-A Lovely Thing is a Joy to Behold

I once took a poetry workshop. Well, several times, actually. My efforts with the English department led to the reversal of a policy that granted credit for only one instance of the course.

That isn't the story, though. Once a woman in a workshop, she was blind, recited her work. I cried in that box of dusty tiles and cramped wooden chairs. Just a bit, one trailing over my cheekbone to the corner of my mouth. She finished and, spontaneously, I told her that she'd spread shivers through my spine. The pages are gone, and I can't ever know again the words on them. She was called Maria.

Here is another such moment that I can share. It is a song from the only movie musical I have ever enjoyed. The story of these two musicians, both in and out of the movie frame, shivers too.

P.S.--Today I remembered, as I dried my toes before pulling on socks: She is Maria Celino. Where are you now, Maria?

Listen: