Ellipsis

. . .

Ellipsis (Randyjw; October 31, 2017)

 

There is an ellipsis

which connects our dots

forever and always

in my heart

 

Forevermore

Forevermore (Randyjw; October 29, 2017)

 

The torch in my hand

in my heart

and at the door

remains lit

always

and forevermore

 

 

 

Ocean

Ocean (Randyjw; October 27, 2017)

 

Like the ocean,

I wish you would always flow

Sometimes high,

Sometimes low

Sometimes raging

other times mellow

Seeking the inlet

never having to go

 

Cracking Up

Cracking Up (Randyjw; October 26, 2017)

 

Wearing reactionary emotions that dance across my face

 

I do not hide well these types of things, and never did!!!

 

So my tremendous smiles, shy blushes, out-loud laughter and unbottled tears

 

Just leave people wondering about my inner ideas

 

I’m super-glad my imaginings are something they can’t hear

 

but it gives me the greatest feeling and leads to so much inner cheer

 

So, if you know that reason, and I hope I’ve made that clear

 

I can’t pretend to secret when it always reappears

 

To complete and utter strangers, who see me in the day

 

It just appears I’m homeless; Thank G-d is what I say

 

It legitimizes my seeming craziness, walking in a daze

 

and validates my reason for being so distracted in this way

 

FLIFF 32: IN SHORT

FLIFF 32: IN SHORT (Randyjw; October 25, 2017)

 

Hooray for Hollywood!!! And Fort Lauderdale, Sunrise, and Davie, for acting as host home to the 32nd annual Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival (FLIFF), kicking off festivities on October 27th, and screening exhibits through November 19th.

 

Showing at several South Florida venues scattered throughout the above towns, the film festival represents more than forty countries, with 167 entries in this, the world’s longest film festival.

 

Included are many special collaborations, engagements, and soirees, apearances by Burt Reynolds and Karen Allen (I loved the movie, Starman!), themed dinner events, cruises, and more.

 

Signature Parties include FLIFF’s Exec At Large Board of Directors’ Steven Savor’s party, November 18th, in his home, Villa DePalma, to honor Karen Allen with the FLIFF Lifetime Achievement award. Open Bar, eats, entertainment by OTIS DAY & THE KNIGHTS, film screening (ANIMAL HOUSE) aboard-barge in the canal. Dress code is strictly toga; what else?

 

Karen Allen, who played a role in ANIMAL HOUSE, and hence the party theme, directs her first feature film, A TREE. A ROCK. A CLOUD. I love her take on the premise of the film, of a meeting between an older man and young boy. It’s one of my film picks of the festival.

 

Steve Savor helped renovate Cinema Paradiso Fort Lauderdale, now known as the Savor Cinema, one of several event locations hosting the films, and which, itself, hosts most of the food-themed reception dinners. The other screening locations include: the Hard Rock Live at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood; Bailey Hall on the Broward College campus; the Museum of Art, in Fort Lauderdale; Cinema Paradiso Hollywood; and Sunrise Civic Center.

 

The Opening Night Party will be held November 3rd at Hard Rock Live to honor Burt Reynolds, who is adored worldwide, with another Lifetime Achievement Award. His new movie with Chevy Chase, DOG YEARS, will also be screened.

 

At The Centerpiece Film & Party on November 10th at Sunrise Civic Center, the soiree will include serving stations, a buffet, pasta stations and a cash bar. It follows the screening of SERIOUS LAUNDRY. The movie’s director and stars will be in attendance.

 

Other themed food-party receptions include:

 

– Festa Italiana, an Antipasti Buffet served al fresco following MOGLI E MARITO;

 

– Another Italian extravaganza of pasta Alfredo, meatballs in marinara sauce, minestrone soup, and tiramisu, following LOVERS;

 

– Arctic Chiller sushi sampler, following HEAVEN’S FLOOR;

 

– Chinese Reception of steamed dumplings, Sweet & Sour Chicken, and fortune cookies, following KING OF PEKING;

 

– Madras Party of Chicken Tikka Masala and biryani rice, following NEWTON;

 

– Estonian Party, with fried herring, cold cucumber soup, and rye bread, following THE SPY & THE POET;

 

and my probable favorite,

 

– Israeli Reception, with a make-your-own Pita Station, including falafel, kibbeh, and more. Yum! This follows the movie screening of IF & WHEN.

