Original Poems in Movies
A Look at My Favorite Original Poems Written for Original Movies
A Quiet Place: Day One, Directed by Michael Sarnoski
Sam and I recently went to see A Quiet Place: Day One. We went almost purely on a whim. I was familiar with the series, and really enjoyed the first two movies, but had no idea what the third one entailed (though the name gave me a lot of information.) We went early, a 2:30 showing, and sat down with four or five other people in the theater. The movie started.
I’m not usually a big fan of horror movies, but I love the tension in these films. I love it because they do such an amazing job juxtaposing it with scenes of quiet repose. There is one beautiful scene that inspired this essay. One of the main characters is a poet, and for one scene they share one of their poems. It was a really emotional scene, and a bad poem could have absolutely ruined the moment. But, to my surprise, the poem was incredibly engaging, perfectly placed.
Here is the poem from the movie, as best I can remember it (it’s still in theaters.)
Bad at Math
You said one to two years and it has been two
You said four to six months and it has been six
And Mrs. Freelander taught me subtraction
And the corner store taught me addition
And I used all these simple maths all my life
And I never needed more or, more or less, to four to three
To smaller and smaller moments
Until months to days
to hours to seconds
But not now
There is a lot of poetry in movies, or movies even inspired by poems. But when writers create something wholly original for the screen, I get really excited. I haven’t particularly heard any “bad” original poetry in a movie. I don’t think that’s not because it’s not out there somewhere, but original poems are just so rarely done. So I wanted to take a moment to celebrate a few of my favorite poems written for the screen—notably from Jim Jarmusch’s “Patterson” and Sara Colangelo’s remake of “The Kindergarten Teacher.”
Paterson, Directed by Jim Jarmusch
from “Paterson”
poem written by Ron Padgett
Love Poem
We have plenty of matches in our house
We keep them on hand always
Currently our favourite brand
Is Ohio Blue Tip
Though we used to prefer Diamond Brand
That was before we discovered
Ohio Blue Tip matches
They are excellently packaged
Sturdy little boxes
With dark and light blue and white labels
With words lettered
In the shape of a megaphone
As if to say even louder to the world
Here is the most beautiful match in the world
It’s one-and-a-half-inch soft pine stem
Capped by a grainy dark purple head
So sober and furious and stubbornly ready
To burst into flame
Lighting, perhaps the cigarette of the woman you love
For the first time
And it was never really the same after that
All this will we give you
That is what you gave me
I become the cigarette and you the match
Or I the match and you the cigarette
Blazing with kisses that smoulder towards heaven
from “Paterson” from the perspective of a young girl character
poem written by director Jim Jarmusch
Water Falls
Water falls from the bright air
It falls like hair
Falling across a young girl’s shoulders
Water falls
Making pools in the asphalt
Dirty mirrors with clouds and buildings inside
It falls on the roof of my house
It falls on my mother and on my hair
Most people call it rain
Paterson is one of my favorite movies. This is probably because it is largely inspired by the poet William Carlos Williams, who is a major influence of mine. These aren’t all of the poems in the movie, and the others included are also very good, but I think about these two often. Every time I watch the movie, I am always impressed by the second poem, the one from the perspective of a young girl.
The way the poem is written is so perfectly tailored to the voice of a young poet, even though it was written by an adult. I think that requires such special attention to detail—which is why these next two poems are especially powerful.
The Kindergarten Teacher, Directed by Sara Colangelo
from “The Kindergarten Teacher” from the perspective of a five-year-old boy. (poems written by Ocean Vuong and Kaveh Akbar)
Poem 1
The bull stood alone
In the backyard. So dark.
I opened the door and stepped out,
Wind in the branches.
He watched me, blue eyes.
He kept breathing to stay alive.
I didn’t want him. I was just a boy.
Say yes,
Say yes, anyway.
Poem 2
Anna, get up
Remember
Loneliness is still time spent
With the world.
Here’s the room with everyone in it.
Your dead friends passing through you
Like wind through a wind chime.
Don’t be afraid, Anna.
The end of the road is so far ahead
It is already
Behind us.
These poems were adapted to the film by the poets Kaveh Akbar and Ocean Vuong. In an interview with David Naimon, Akbar said, “To try to craft what sounds like a good, interesting literary poem using only the vernacular native to a five-year-old was a really interesting constraint.”
Interesting is the understatement of the year. While it is true, it also doesn’t nearly encapsulate how impressive it is to write compelling poetry from the perspective of a five-year-old. This movie and these poems blew me away from a poetic sense.
Poetry is the form of writing I do the most. Movies are the form of media I consume the most. It’s a happy day in my life when those two mediums come together in such an original and inspiring way. I hope to see more of these moments from new movies, and I hope you enjoyed these poems and their sources of inspiration.