Poetry: Now is the Time

Grieving time in Buffalo,
for the lost who went before.
Fear of what will happen
and what fate has in store.
Time doesn't slow,
nor does it abate.
The chance to live is now,
we must act before it's too late.
Where will we go
and what will we do?
Will we hate or love,
will be we proud with what we grown into?
Now is the chance
that others have not had.
With my heart in my hard I offer it,
life is too short to live it mad.
Give your heart and soul,
body and mind.
I give mine freely,
to a woman who is like Kind.
Her name is Hope,
though that's not really her name.
She is my guiding star,
for my raging heart she did tame.

Critical Film: A Review of Final

Final

Starring:

* Dennis Leary
* Hope Davis
* Jim Gaffigan
* Marin Hinkle

Director:

* Campbell Scott

In a surprising turn in the dramatic before the days of "Rescue Me", Dennis Leary puts in a top-notch effort in this small time independent film about a man who wakes from a coma and his sanity is being evaluated by a doctor played by Hope Davis. The film work is simple and clean, as 90% of the film takes place in a single room with brief flashes to the past and a few outdoor shots. The setting seems a bit outdated, but for the budget that the movie was shot with, that's not too pressing on the overall story.

The story takes Leary on a trip through his own troubled past and a relationship that he knows cannot be with Davis. His mind is still troubled as he believes that Davis and the workers at the hospital are out to kill him via lethal injection, but he is not too far off the actual truth. The acting is very well done with Davis and Leary, the connection between them seemingly real. Gaffigan, who surprises in a near-silent role full of compassion simply done through the looks on his face. Leary's girlfriend, played by Miran Hinkle, is played quietly well, though her lack of experience is clearly overshadowed by the talent and screen presence of Leary most of the time.

The plot is quite well done as Leary is able to carry the act of insanity through all of his scenes. The only downfall to the plot is the finale, when everything that he believes was actually true. There was no suspense to it either, as they ruin the reveal by having a talk about it before hand. The relationship aspect is ruined because you know she knew that he was going to do nothing but die. Despite the lack of satisfaction in the third act, the rest of the film is strong enough to carry it through. The film is well done in script and setting. The acting of Davis and Leary is strong and compelling. All in all, the film is worth a watch and wont take too much time out of your day, clocking in at 111 minutes.

Writing: Playing With Words

When the dreams flow like sap crawling down the callous skin of the Maple, caressing the grooves like a lover, lacing fingers of amber in each fold and crevice. This time is the only time when the jewels that fall from the mind, slipping into the dark in dazzling cascades of shimmering rain, that the mind, grasped tenderly by the blanket of night, can lean back and rest upon the chest of Eternity, feeling the arms of forever and never wrap around it and stop the sand from falling a grain at a time, if only for a brief few hours to us, but not to it - to the mind, the eternal slumber, painted in Dali-Kubrickian motifs, is forever and never, all and nothing, empty yet always complete.

The dreamer, if only a man or woman or child lost in the wheels and gears and gadgets that dictate or control or direct us as they see fit, lives a life or a moment or an eternity searching and finding and losing everything and nothing only to regain it all in the silent and dark or loud and bright mind each night or day or afternoon, letting their head rest upon a pillow or a couch or a table, but in that time, the dreamer dreams - dreams which leave us incomplete, much like interrupted sleep, where a dream goes on, but suddenly