Posted in Uncategorized, tagged cinema, crying, film, grief, loss, love, survival, wind on September 1, 2025| 2 Comments »
and all the scaffolding
that has held me up
crashes down
and I stumble
from the theater
to find myself
in my body,
heart naked as a cloud.
I crouch in the dry dirt
behind a building,
weeping,
unable to stand,
stunned again
by the truth
of loving what
must be lost.
When finally I rise,
my hat comes off.
How right
if feels in my hair,
on my face,
the wind.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged audience, cinema, daughter, film, letting go, mother, movie, snuggling on September 1, 2025| Leave a Comment »
My daughter dangles
her legs over mine.
I rest my head on her
shoulder. Is it true
every film is an exploration
of how growth depends
on letting something go?
Or is it simply the glasses
I wear, lenses grubby
from tears, that make it
seem this way? All I know
is it’s easier to practice
letting go when
we’re curled in together,
her hand pressed into mine,
tears sliding down
both of our cheeks,
scent of popcorn
thick in the air,
and all around us
others sniffling, too,
the light blue against
our upturned faces.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged film, people, waiting on September 2, 2024| 5 Comments »
in line for the show
we watch real life for an hour—
wow, what a cast!
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged connection, daughter, empathy, film, tears on August 31, 2024| 3 Comments »
my daughter’s tears
find their way
into my eyes
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged camera, daughter, film, mother, night, stars on September 2, 2023| 5 Comments »
We leave the desert flats of Australia
and the axe and the snakes and the flames
and walk into the quiet, starlit night
and become two characters in our own lives.
This is the part where the mother and daughter
lean into each other and walk extra close
so they can speak in tones so low
the audience can’t hear their words.
The camera follows them with a low angle tracking shot
focused on where their hands are joined,
then it tilts to the sky to end the scene
in an extremely wide shot where our characters
are barely a blip on the screen,
surrounded by infinite mystery,
the stars, the only lights.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged film, truth on September 5, 2022| 7 Comments »
a happy ending, nice,
but what the heart most longs for—
the hairshirt of truth
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged compassion, film, spider on July 27, 2022| 6 Comments »
after watching hundreds killed in the thriller
I find a spider in my bathroom—
so gently I deliver it outside
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged film, laughter, mistake on July 31, 2020| 5 Comments »
Parting Gift
Friends, I will be your blooper girl,
your end-of-the-credits buffoon.
You can film me as I fall, as I fail, as I flop,
as I drop the tray of glasses,
as my strapless top slips.
I’ll make it easy on you.
At least twenty times a day
I forget my lines.
At least ninety times a day,
I trip on my certainty.
Yes, I will be the one
who will flub most every punch line.
I’ll be the poster child
for sincere ineptitude.
I know, my outtakes
are better than my A roll.
But dang, the path of failure
has always served me.
And man, most of the time
I can laugh as I blunder,
laugh until you wonder why
I am still laughing,
laugh because what else
can a woman do when
gaffes are her saving grace?