 

The films include a week-long retrospective of the past thirty years of Best Film awardees from the European Film Awards (EFA), free for FLIFF members, running October 27th through November 2nd. FLIFF member benefits are many — too numerous to mention — so, please call for details: 954-525-FILM, or visit FLIFF.COM. Some of them include: discounts, special FREE screenings, seating priorities, concession specials, parties, and more.

 

On Veteran’s Day, November 11th, there will be a FREE event, featuring an 11:30am snack, followed by KELLY’S HEROES, starring some classic class actors and acts: Clint Eastwood, Telly Savalas, Don Rickles, Donald Sutherland, Carroll O’Connor — I think I might have to stand and clap as each appear on-screen.

 

On the two days following festival end, there will be four screenings at Savor Cinema to benefit the recently hurricane-ravaged islands:

 

November 20th: Barbuda and Dominica

 

November 21st: Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands

 

Here are some of my screening picks, which sound promising, based on their descriptions:

 

Feature:

 

A Tree. A Rock. A Cloud. – Karen Allen’s directorial debut, based on the short story by Carson McCullers.

 

Acorn and the Firestorm – Documentary. Andrew Breitbart’s sting operation into the affairs of the non-profit ACORN organization

 

After You’re Gone – Russian ballet dancer faces questions of his legacy

 

Cries From Syria – Documentary. In the streets with the people, fighting this Syrian war

 

Darkest Hour – Winston Churchill weighs a negotiated peace versus a waged war against Nazi Germany

 

Dede – In isolated Georgia, men and women begin to address the issues of modernism versus tradition

 

If & When – Coping daughter makes Divorced father realize he’s not yet ready for romance. Can love return with the woman he fell in love with, one year ago?

 

Intent to Destroy – Armenian Genocide, Turkish Denial.

 

Larger than Life: The Kevyn Aucoin Story – A retrospective of groundbreaking makeup artiste, Kevyn Aucoin’s life, until his passing in 2002

 

Mogli e Marito – A Freaky Friday premise, but husband and wife doing the body switcheroo

 

Newton – Present-day problems and escapades of pollworkers on assignment

 

Pinsky – Crazy life for liberal (sorta), Russian Jewish family

 

The Bird Was Not A Bird – Afghani birdseller is recruited for a suicide attack

 

The Cinema Travellers – Documentary. Travelling film exhibits and their exhibitors. India.

 

The Cutlass – A woman is abducted by an unstable man

 

The Earth Is Flat – Emotionally non-expressive parents leave an Amish compound for the outer world, and their son discovers his inner artistic brilliance

 

The Sense of Wonder / Le Gout des Merveilles – Eccentric man meets a family

 

The Spy and the Poet – Secret Service officer falls in love with the enemy

 

The Tree – Two girls are friends since childhood

 

Young and Innocent – Past life loves and precognition in this retake like Psycho

 

European Film Academy (EFA):

 

 

Amour – Love in later years

 

Ay, Carmela! – Republican musical troupe team of husband and wife run into danger during Spanish Civil War

 

Goodbye, Lenin! – East German Mother awakes from coma in unified Germany

 

Ida – Poland, 1960’s

 

Life Is Beautiful – Father and son in Holocaust concentration camp

 

The Lives of Others – Stasi secret police in 1980’s East Germany

 

Short:

 

Assisted Living – A man who wants to dance, facing dementia

 

Girlfriend Killer – Man becomes obsessed with empathetic woman

 

Norman Pinski Come Home – Frankenstein for the Modern Age

 

Our Ghosts – Two girls, friends their life long

 

