Midnight in Paris...

"Gil: Were you scared?
Hemingway: Of what?
G: Getting killed?
H: You'll never write well if you fear dying. Do you?
G: Yeah, I do. I'd say it's may be my greatest fear actually.
H: Something all men before you have done, all men will do.
G: I know, I know.
H: Have you ever made love to a truly great woman?
G: Actually my fiancee is pretty sexy.
H: And when you make love to her, you feel true and beautiful passion? And at least for that moment you lose your fear of death?
G: No. That doesn't happen.
H: I believe that love that is true and real creates a respite from death. All cowardice comes from not loving or not loving well, which is the same thing. And when the man who is brave and true looks death squarely in the face, like some rhino hunters I know or some Belmonte who's truly brave, it is because they love with sufficient passion to push death out of their minds until it returns, as it does to all men. And then you must make really good love again. Think about it."

Excerpt from Woody Allen's 2011 film Midnight in Paris.

The friction

Life with you is a see saw
The crests and the troughs
The whole long cycle
That started never to end
I pull back, I push through
But I never can lie easy
Just to feel you flow through me
The way love's supposed to be

All the clocks have run down
I've moved around in circles
Never reaching anywhere
Never knowing the point of break
When McCartney croons
'We'll be the lovers that never were'
You flash through my mind
You shoot through my being

That's the grip you have on me
I hate to admit for you I'm weak
I hang on to each word of yours
Though each one of it my being abhors
The friction, the conviction
The tense and strong addiction
This is just how I want it to be
Between the devil and the deep blue sea...

Once in a while

Once in a while I'd like to sit quiet
Hold myself tight, saying it's all right.

Conscious of my being,
Inhaling, exhaling, feeling life flow through me...
I'm young and bright
Raring to go, laugh with delight.
But lately I noticed a pang so great-
Too much focus on living..the joys of life it can abate.
...For it makes enjoying life a task in itself
Takes away the carefree, random floating,
A minute spent easy seems like one wasted,
Devoid of meaning, nothing significant achieved.

So what I want, in days busy and free,
Is some time wasted-
Wasted in not worrying about enjoying life.
Just be thoughtless,
Feel weightless,
Gaze out,
Float about...

Yes!

Once in a while I'd like to sit quiet
Hold myself tight, saying it's all right.

You hid

I lost you-
Oh yes, I did!
I thought you were gone
But in a corner of my heart you hid.

My mind moved on, proud and free-
In the cold, barren street,
it thought,it had pushed you out.
Didn't know a few notches down,
Was a heart so devout.

I was whole,
Heart and mind in sync
Before you came in surging
To drive in my being a chink.

You split me in two,
Made enemies within me,
Where my heart and mind swayed together
They now stood apart, separated by debris.

And then you left,
For reasons only you agreed with.
My heart was bereft,
My mind jumped in the air- 'Told you it was a myth!'

It took some pity-
Strange how that's the forte of the heart-
And did the best it could to give my heart's pieces a logical form.
Camarederie, after all, is not an art.

Along came many suitors,
With sterling qualities in my knight I wanted to claim.
As my mind crossed you out against each of those,
My heart refused to play the game.

And then it struck-
Lighting, thunderbolt-
I still wasn't over you,
That I never will be.
But my mind's more mine than my heart's yours
So walk on, I will.
Loved you with what I had,
So have no qualms now.
To love takes courage
I'm sorry that you didn't have.
Take care, oh dear,
When love comes knocking on your door, I hope you wouldn't again leave it to starve.

Rise, I did

I had the wings,
Was taught to fly.
Then I grew up
Began to lie,
To them, to myself
To anyone if it helped put matters back on shelf;
Didn't want to deal
I learnt to squeal..
I melted away,
Lost control,
Gave up the reins,
Stuck to familiar terrains.
Oh,that's the person I dreaded to be
And today...today it was to be me.

The tear-stained face
Marked by streaks of loss,
Those puffy eyes
Swallowed the mischief once there,
'What brought me here?',
I asked, I asked...
Those mine seemed distant,
To all help I was resistant.
They said I wasn't 'in the right frame of mind'
Be honest, that's what I find toughest to put behind.
But that's what woke me up with a jolt,
Striking me like a thunderbolt...
Can't be this person,
Can't live yet die,
Have to break out,
Break out of this lie!

It was a phase,
One I wouldn't want to erase;
Taught me a lot,
There's nothing in it I'd want to blot.
I became weak, stopped listening to my heart,
To think others know better is not the best start.
To accept I was weak gives me the biggest strength-
To be unpredictable, wild and free, I'd now go to any length.
That's where I lie, that's who I am.
Won't give a damn, won't live a sham!

And with this promise
My wings spread out,
My spirit gave a push,
I flew out and about!
I'm sure it happens to one and all,
Before each rise must come a fall...
It'll happen again,
I'll hurt, I'll blunder,
But never again
Will I let my being lie asunder.