West Side Soliloquy

West Side Soliloquy 

 

 

 

choices, 

conflicting emotions, rival gangs

the jets and sharks of conscience 

 

it's a side story dilemma

life's path a concrete jungle 

of off key songs, 

 

the decisions dubbed in

yet we lip sync the intentions

like we mean them

 

finding character in the night

'neath a soul searching moon

crying for understanding

from the dark side to the epiphanies

 

peculiar arrangement

the morals stab the theory

but the heart is blind sided

by the errant bullet.

 

 

 

erin-cilberto

6/24/16

Reviews

[icelandicblue]

I seem to never be in the black nor the white (except politically). I am continuously mired in the gray, with what ifs and if thens. Over thinking is the quicksand of thought. I loved the allusion to West Side Story, and I didn't miss The Concrete Jungle. Your poetry is so puzzle like but I am not often puzzled by it. My husband was born in Brooklyn, as was his mother. His dad was born in the Bronx. His grandmother lived on Avenue L till the day she died. I still can't get used to open/close the light!

[jacob erin-cilberto]

ah yes, my mother born in Bronx, as was i..my dad in jersey...my one ex-wife in Flatbush...

thank you for your sharing, Anne...i live and have always lived in that Gray area---never have seen things in black and white.

j.

[Lydia Shutter]

Singing "When you're a Jet, you're a Jet all the way from your first cigarette to your last dying day..." but I digress! :) Moral dilemmas in life...how do we handle them? Do we listen to the devil or the angel on our shoulders? Or perhaps to a friend who then turns out not to be a friend at all? Life is a series of decisions and choices....the ones we make paint our pathways. West Side Story was the first Broadway play I ever saw in NYC and the lessons it taught me stay with me even now. The metaphor is GREAT! Lydi**

[jacob erin-cilberto]

so what did you think of my old digs (NYC)?

nice place to visit but wouldn't want to live there again---mmm

thank you for your insights, Lydi..

j.

[Lydia Shutter]

I never lived in the city...I was a Jersey girl. I was just off the GW bridge. I would not want to live up there again. Florida has been the place for me since 1969!

[jacob erin-cilberto]

wow, my dad was born in Jersey City----right off the bridge, as well.

[Lydia Shutter]

Small world....Jersey City is further south than Bergen County though. I think Jersey City is in Hudson County.

[Alfred Kukitz]

Even better than Collusion, what an arrangement of ideas, metaphors finding brillance's location. Top form here Jacob!

Regards,
Al

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you for your kind words, Al.

j.

[V]

Seems like an observation, a little sober, thoughtful, reflecting the things watched and experienced. I like the stanza before the last one, reads the nicest and loveliest crafted to me. I had to chuckle a tad at the word concrete jungle because I've been thinking about the same word today. The title made me think, as well though maybe only because I seldom use the word soliloquy though I like the combination.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you for your kind words, Vanessa.

j.

[V]

You're welcome.

[Marianne Rose]

Reading it three times my mind focuses on a different stanza each time, provoking thoughts and inner dissertations on destiny, conflict, the rival gangs of head and heart, where hope rests between the dark side and epiphanies. I love the stanza on decisions, though inwardly I fight with that perspective. I stay with the moon, finding character in the night, almost regretting that I must read the next stanza that leaves me feeling wounded, my surprise voiced in the "errant bullet"- as if the wound is random rather than intentional. Thought-provoking and hauntingly familiar of some of my own travels into the dark night. Thank you.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you for sharing how you relate to this one, Marianne...and your very kind words,
j.

[redzone]

"tonight, there's gonna be a rumble tonight.. Maria, Maria" remember how Bernstein blended the 2 songs as the hour for the rumble approached.. anyway, very creative way you metaphored the sometimes conflict we have over moral questions, yes a soliloquy, internally voiced, "to do or not to do" (apologies to Shakespear)... I also thought is was interesting how (at least as I read it) you ended, with a, sometimes even when doing the right thing, it can still turns out badly, "blind sided by the errant bullet"...

West Side Story was one of my favorite movies/plays a modern version of a collaboration between Bernstein and Shakespear- Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story and now we have Jacob's soliloquy.. perhaps to also add a footnote to Springsteen, yes the poets down here do write something, they do not stand by and let it all be... okay probably took this too far, but hey, it's a sunny Sat morning and Jacob has once again allowed my mind to travel and had an adventure!! thanks man....

redzone

[jacob erin-cilberto]

i am fascinated at where you took this..
such interesting perspectives...

thank you for the comprehensive review.

j.

[William Gardner]

can we have epiphanies anymore? I want them, I just don't know if I see them. And if I don't see them, should I see them in your words?

[jacob erin-cilberto]

i would hope they are possible...thank you, William,
j.

[James]

When I was a kid my mother made us watch old musicals, West Side Story was my favorite. We can never escape the consequences of our choices, but they are driven by our environment.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

yes, that last part is so true...environment has a big influence.
thank you, James.
read moreyes, that last part is so true...environment has a big influence.
thank you, James.

j.