.SOMETIMES RAW.

Hello! 

Do you know the movie In her Shoes? It is a nice little story but more importantly one of my favorite poems has been mentioned.  I Carry Your Heart with Me by E.E. Cummings. 

E.E. (Edward Estlin) Cummings was born in 1894 in Massachusetts. He is a 20th century novelist and poet. Cummings’s parents were soon aware of his talent and encouraged him to keep on writing. He was best known for his amazing poems and his innovations in structure and style. E.E. Cummings obtained his B.A and M.A. from Harvard University where his father was a  professor. After graduation he served in World War I for the ambulance corps. At the end of the war he moved to Paris to study art. In 1924 he moved to New York. 

Cummings works are also known to have a lot of focus on love, sexuality and nature and initially he did not find a publisher so he self-published most of his work and financially struggled. In the 40s and 50s a lot more people started to enjoy his work and he gave public readings. He received fellowships, awards and prizes (for example the Bollinger Prize for Poetry from Yale University). He usually painted in the afternoon and had many art shows in galleries. His works are somewhat influenced by Gertrude Stein. Cummings loved to write at night because he said that this was the time of the day when he was most creative. 

E.E. Cummings died in 1962 from a brain hemorrhage. If you want to know more, I recommend the biography E.E. Cummings: A Life by Susan Cheever. 

Here, my favorite poem. Enjoy! 

[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

Click here to read it in German. Enjoy! 

“Fremd bin ich eingezogen, fremd zieh ich wieder aus.” (I came a stranger – I depart a stranger)

Hello!

My husband and I were fortunate to get tickets to the première of Schubert’s Winterreise at the Landestheater in Coburg  last Saturday. I like classical music but not quite as much as my husband. Honestly, I haven’t listened to a lot of Schubert’s pieces. However, I am always open for something new, especially culturally. I found it helpful to read a bit about the piece to get a good idea of what it is all about. My husband on the other hand wanted to enjoy it without too much background information which I thought was amazing because Schubert’s Winterreise is performed in German which is not my husband’s mother tongue. 

Franz Schubert (31 January 1797-19 November 1828) was an Austrian composer. He corrected proofs of Winterreise a couple of days before he died (most likely complications from syphilis). He was 31 years old. 

The performance was staged by Bodo Busse who focused mostly on the actors and the music. He kept the stage scenery minimalistic. Gefrorene Tränen (Frozen tears) was depicted as water in a bathtub, the cold winter night as a freezer. The 24 poems are performed by the tenor and three silent actors who accompany him while he wandered through his inner winter of sadness and suffering. The protagonist is thrown back and forth between childhood and family memories  which keeps the play entertaining and interesting. 

Bodo Busse decided to change the original piano cycle of Schubert’s Winterreise and used a composition by Hans Zenders who transferred this piece  into a beautiful, modern treat with a completely new twist. Personally, at points I was able to feel the tenors suffering and pain – it was simply that good. While listing to the poems it seemed that I traveled with the protagonist through this journey called life with all its ups and downs, memories, hopes and fears.   I always try to find explanations for everything and of course I needed to do so for the three silent actors. The elderly woman was most likely his mother or his lost love. The elderly gentlemen might depict his father or an elderly version of the tenor. I thought about the third actor as the protagonist’s alter ego or sometimes even his evil side who he tries to fight at points. Or maybe I am completely wrong. 🙂 Beauty and meaning is in the eye of the beholder after all. 

Overall, it was an amazing, fresh performance for the twenty-first century with wonderful melodies, passion, thought and no compromises. 

Two additional performances are on Sunday, 24 January 6pm and Saturday, 20 February 8pm. 

Der Leiermann was my favorite poem of the composition. If you are not able to see the piece, listen to Schubert’s Winterreise here. 

Thank you for reading my blog. 

Hello! 

This week was busy and full of events. Running around, getting things done, meeting people, mediation, Reiki, long conversations, writing, interview, reading and blog maintenance. Now I am sitting in my parent’s kitchen, next to my husband who is also working on his computer while we enjoy a cup of tea. Our son is asleep and most likely dreaming of our walk in the snow this afternoon. It was cold and peaceful out there and felt amazing to warm up when we came back in. It’s the little things, as usual. What can you do on these cold winter days in the evening when you don’t feel like reading or watching TV? How about learning a new skill. Have you heard about Skillshare? If you are into online classes and interested to broaden your horizon you can sign up and take any of these courses for free. Writing, photography, cooking, fashion, design, business, music, writing and many more. Continue reading to find out what else I have been up to this week. Enjoy! 

Reading: It seems that I have a lot more time to read these days. I am usually in bed at a decent time with a good book. I have finished Henning Mankell’s Treibsand which was amazing. Hands-down one of the best books I have read recently. I also finished Bianca Sparacino’s Seeds planted in Concrete which is available for  Kindle. It’s a nice little collection of poems. I loved this excerpt from LXXXVI:

“You aren’t going to find someone who completes you, and you shouldn’t strive for that. Instead, strive to find someone who inspires you to complete yourself. Strive to find someone who pushes you, and breaks into you in ways that allow of you to see all of the potential that exists within your bones.” 

Currently I am reading Nick Hornby’s “How to be Good” which I got at the last BookCrossing Stammtisch in Coburg. I like it so far. I picked up “H is for Hawks” by Helen Macdonald today at Riemann Bookstore. 

Watching: A couple of years ago my husband and I saw the movie Pina by Pina Bausch and we enjoyed it. It is just something different and amazing to see what can be expressed through dancing. I was happy to find a documentary on YouTube on Pina Bausch. Check it out here. I re-watched one of my favorite movies by far. The Human Stain. Click on the trailer if you like

Challenging: To label and register a bunch of my books that fill-up my shelves and that I would love to send on a little BookCrossing journey. It is actually quite some work; especially to think about which ones I would like to release. Then again, as long as I am surrounded by books, I am fine. 

Wanderlust: I am on TripAdvisor a lot to post articles and reviews. TripAdvisor is great to get new ideas on new travel destinations, new hotels or just things to visit and explore. I read about the Chauvet Cave in France recently and would love to go there to see these amazing cave paintings. My friend Judith told me about the Catacombs in Paris and I so want to see them as well now. How fantastic this must be, no? I also want to fly to Arizona. Grand Canyon, Skywalk... you name it. Arizona has been on my bucket list for a long time. 

Enjoying: That my husband is here in Germany with us these days. He is still not feeling too well but as long as he is here to rest and get back on his feet I am fine. The German newspaper Neue Presse published the article about my life and blog on Tuesday this week and it turned out so well. I enjoyed how my friends, family and even people on the street talked to me about the article and how they loved it. The Coburger Tageblatt wants to write a story soon, too. I had an interview today. Pretty sweet I would say. Have a nice weekend! 

What have you been up to? What is on your mind? 

Thank you for reading my blog.