Enter Witty Title Here

The most beautiful campus in Wisconsin.  And it's all mine!
(The bright red in the foreground is Sumac by the way.)

Fall is dwindling down to brown.  But this picture is still gorgeous.

Still fixated on The Tempest.  It inspired this poem.  We've moved on from Sonnets and now are in to Villanelles.  Soon to be out of Villanelles and into free verse - that should be interesting.

Prospero's Goodbye

I wish I'd seen the scene of your goodbye.
Your sidelong glance is dolor now defined -
It purged your heart and left your tear ducts dry.

Beloved spirit from the sea and sky
obeys you, lord - You master of mankind.
I wish I'd seen the scene of your goodbye.

Just waiting there, your features all awry,
to kiss the lips of lives you left behind.
Was your heart purged and were your tear ducts dry?

You'd kill the thing that dies without a cry -
the book, you drowned. Your power you resigned.
I wish I'd seen the scene of your goodbye.

The question. I see it in your aged eye.
Where really lies the thing for which you pined?
Just purge your heart and let your tear ducts dry.

I left you at your isle.  I can't deny
it's tripping to the forefront of my mind:
I wish I'd seen the scene of your goodbye
to purge my heart and drain my tear ducts dry.

In my Shakespeare class we're moving on to monologues.  Initial showing are this week.  I'm very excited to see what everyone has done.  What I like the best about watching others perform Shakespeare, is analyzing what works and what doesn't.  The best are the ones where I know exactly what they're saying without having read the particular play.  The problem in my case is, I'm doing a Lady Anne Monologue from Richard III and I haven't read that one yet.

wretch.

However.  I was one of the few to volunteer to present for day one of initial showings (mostly because we didn't have a whole lot of time after finishing up our scenes.)  So I was the forth and last to go.  And I amazed myself.  Yup.  I'll just say that for not having worked on it at all besides reading through it several times to get comfortable with the words I was surprised by the emotion I summoned.  Real tears, folks.  That's what Shakespeare does for me.

Short, sweet, and to the point.  Cheers, friends.