Author Topic: A Sonnet for Jack  (Read 28729 times)

moremojo

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Re: A Sonnet for Jack
« Reply #10 on: December 18, 2006, 08:22:58 pm »
Hi, Kerry--

Thanks for being a romantic, and a lover and sharer of poetry! Share to your heart's content; you'll find that many here find refuge in poetry in working through the feelings engendered by this very poetic film.

For what it's worth, here is the link to a Brokeback-inspired sonnet I wrote and posted on this site back on September the 5th:

http://bettermost.net/forum/index.php?topic=4174.msg83478#msg83478

Regards,
Scott

Offline twistedude

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Re: A Sonnet for Jack
« Reply #11 on: December 18, 2006, 11:13:03 pm »
 Re: Poems--from anywhere, for Brokeback Mountain sensitized feelings...
« Reply #1 on: April 28, 2006, 01:22:13 pm » 

This is Pablo Naruda's Sonnet #17, posted by RouxB.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I don't love you as if you were the salt-rose, topaz
 or arrow of carnations that propagate fire:
I love you as certain dark things are loved,
secretly, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that doesn't bloom and carries
hidden within itself the light of those flowers,
and thanks to your love, darkly in my body
lives the dense fragrance that rises from the earth.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,
I love you simply, without problems or pride:
I love you in this way because I don't know any other way of loving

but this, in which there is no I or you,
so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand,
so intimate that when I fall asleep it is your eyes that close.

Pablo Neruda
"We're each of us alone, to be sure. What can you do but hold your hand out in the dark?" --"Nine Lives," by Ursula K. Le Guin, from The Wind's Twelve Quarters

Offline Kerry

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Re: A Sonnet for Jack
« Reply #12 on: December 19, 2006, 07:29:13 am »
"All days are nights to see till I see thee,
And nights bright days when dreams do show thee me."

Thank you for posting, Goadra. So very beautiful.

Here's another of my favourites by my old mate, Bill  ;D

Practically every line has Ennis' voice attached to it, as addressed to Jack. So much so, I can't particularly single out any one line for attention. They all have relevance. I love this sonnet. As you read it, imagine it being read by Ennis (with his voice), sad and alone in his lonesome trailer:

Sonnet XXX
When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste:
Then can I drown an eye, unus'd to flow,
For precious friends hid in death's dateless night,
And weep afresh love's long-since cancell'd woe,
And moan the expense of many a vanish'd sight.
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er
The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan,
Which I new pay as if not paid before.
But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
All losses are restor'd, and sorrows end.

 :'(  :'(  :'(

Kerry
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Offline Kerry

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Re: A Sonnet for Jack
« Reply #13 on: December 19, 2006, 07:33:55 pm »
You've reminded me of an old thread that does some Jack/shepherd analysis and has a poem by St. John of the Cross:
http://bettermost.net/forum/index.php?topic=1137.msg130961#msg130961
Hi Lynne,

Thank you for directing me to the Gay Alliance site and the beautiful poem by St John of the Cross. I loved all the pertinent metaphysical references. Though it's been some decades since last I formally studied theology, I would personally interpret the "beautiful shepherd" as being Christ, hence the "young shepherd's" love for the "beautiful shepherd." Just my spin on it and it should certainly not detract from the application of these beautiful words to love, per se, by any definition.  :) 

I loved this part of the Gay Alliance article:
Ennis and Jack’s love is sacred and reveals the divine character of relationship and longing. Their love, set amidst the grandeur of pastoral images of animal flocks, mountains, and astride horseback, reveals a universal love, the infinite longing, like that between God and humanity, ever aching to be fulfilled and consummated. Hidden in the love of two sheep-herders, is the archetype of that same Good Shepherd who envisions our life together beside restful waters, in verdant pastures… “If you and me had a little ranch together, little cow and calf operation… it’d be some sweet life…”

LOL

Kerry
« Last Edit: December 19, 2006, 10:10:48 pm by Kerry »
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Offline louisev

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Re: A Sonnet for Jack
« Reply #14 on: December 20, 2006, 12:08:34 am »
I wrote a story that took place two years after the death of Jack Twist, in which Ennis comes into possession of a journal Jack kept during the summer of 1963 on Brokeback Mountain.

And darned if Jack didn't write a poem to Ennis in there!

While not strictly in sonnet form, it does bear some resemblance to actual doggerel:

"Roses are red
Violets are blue
I'm sure hot
For the likes a you."

- Taking Chances, Chapter 8.
“Mr. Coyote always gets me good, boy,”  Ellery said, winking.  “Almost forgot what life was like before I got me my own personal coyote.”


Offline Kerry

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Re: A Sonnet for Jack
« Reply #15 on: December 20, 2006, 07:06:05 am »
"Roses are red
Violets are blue
I'm sure hot
For the likes a you."

That is sooo gorgeous. For me, it really does have Jack's voice to it. I can picture his sweet face, with a cute studious little frown, as he tries to concentrate on composing the verse.  :)
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Offline louisev

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Re: A Sonnet for Jack
« Reply #16 on: December 20, 2006, 03:42:39 pm »
...getting the words and the cadence just right...

he also wrote a love ballad, entitled:

"Ennis I'm a want you"
“Mr. Coyote always gets me good, boy,”  Ellery said, winking.  “Almost forgot what life was like before I got me my own personal coyote.”


Offline Kerry

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Re: A Sonnet for Jack
« Reply #17 on: December 20, 2006, 06:28:24 pm »
...getting the words and the cadence just right...

he also wrote a love ballad, entitled:

"Ennis I'm a want you"

I'd love to read it. Do you have the link?
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Offline louisev

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Re: A Sonnet for Jack
« Reply #18 on: December 20, 2006, 06:37:03 pm »
er...

I'm sure I have it around here somewhere....    :o
“Mr. Coyote always gets me good, boy,”  Ellery said, winking.  “Almost forgot what life was like before I got me my own personal coyote.”


moremojo

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Re: A Sonnet for Jack
« Reply #19 on: December 20, 2006, 07:06:50 pm »
er...

I'm sure I have it around here somewhere....    :o
Louise, I never knew that Jack baked Bread! ;)

(Beautiful song, by the way, as so many of theirs were. It really does capture the tenderness that we know Jack nursed for Ennis).