This is about the love at the moment
you pass from grieving to making some peace with it,
but worrying whether there's any life left.
And it has a note in it of the Noh,
the ancient Japanese classical theater called the Noh.
The Noh was invented largely to make excuse for doing dances.
And they don't describe--
You look at the text, it doesn't say what to do.
It just says and then she went on the boat across the river
and when she came out the other side,
and then it will just say "dances."
And whatever she does is a dance.
So, this is about a man, afraid, maybe he's permanently stalled.
Because I love the nuances of our heart,
to say I'm crazy in love or the bitch dumped me.
That's real life, but there's no middle tones.
It's like telling lime green from cherry red.
And there's a difference, but it's the middle tones
that make paintings.
It's the middle tones that are equity in life
to see if something comes next.
This is in a Greek valley, with the name that you can hardly
use it's so poetic.
It's the Valley of the Owls.
And I'm at the top of the valley.
To see if something comes next.
There is nothing here at the top of the valley.
Sky and mountain, silence and the dry
smell of heavy sunlight on the stone everywhere.
Goats occasionally and the sound of roosters in the bright heat
where he lives with the dead woman
and purity, trying to see if something comes next, wondering
whether he has stalled.
Maybe he thinks it is like the Noh: whenever
the script says dances, whatever the actor does next is a dance.
If he stands still, he is dancing.