A Poem: Untitled—
After Watching "Philadelphia" the 2nd Time—1994
Today’s Audio—
Hello all and sundry,
Hey there! Thank you for stopping in! How about a poem? Fill your cup and grab something tasty to snack on. Today’s piece is an older one, written in 1994, while I was still in college and livin’ the life! My self and time was filled with lots of poetry club meetings, gatherings with fantastic creatives, stimulating conversations, and incredibly inspiring moments. Honestly, I could have made college my full-time career! What a time for the mind, for expression, and for loving life!
One of the greatest things I took away from those years was that diversity, in community and friends, made for a richer, more vibrant life experience. It also opened myself up to loving people for the unique human beings they are, no conditions.
The nineties were also a time when video stores were frequented quite regularly. If you are at an age where you don’t know what a video rental store is or you want a trip back in time, check out the link. Wow, sometimes it is mindboggling how times have changed!
As a 20 to 24 credit-a-semester college student, working three jobs, my time was pretty consumed. However, I did make sure to hit that video rental store at least a couple times a month! Sure beat just watching the three, Yes, just three, free tv channels we had at the time. That’s right, with only three stations to choose from, and they went off air at midnight, life could be pretty—Oh—lacking, maybe quite mute, in the way of Hollywood entertainment. Having a VHS to play was essential, especially if, like me, you were a night owl.
Where am I going with this and what does it have to do with the poem I am sharing? Let me ask you this: What comes to mind when you think of a movie that really hit you with all of the emotions? You know, that movie that your mind and heart couldn’t let go of long after it was over? I can think of at least a solid dozen from those days, a whole lot more since. The poem for today is about one of those. The produced emotional experience of watching it, anyway.
The movie was Philadelphia, and the impact, particularly after the 2nd time watching it, was unexplainable, really. Now I know, that my reaction had a whole lot to do with being an empath. Then, it just moved me in every which way; shook me to my core. I thought about that movie for months, which led me to renting it a 2nd time. After that second watch, I needed to find place for the feelings it evoked, so I wrote about it. The piece was short, not that I didn’t have enough to say, but that a few words expressed all that was moving within me, mostly tears.
I came away with a perspective and understanding that I had not felt at that particular depth before. That was this—
Just so happens, in putting oneself in another’s shoes, feeling empathy for their experience, finding a bridge for understanding something foreign, of which I knew nothing about as it was far beyond any imagined experience I had had, quite intensely and immensely transforms. When inserting myself into the story, within the characters, and in order to feel our common emotions, I came to greater grasp and fully feel the power and scope of love. In that soul opening experience, my heart didn’t just recognize love, but it took hold of an emotional lucidity that gave perspective of what love is and what love does.
With that, let’s have a reading of the poem. Take away from it what you will, the poem or the film.
Many blessings and MUCH LOVE,
~Wendy💜
Untitled
(After Watching Philadelphia the 2nd Time)
Tonight I cried. Tonight I cried Real tears. This world of ours... Teardrops... For Love, For Hate, For Pain, For Joy. Tonight I felt it all. And I touched the Wall of another place. And cried for having To wait on Time. W. Gray -1994
Somehow I've never seen it strangely enough...I was probably too into kung fu flicks at the time
Your beautiful poem still holds true today with all the pain and evil and suffering in the world. But through it all we seek hope, creating joy through our words, our art, our actions.