Peace of Heart – Non-communicative girl with autism and new possibilities

 

Program – Lost Love, Revisited

 

Rotten Mangos – Two estranged brothers, one now homeless, reconnect

 

Streetwrite – A graffiti art musical about freedom of expression

 

The Choice – Estranged daughter travels to United Arab Emirates to meet family after father’s death

 

The Luck Bird – Foolish decisions and bullying by others, leads man on quest to seek happiness

 

The Peculiar Qualities of Mr Mahler – A special investigator in 80’s East Germany

 

The Pirate Captain Toledano – Sixteenth century Jewish man escaping Inquisition

 

Rose’s Turn – A homeless woman lives in the park beside an upscale condo

 

Speak – Trauma gets in the way of a woman and her potential suitor

 

We Could Have, We Should Have, We Didn’t – Set in middleclass Germany

A Butterfly Kiss

A Butterfly Kiss

(Randyjw; October 25, 2017)

 

Catching butterflies with a net

The catcher has caught nothing yet

At times, elusive, as often they get

Weaving through dreams, at last they met

 

Love (Six)

 

Love (Six) (Randyjw; October 24, 2017)

 

When I was young

the kind of child I was

was patient, kind,

sensitive, blind

No faults to be found

with others’ minds

Everyone had their reasons

for doing what they’d done

No excuse was unaccepted

all songs were to be sung

Without judgment,

black circles and white

melted and melded then turned

In the overlap of the Venn diagram

the colors indistinguishedly merged

they began to fade slowly to grey

and morals quite often

would vanish this way

Inside that narrow path, then

those footsteps led away

Selfless giving

aspired to selfish living

imitating others, these days

Taken advantage of

and trampled like a doormat

Why was it that others

could easily prosper

while doing exactly just that?

My love was given

in this same vein

deep in devotion and true

Beyond the duty,

the convocation

for worse

as abuse only grew

There came a time

deep inside my mind

that said love shouldn’t hurt like this

I didn’t know how

I could break forever vows

although something was wrongly amiss

I held on and on

thinking I was crazy or wrong

but I found I was right, as I thought

I learned to be strong

it was there, all along

a one-sided marriage won’t work

I understand martyrdom and sacrifice

my Middle East mind is complex

but born in the US, a feminist

It seeped over and deeply within

I, unfortunately, won’t die “just because” of love

there’s no point in just ending a life

were a bullet be shot in between of us

I’d die happy having been your wife

---

 

Can’t Stop; Sorry, But Not

Can’t Stop; Sorry, But Not (Randyjw; October 24, 2017)

 

I see you in posters,

dancing, from behind

I imagine you smiling

with that great humor of mind

I see us laughing

to some shared story in rhyme

I think you’re great

engaging my cray-cray in-kind

 

Tigress

Tigress (Randyjw; October 23, 2017)

 

I don my armor

My claws grown long

I sharpen them

along the tree-bark’s spine

my painted plates

Like a Svengali tiger

my weathered sight

like a Swarovski hide

Four sabres my teeth

revolving at the corners

and Mystical east

of ardour and amour

That prey within

lying dormant or hidden

my warrior dragon

over your Shaolin

Come, try me now

you hated malady

Your furrowed brow

will be smoothed by my melody

Out of control

You may rage at my being

But my stars I throw down

til they soothe savage beasts

Out you go

there’s no room for spots

for my favorite stripes

are the ones he’s got

 

---

 

 

Depths

Depths (Randyjw; October 22, 2017)

 

Surround me

Surround me

let me drown

all completely

Taking in like water

til my last breath leaves me

 

My Not So Secret Secret

My Not So Secret Secret (Randyjw; October 22, 2017)

 

Yes, I admit

The secret I’ve kept

Is the one

you’ve guessed

Others, you may surmise

keep dropping their disguise

Because you either know me

or the nature of humanity

and have revealed them

to great embarrassment

Yet, others remain under lock and key

Though whether they’re uncovered

will be my ultimate discovery

 

Polarized

Polarized (Randyjw; October 22, 2017)

 

When the water looks murky and brown

make sure to continue and stare

Just remember to keep looking down

for you’ll see what you never thought there

 

———————————————————-

 

 

Eternal Flame

Eternal Flame (Randyjw; October 22, 2017)

 

I wish it was me

but, sometimes I say

that it just can’t be

Once upon a time

there was so much life

but now it seems

that I’m on the back side

of infirmity

In a spinning spiral

a downward-facing trajectory

the solemn solo

of this timeless duo

will still, though,

believe in eternity.

