Tuesday, July 13, 2010

older love


So, I opened up This Is Not the Story You Think It Is by Laura Munson* to, of course, the last page. I always read the last page of my books first, so I know what's coming. I do it for the same reason that I often read the plot of movies and tv series on Wikipedia before I watch them.** I don't think that it spoils them for me (unless the ending itself is disappointing). I just like to absorb stories with the conclusion in mind. It helps me to comprehend them better, as a whole.

Back on topic... at the end of Laura Munson's novel I found this beautiful love poem that I want to share.

Older Love

His wife has asthma
so he only smokes outdoors
or late at night with head
and shoulders well into
the fireplace, the mesquite and oak
heat bright against his face.
Does it replace the heat
that has wandered from love
back into the natural world?
But then the shadow passion casts
is much longer than passion,
stretching with effort from year to year.
Outside tonight hard wind and sleet
from three bald mountains,
and on the hearth before his face
the ashes we’ll all become,
soft as the back of a woman’s knee.

Jim Harrison, from Saving Daylight

* Sarah Wilson interviewed Laura for this column, one of my favourites.
** Thankfully, I didn't do this before watching Remember Me (starring Robert Pattinson and Emilie de Ravin). Please don't.

3 comments:

Kimberley said...

Instead of telling people not to look up the plot of Rememember Me, you should just tell them not to watch in the first place.
Unfortunately I wasn't so lucky...

Laura Valerie said...

Oh Kimberley, it wasn't that bad. What if it starred Joseph Gordon Levitt? You would have cried for days (...so would I).

Kimberley said...

Hmmm it's true I would be more empathetic if it wasn't Robert Pattinson but I still would have been dissapointed!