Pugulis Comatose Departure

Painting by Rick Mobbs

Janet Leigh watched Clint Eastwood's film, MILLION DOLLAR BABY [reviewed elsewhere on this blog under the title SEQUINED SPEEDBAG]. She was very touched by it and created these unique Haiku to convey her emotions:

From dust I come, go
Irrepressible spirit
overcomes the soul

Two-fisted passion
within, find mind will concur
Hope won’t be boxed in

Passion deals cruel fate
one well-placed blow change life’s pace -
Kinetic to still

My constrained soul sighs -
entombed alive, lone, one place
hasten will to die

Entreat life’s mentor
envision big risk rescue -
exit present plight

With boss, me, one mind
entwined into that good night -
Go launched soul - lift off!

Janet Leigh

I enjoyed her "movie review", and my comments were:

Six Haiku to present your view of the film–that is cool, and creative. My review of “Million Dollar Baby”, entitled SEQUINED SPEEDBAG is there on FFTR, somewhere in the first 100 postings. God, I am approaching 1,000 like a comet. Unbelievable what moves me, such a variety of things that I want to share and share and share.

I like the half dozen shots at promulgation and dips into chaos and eternity. But the first one does trouble me a tiny bit. /irrespressible spirit/dominates the soul/–for though it is sort of clear that the human spirit, the will, is only akin to “Spirit, God, Allthatis, Being”, the whole issue of soul structure being a cell in God’s eye, a part of the whole, then for me there is some confusion. Perhaps I am splitting hairs here. There simply is “spirit” with a small “s”, and “Spirit” with a capitol “S”, enit?

I like the line/hope won’t be boxed in/ sharing the need the character had to not let her circumstances on life define who she was. Female Boxing is big business, but many of them train like men, develop muscles like men, lose the magic of being women through the rippling biceps and pummeling. /Passion deals cruel fate/ yes, that was pivotal to the plot, as it is to our own lives. The Zen view is that passion leads to lust not love, which leads to possessiveness not cohabitation, which leads to a dark place, to a sphere of dark energy. /kinetic to still/ ah yes, the frames per second come to a stand still, as does our heroine, a single icon, stranded there with her broken neck, adrift, only seen as another quadripeligic; not the woman, the person she is still inside. /my constrained soul sighs/entombed alive/–one of our greatest fears, total paralysis, bringing to mind THE SEA INSIDE, WHOSE LIFE IS IT, ANYWAY, and the more recent THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY; the right to die with dignity.

Spiritully, it is believed we choose our lives, our family, outline it, plan it to some extent, before we emerge for our first or hundredth lifetime, and yet, God help us, we have no such luxury when it comes to our exit, our transition. Quite a moral conundrum, actually. And Clint Eastwood’s character, the trainer, demonstrated the depth of his love by pulling the plug, doing that one last thing she desired, setting her free.

The film comes back to mind through your powerfully felt poetry. Thank you.

Glenn