al_pacino
A CERTAIN SANITY
by J.S. Watts

Is that coffee fresh enough?
Pour some of the coffee out of the other cup
A little sugar’s the Sicilian way
You don’t know these things yet
But there’s a difference
It’s necessary to do it. Why I am here, and why I started
The difference between the actor and the painter
an opportunity to have an audience.
You can’t know it sometimes just by reading it
it’s a good time to fall in love
like Icarus flying close to the sun,
going a little closer and closer, knowing
as soon as he gets close those wings
are going to get burned.
These are the seeds,
whatever this dream is that we’re in right now
You’ve been touched
being able to touch it and understand it,
the stage is really like a magnet.
And you come back and the rhythms have changed
letting in more light and seeing where that goes
a certain sanity
a kind of enigma
you know what I see? Survivors.
people who have endured and come through

SOURCE: Al Pacino interview by Julian Schnabel in Interview magazine (February 1991).

PHOTO: Al Pacino by Brigitte Lacombe, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: I suspect I have secretly been in love with Al Pacino for some time. I am fascinated by the contrasts of the man: the private man and the worldwide celebrity, the subtle actor and the outrageous ham, a love of the stage and totally at home in films and, of course, the wide range of contrasting characters he has chosen to play.

watts

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:  J.S.Watts is a British writer, the author of Cats and Other Myths (Lapwing Publications), Songs of Steelyard Sue (Lapwing Publications), and A Darker Moon, a novel of literary fiction and dark psychological fantasy (Vagabondage Press). Her poetry, short stories and book reviews appear in variety of publications in Britain, Canada, Australia, and the U.S.,  and have been broadcast on BBC and Independent Radio. J.S. has been Poetry Reviews Editor for Open Wide Magazine and Poetry Editor for Ethereal Tales.  Visit her at jswatts.co.uk.