 

 

Bud

 

 

Bud (Randyjw; October 20, 2017)

 

And so it was true

And I’m not really sure

How you knew it was you

but you took it and formed it

and nurtured what grew

serenaded the moon

and divined the truth

watered the seed

to sprout life anew

And that’s how I know

that for love to grow

You need caring and hope

so that it will be so

 

Above All

 

Above All (Randyjw; October 18, 2017)

 

Man can plan

and G-d can laugh

harvest wheat

apart from chaff

Join the deluge

with His tears

crying buckets

with our cares

Foil plans

of foes’ attacks

Curtail man

and set him back

Strew his path

with rocks or gold

display His wrath

to see unfold

Calm the seas

and stay His hand

What are we

but foolish men

 

Move Along

 

Move Along (Randyjw; October 16, 2017)

 

On Saturday, October 14, at a public art gallery in the park, my homeless friend and I were made to move from the doors and away from the area entirely, via security officer, although the sign clearly indicated that the gallery doors should have been open, and not locked.

 

On Sunday, October 15, 2017, we arrived to the nearby market, where he bummed a cigarette from someone, and proceeded to smoke it, prior to our entering the market to get some food to eat. He’d only just come to the end of his cigarette, when the supermarket manager, with security officer in tow, asked us to leave. Had this been a non-homeless customer, I doubt that they would have been told to leave. At another location of this market, I was told by a cashier that they don’t have any benches or tables nearby, because “there are alot of homeless people around here.” Yes; G-d forbid they should want to sit somewhere to eat the food they just purchased from your store. I also slipped and fell in their bathroom about a month back, and hurt my leg. It was still bothering me three days later, so I went to the hospital; they say it’s only bruising (internally), but it still sometimes really bothers me one month later. Aargh!

 

Today, Monday, October 16, 2017, a police officer asked my friend and I to sit up (we’d been reclining on the shady grass — I reading WordPress), and then made us leave the park, with a demand that we go to the soup kitchen somewhat distant, where I’m unable to eat, at present.

 

Both of us are becoming rather angry about the way people force us away, when we have every right to be in the public forum, as anybody else would. I’m sortof now on the outs with this person, probably for the last time, which seems to make a final, appropriate fit to the situation.

 

Home

Home (Randyjw; October 16, 2017)

 

Watching the embers glow,

as they warm both soul and hearth

Kindled by the sparks from your heart

in this cozy place called home

 

Homeless Annoyances

 

Homeless Annoyances (Randyjw; October 16, 2017)

 

Here’s an eye-opener about being homeless in America, which will make your blood boil:

 

Many people who are homeless receive income in various forms, such as in disability checks. They often then blow their checks on hotel rooms or drugs, rather than putting the money toward a cheap apartment, and, thereby, ending their homelessness and freeing up the resources for more desperate people, like myself, who receive no checks, whatsoever. I’m sad to say that I know at least a half-dozen people who rent cheap hotel rooms every month. This seems like such fraud. It certainly is annoying.

 

Re-a-lized

Re-a-lized (Randyjw; October 13, 2017)

 

I won’t wait

for the hush of a goodbye

I won’t wait

for my final tears to be cried

The essence of everything

I’ve tried to verbalize

I hope will, by now,

have been truly realized

 

Simchat Torah 5778

 

Simchat Torah 5778 (Randyjw; October 12, 2017)

 

Happy Simchat Torah 5778

 

!!

