home to pay his debts.
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