Monday, January 19, 2009

After Revolutionary Road

“For such defects, and for no other fault, we are lost; and only in so far afflicted, that without hope, we live in desire.” Dante, Inferno

“And with desire to languish without hope” Milton, Paradise Lost



Looking to each other
Dreaming dreams
Believing in all we think could be
Working to achieve
Aching to become
Trying to reach beyond
Anticipating growth into potential
Faltering in struggle
Searching for blame
Losing hope
Falling into the abyss
Grasping at wisps of aspiration
Clawing at remnants
Giving ourselves over to desire
And then to nothingness
We are lost
For want of more
Than what we have
Inside ourselves and each other

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

effing brilliant bridge.
effing brilliant.

megan anne said...

Sartre says "l'enfer, c'est les autres" ... hell is other people ... that film almost seemed to say that human beings torture one another rather than enhance, soothe, or love one another. Every relationship represented in that film had deceit.

Anonymous said...

i thought it was more of a story about what happens if you choose not to "enhance, soothe, or love one another". a cautionary tale if you will. a beautifully told story of what happens if you make bad choices repeatedly, if you live without hope for more, never reaching beyond yourself for something greater...
something like that anyways.
that's just me though...

Anonymous said...

I gotta say I'm in the Megan camp. The lack of redemption in the story is the fruit of relationships rooted in deceit. The self-chosen misery, a refusal to live where they were, kinda left everyone else miserable too. Yuck.

But an honest poem.

Anonymous said...

yuck- but such is the reality of those choices and i don't mind being reminded (in such a heartrendingly beautiful way) that there are big consequences to deceit and self chosen misery. i thought it was a story worth telling and one worth honoring.