 

MATCHLESS

MATCHLESS (Randyjw; October 12, 2017)

 

DON’T

DROP

THAT

MATCH;

YOU’LL

MELT

MY

WAX

!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!

 

---

 

(Devil-Randy on-duty, today………………………………………)

 

Value(s)

Value(s) (Randyjw; October 12, 2017)

 

Self-worth is not equal to shelf-worth;

You are priceless —

neither priced less, nor prized less.

 

 

Flame

---

 

Flame (Randyjw; October 12, 2017)

 

If I could hold a candle to yours,

that would then touch mine,

the flame combined

would be enough to blind

Burnout

Burnout (Randyjw; October 11, 2017)

 

All this time

I was looking down

My beautiful stone

was on the ground

Perhaps it formed

inside the earth

as it was born

and given birth

Its name derived

from worldly kings

the malachite swirls

of green within

No fool’s gold found

inside this stone

Its polish ground

by hand, my own

Perhaps it burned

from out of space

to rock my world

ignite my place

But had I known

its magnetic field north

my orbit flown

had been off course

I couldn’t right it

I was done

I melted in

forever sun

 

---

 

Update / October 18, 2017: I had it in my mind about gemstones and jewelry materials, like gold, platinum, tritanium, etc. possibly coming from combustible matter exploding in space, etc. (Yeah, sure…. Right…) Anyways, I just finished reading an October 17th article indicating this possibility: Hotz, Robert Lee. “Neutron Stars Forge Gold”. The Wall Street Journal; October 17, 2017; Page A3.

 

Israel had this thought even earlier — twenty-eight years ago!

 

Israel, David. “LIGO Detector Confirms 1989 Hebrew U. Prediction that Neutron Star Mergers Produce Gamma Ray Bursts”. JewishPress.com; October 17, 2017

http://www.jewishpress.com/news/israel/jerusalem/ligo-detector-confirms-1989-hebrew-u-prediction-that-neutron-star-mergers-produce-gamma-ray-bursts/2017/10/17/

 

Julian, Hana Levi. “Gravitational Waves Detected After Neutron Stars Collide 120 Million Light Years Away”. JewishPress.com; October 16, 2017:

 

http://www.jewishpress.com/news/global/gravitational-waves-detected-after-neutron-stars-collide-120-million-light-years-away/2017/10/16/

 

Empty Seat

Empty Seat (Randyjw; October 10, 2017)

 

Of a lullaby I wish

the chords of my Life’s fate were met

Softly calming, gently strumming

peaceful and sleepful as they would be yet

For now in the coda

it is embarrassingly revealed

that the maestro felt the tunes of the dance

without learning to master the parts for the lead

 

Gone AWOL

Gone AWOL (Randyjw; October 6, 2017)

 

The heart lies missing

in my chest

I wonder where

its laid to rest

Perhaps you have it

by your side

Keep it

if you so decide

For when I kept it

to myself

It sat there

like a doll on the shelf

But as you’ve tended

perfectly

It goes just where

it needs to be

 

The Cycle

The Cycle (Randyjw; October 6, 2017)

 

A little boy

made ready his gun

pointing his forefinger

raising his thumb

The Indian said “How?”

galloped forth from the band

As he shouted, “Kapow!”

drawing forward his hand

The trigger he pulled

aiming straight for the head

and shot that old Indian

Black Bull dead

He became a cop

when he tired of that game

All the stealers who’d rob

placed in jail cells that day

So the boy now grew older

the familiar refrain

The Army needs soldiers

they’re calling your name

And as he lay dying

from real guns, not toys

His mother knelt crying

for her little boy

 

Under Construction

Under Construction (Randyjw; October 4, 2017)

 

And sometimes

as opportunities arise

I wake up

with the evening’s stars

and the morning sunshine

still in my eyes

Only You

Only You (Randyjw; October 4, 2017)

 

What can’t be done for another

which can only be done for the self?

Live life

as nobody else