POEMS OF A STARVING PLAYWRIGHT: METATHEATRICAL METAPHORICAL MUSINGS

PROLOGUE

TO

HAMLET

To change, or not to change – that is the question:

Whether ‘tis more impressive in the community to adapt

The works and plays of original masterminds

Or to take risks against a sea of Critics

And by creating something new end them.  To be, to dream –

No more – and by a dream to say we write

The new, and the thousand inspirational muses

That the heart is slave to.  ‘Tis applause

Secretly to be wished.  To be, to dream –

To dream – perchance to express: ay, there’s the rub,

For in that creation of expression what words may come

When we have changed what was known,

Must give us pause.  There’s the fear

That makes writer’s block of so long a struggle.

For who would face the abuses and offenses of criticism,

-Touch immortal Shakespeare or try his amateur hand-

Th’ audience’s booing, the critics’ comparisons

The disappointment of rejected writing, and the judgment

That indoctrinated society of th’ amateurs believes,

When they themselves might his play enjoy

With a distinguished signature?  Who would criticism undergo,

To be shamed and ridiculed under a futile attempt,

But that the dread of rejection after production,

The spontaneous expression, from whose bravery

No writer ignores, conjectures the controversy,

And makes us rather worship those works we recognize

Than acknowledge others that we know not of?

Thus celebrity worship does make cowards of us all,

And thus the bold face of creation

Is tided o’er with the natural comfort of stagnation,

And belief in tradition and legacy

With this respect the writers cease writing

And lose the name of artist.

An excerpt from METATHEATRICAL METAPHORICAL MUSINGS

The theater, the midnight sky
plays inspired by constellations and shooting stars,

galaxies and the Big Dipper.

The actors, the fireworks and night lights
so much practice and preparation

in anticipation of the big showing, the night to shine.

Waiting for the cue of the director

to perform their parts,

each explosion of sound and light more forgettable and unremarkable than the next.

Each actor’s dramatic soliloquy

an infinitesimal moment to make a lasting impression.

A self-sacrificing act, it ultimately ends in silence – nothing.