Italian joys

I have watched 'Il Postino' many times over the last month. I could have, should have, watched it much more, but it is a blessing. Oh, the power of poetry. Oh, the joy of love. The back of the tape (which I bought in a Video King, which is moving, for 3.99) has the most devastating written review on the back. It calls the movie a comedy in which the postino use word tricks to gain the hand of the most beautiful woman on the island. No, he uses poetry to win her hand and the poetry allows him to see his island as he never has before. and beautiful women need love as much as plodding men. It may be a comedy in the sense that the hero wins the woman, but it could be a tragedy because the hero is killed before he could read his poetry at a political rally.
Anyway, I love this movie. It is so interesting the way il postino's attitude towards Neruda changes and how he usurps Neruda's poetry for his own without shame. He claims, in a discussion with Neruda, that poetry belongs to the one who needs it. Neruda doesn't push, but looks amazed and just says, 'How democratic of you.' This movie shows the power of poetry, of art. As a poet wrote:

It is difficult
To get the news from poems,
But men die miserably
Every day for lack
Of what is found there.

Something like that.
For our Italian club we were going to sing 'Tu Scendi dalle Stelle...', but the snow stopped the festivities scheduled for today. I have almost memorized the first two stanzas. It is a beautiful song by St. Alphonsus Di Liguori. Oh, the power of love:

Quanto questa poverta piu m'innamora:
Giacche ti fece amor povero ancora.

St. Alphonsus' Stations of the Cross have the same powerful, simple love in them.
I may never learn Italian, so never be able to read Dante in the original, but I will try. In Italian club on Tuesday digo: 'Mi chiamo Dante Aligheri.' Signore wanted me to be Dante, so I played along. (I felt like il postino when I said it. I tried to say Dante's name as he said it in the movie.) I probably couldn't have done this last year, but this year I don't mind pressure or taking an impossible position. I am ready to give what I have and love doing it. Arrividecci, A dios,