Thursday, April 14, 2011

Tea with Oscar Wilde...

And alien tears will fill for him
Pity's long broken urn
For his mourners will be outcast men
And outcast always mourn...



Pere- La Chaise is the world's most visited cemetery attracting thousands of visitors to the graves of those who enhanced French life for the past 200 years. It is also the site of WWI memorials.



I always felt that we are wasting earth with our plots and monuments in stone, only to be forgotten over time.  It wasn't until I went to the Pere-La Chaise, Paris' famed cemetery, where my attitude changed.  It turned into a very special pilgrimage for us.  After many winding turns and in this city of the dead I found the resting place of the great Fredric Chopin, one of my greatest musical influences.  We came across an old gentleman there dusting off the grave and tending to the flowers.  What a beautiful feeling to be there in that silence, his melodies living inside of me.




It was nice to check kissing Oscar Wilde's grave off of my list of things to do.  Kisses left by admirers maybe not so much for his writings but maybe more for his wit and daring lifestyle.  A hero and martyr to some, Wilde embodies the original rebel.  Some say it is because he was jailed for love, and the romance of this notion is the reason for the kisses.  The flying angel headstone has been castrated twice!





Edith Piaf














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