Heart That Pounds, Palms That Sweat Poem by gershon hepner

The heart that pounds, the pouring palms that sweat,
are proof I absolutely am in awe of you.
The less you notice me, perhaps forget
about me, make me need far more of you.

The pouring palms that sweat, the heart that pounds,
are autonomic proofs that I respond
to you, so distant, yet not out of bounds
or like a snake that cannot slough despond.

Inspired by an article on Kathryn Bigelow, the director of “The Hurt Locker, ” by David Mermelstein (“Among the Acronyms of War, ” WSJ, August 4,2009) :
But more than anything, the film’s uncanny veracity comes from its location shooting. Ms. Bigelow chose to film in Jordan because it lies so close to Iraq geographically. “The architecture is virtually indistinguishable, ” she said, “so there was no bad angle.” What she didn’t anticipate were the roughly 700,000 Iraqi refugees living in Jordan at the time. “The great bonus were the extras, ” Ms. Bigelow said. “The suicide bomber at the end was a fairly famous stage actor in Baghdad. All those fabulous faces were meant to be Iraqi, and they were. Those details might be lost consciously, but they aren’t lost subconsciously.” Such concerns stir Ms. Bigelow to loftier questions, like cinema’s potential. “I’m not sure film can be as reflective as literature, ” she said. “But it can make your heart pound and your palms sweat, and that’s the beauty of film: It provides an opportunity to experience the barely imaginable.”

8/4/09