On my smart TV I find Jules et Jim
and watch it again after all this time,
remembering when Verona and I
saw all the New Wave movies from France.
There had never been anything like them.
We were both in love with Alain Delon.
Though The Seventh Seal from Sweden was
what utterly blew our minds. (Nothing else
did; we were probably the last generation
so innocent of drugs.) We were living in Carlton,
I was a student. There was only one university
in Melbourne then. The cinema was next to
the pawn shop; we were customers of both.
We became best friends: discovering and loving
words and art together. We were sharing
a rented house. She painted a mural
on her bedroom wall – one that could be
washed off when we left. I failed French and
switched to Philosophy. (English Lit was always
a given.) Germaine Greer was on stage at the Union
Theatre. We called it the Onion. Germaine could
sing, dance, act and be funny, the lot. It was before
she wrote her book. She had purple hair, long
purple nails, legs that went on forever, and
a voice husky from cigarettes. We all smoked.
Everything altered with the long vacation
when I went home to Tassie and we couldn’t
keep renting the house. But it took a few more years
and many life changes before that idyllic friendship
soured. We were grown by then, mothers by then.
I was already divorced the first time. Verona was
widowed. I never saw her again after 1967, although
I know vaguely what became of her (the grapevine).
Like me, she contrived a life which she’s still living.
We only watched those movies once; they burned
into the brain forever after. But now I’d like to go back,
revisit the young Delon, wish once more for a mouth
like Jeanne Moreau’s, and still be so blazingly clear
that Art is the whole meaning and purpose of life.
For Friday Writings #99: Why??? at Poets and Storytellers United, I'm asking people to entitle a piece 'Why—?' fill in the blank, and write to our title. As you see, my own title question is still somewhat unfinished, but I trust the poem will clarify.
This resonates so much...why does life and circumstance do things to friendship.. I don't want to go back to those relationships - but to those feelings - the "good times" - they certainly felt good, maybe it had everything to do with being young!! Love this poem.
ReplyDeleteIt probably did have a lot to do with being young.
DeleteOh beautiful memories Rosemary. Great to have had such a good friend and I remember Alain Delon, a handsome French man. I recently saw a movie from that time with Audry Hepburn Love her as well
ReplyDeleteI love Audrey too! Always have. Myfavoruite of her films is 'Breakfast at Tiffany's,' a movie I can watch over and over again and never tire of it.
DeleteLovely memories, true that murals will be washed away in the absence of the artists.
ReplyDeleteOh, she washed it off herself when the time came to leave, in case the landlord saw it as damage.
DeleteMurals that can be washed away like life washes everything away when the last holdout, if we're lucky, are a few good memories.
ReplyDeleteEven better are lots of good memories! I do get pleasure out of mine.
Delete(Though this time, I confess, the emotions were a bit mixed.)
DeleteI love the reveries. Same stories, different details. Those times were so foundational. I've been revisiting the musicians I loved back then. I wonder why did the relationship sour? Sounds like it may have been more than time and distance.
ReplyDeleteYes it was rather more, but those details don’t belong in this poem. I felt badly taken advantage of by a particular series of events. Looking back I see that possibly she was floundering, and possibly she felt betrayed when I wouldn’t let the situation continue — but it was such that I couldn’t, for my own well-being and that of my family. She seems to have found her feet thereafter and we all moved forward, but the link between us was broken.
DeleteWell I hope she sees this and you two can have lunch together for old times' sake.
ReplyDeleteWhen I wanted to break up an inappropriate attraction I used to try to visualize the boy in question kissing another girl. Now it seems that seeing him kissing another boy would be even more of a turn-off. I thought Robin Williams was hilarious in "The Bird Cage" but then again his first big break was playing an asexual space alien, so fine, Rob, carry on!
Nice thought, but she is most unlikely to see this, and we have moved too far apart both personally and geographically. It’s OK, I can have the nostalgia and still believe the end of our friendship was the right decision.
DeleteAh yes, Jules et Jim could be seen as a tale of inappropriate attraction! Pity they couldn’t have solved it so mildly, but then we would not have had the movie, lol.
Love this poem...related to it so much especially discovering French new wave. You must have seen Truffaut's Les Quatre Cents Coups, one of the best movies of all times. We were lucky to get cheap rentals in those days. I rented an entire terrace in Paddington for $25 a week...outside loo ( of course:) Feeling wistful:)
ReplyDelete.......Rall
Oh my dear Rall, might have known you would relate perfectly! It was N exciting time in which to be a young woman just starting to branch out. Yes, that film was a landmark, but we lapped up all of that genre in that time.
DeletePah! Autocorrect (and arthritic fingers). *an exciting time
DeleteThank you, Rosemary, I enjoyed getting to know some of your younger life, especially the roommate. I also have lost a roommate, we shared an apartment after I dropped out of college. More missed that bothers me is a friend, a girl. She loaned me her apartment one Thanksgiving weekend, I had to work, while she went home to her parents. It was over a downtown bar. There would be a lot to tell of her, I won't tell all, ever. A lot of "lost" friends can be found on Facebook, but the females are hard, almost impossible if they don't give their maiden names.
DeleteI'll be on Sabbatical for a couple or three weeks next.
..
..
I hope you enjoy your sabbatical, Jim!
DeleteYes a lot of 'lost' friends have turned up on fb, but not this one. I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be her thing anyway. It's not a friendship I'm hankering to revive, and I doubt she would be either. But it's nice to look back on the good times, when we were so young and full of optimism.
Your last line sings out to me- and my inside voice tells me the art of loving is the most important of all.
ReplyDeleteThanks for a colourful peek into the past. :-)
Your inside voice is absolutely right, of course.
Deletestill be so blazingly clear
ReplyDeletethat Art is the whole meaning
and purpose of life
Love your closing, Rosemary, and very true. Art and all its ramifications provide the theme for the purpose of life. There is the picture and structure to fall back on!
Hank
Thanks, Hank. I knew my fellow poets would 'get it.'
DeleteLife , people, everything changes and sometimes we wish to go back.....l love the way you wrote about it all
DeleteThanks, Jossina. I love the way you say so.
DeleteYour words clarify, entertain, educate, provide a deeper understanding of you! And yes, Rosemary ... art is the whole meaning and purpose of life.
ReplyDeleteAh, I knew we were soul-mates!
DeleteWithout art, how dull .life would be. I love these remembrances, nostalgic, yet clear. The older I get, the more vivid the images of days gone by.
ReplyDeleteI agree.
Delete