GRAY MATTERS, 1min., Egypt Directed by Mariam Khodeir, Andrea Quintero Gray Matters is a stop-motion animated short film that highlights fascinating aspects of the human brain in a fun, illustrated, educational, and sarcastic tone.
Imagine I say happy,
and write the word ‘birthday’
and put it in an envelope along with
a pink peony, and run it down to
the post office.
When you open the letter all the
beautiful petals will fall and cling to you,
and you will understand how much–
just how much we love you.
Remember the time when we were swimming together in the water
Our molecules waited millions of years to combine in this way
It took millions of attempts for us to find each other
We swam together in the swarm
Sometimes at the front, at the back, on the top, or at the bottom
Remember the time when we wanted to go ashore together
It took millions of attempts for us to be able to breathe together
We shared life in different ways and drifted with continents
Remember the many attempts to walk upright
It took millions of lives for us to be able to walk together
Remember the time when we wanted to be bigger and stronger
We crowned our willful heads
And conquered the most remote corners of the world
How many times have we lost our peoples because our heads lost their way?
Remember the time when our unity between good and evil fell apart
We attacked each other and did not recognize ourselves
We had to wage countless wars to find peace
You have fought for your values, too
We took each other’s lives out
Of fear of losing our own
Remember the age of Enlightenment – when we became mature
How many attempts did it take for us to share the crown?
How many cruel mistakes did we endure so we could trust each other?
How long did we have to wait until everyone could adopt their own nature?
How many lives did it take until we could love each other?
And swim peacefully together – in the sea of man
Sometimes at the front, at the back, on the top or at the bottom
Your genes remember all of this
If the right spirit leads them
When he died, the bag was so sad.
All the days of witnessed joy
had gone. You try to explain to the bag
that he’s not coming back.
You tell the 4 iron to talk about it and
let out the grief like a crisp shot.
That sound that he loved so much.
You say to the glove in the zippered pocket-
who wrapped around the greatest lefty of all time,
you say, “you were so lucky.”
Trying to console the driver with
his deep sigh, you explain
he is gone and no one can tell us where.
You describe dying to the putter,
like a downhill 4 putt-
then you cry and say how much you miss him-
and the tiny knitted head cover.
The air is warm on the walk today
Scents of freshly blooming flowers
Trees and plants with colours of all sorts
Trail is well used by people and animals alike
It is hard to see though through half closed eyes
Each step laboured by pains
Every breath feels harder to take
Slowly and with great effort another step is taken
You see someone enjoying the park
On the inside MS is tearing me apart.
It’s a sad little train,
on a sad little track.
Near a dirty strip mall,
down in Hackensack.
The “Garden State”.
It ain’t so great.
A broken heart,
is a heavy weight.
The sunshine stings,
she’s Newark bound.
Round the curve,
then you’re downtown.
A bluebird screams,
startled by me.
A polluted river.
Sick Sycamore tree.
You broke my heart,
on the outbound track.
Deep down I know,
this one sad fact.
The train arrives,
always on time.
A round trip, completed.
You’ve circled my mind.
It’s sad little train,
on a sad little track.
And she’s never coming back,
to Hackensack.
The essence of your trauma is still alive
Watching families fight
Some days I look at the corners and I find
things I don’t need anymore.
I stopped looking
Because they were not there when I needed them
Then I find things I never wanted
Shadows and stuff
But it feels like it’s all connected and it’s a puzzle that I am too foggy to build
Mask
Youth
Daughter
Dementia
Charlie Kaufman
A house
And something else
I already forgot
The dancing
That’s it
The spine stretching
in pain hoping
for a future that already didn’t come
The dancing stopped
at the beginning and no one asked for more
The people around and their noise
and their thoughts-
always invading my life
I never thought to share
What is it for?
After the sweat rolls and the car takes you home
to rest
And the bills are paid and the feeling of relief settles and you’re pretty content and happy with yourself, then you remember you have to go to bed ’cause tomorrow you gotta go back
and do it again.
And it’s good to have a schedule and some money coming in so it can go out the next month. It’s pretty good to be ahead and not behind.
No one wants to be behind.
And when you’re ahead what else could you want except just stay ahead, you know?
You can’t really ask for more.
That’s just life.
That and the feeling of infinity
When you dance and your spine stretches
like your body is the milky way expanding
that’s fine too.
What else could you ask for?
Wisdom is a gateway to health
Health may succumb to stealth
Stealth is a gateway to wealth
Wealth is a gateway to freedom
Freedom is a means of obtaining wisdom
Wisdom is a means of obtaining health
Health may succumb to stealth
Stealth is a means of obtaining wealth
Wealth is a means of obtaining freedom
Freedom beckons me to want wisdom
Wisdom beckons me to want health
Health may succumb to stealth
Stealth beckons me to want wealth
Wealth beckons me to want freedom
Freedom beckons me to want wisdom
Wisdom may transform itself into
health, stealth, wealth and freedom…
POETRY FESTIVAL. Submit to site for FREE. Submit for actor performance. Submit poem to be made into film. 