It is good to have an end to journey toward, but it is the journey that matters in the end. On a cold and windy Sunday afternoon, Bill and I settled into our seats in UCLA’s Royce Hall to listen to Ursula Le Guin in conversation with Meryl Friedman from UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance. It felt something like participatory eavesdropping (where one does not have to pretend in any way not to be eavesdropping). It was also a 90-minute dose of inspiration. I want to share with you a few notes I jotted down. And I will share this with you: I have carried around Ursula Le…
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A “Rap” Poem in 1936?
Richard Blanco’s inaugural poem “One Today” is a wonderful example of the power of words to paint pictures, stir emotion, unite hearts, and make the ordinary extraordinary. It’s also incredibly filmic, with suggestions of close-ups, wide shots, high-angle views, and motion. If you read the poem, I think you will see what I mean. You might even want to pick up a camera and try taking pictures of some of the shots. It reminded me of another poem, “Night Mail,” by W H Auden, which he wrote specifically for a remarkable documentary film by the same title, directed in 1936 by John Grierson (a pioneering Scottish documentary filmmaker). This is…
