Black and White

(movie poem)

No death within a dappled grove,

No "Go; bid the soldiers shoot"

No butterfly just out of reach,

No captain, climbing with his flute--


Nor swinging in the childrens' swings

Nor line dance lead by death, in vain

Nor love found with the loss of wings

Nor child's redemptive cry in rain--


Though birds shift course in glinting sun,

And love appears in loved son's face

No sorrow's end, no joy begun

Can change the bent of your eyes' grace.


The movies are (black-and-white--see?):

1: "Rashômon," Kurosawa, Japanese, 1950)

2: "Hamlet," (Olivier, British, 1948)

3: "All's Quiet on the Western Front," ( Lewis Milestone, American, 1930)

4: "Grand Illusion," (Renoir, France, 1937)

5: "Ikiru," (Kurosawa, 1952, Japanese)

6: "The Seventh Seal," (Bergman, 1957, Swedish)

7: "Wings of Desire," (Wenders, 1987, German and French)

8: "Rashômon," (again) (Kurosawa, 1950, Japanese)

9: "Wild Strawberries," (Bergman, 1957, Swedish)

10: "The World of Apu," (Satyajit Ray, 1959, Indian)