Girl

Girl, 1998

Almost Famous

Center Stage

You know girls.  But at this day and age, girls have it hard:  Girls today have more than they can handle.  They look and dress grown-up than girls of prior decades.  I re-watched some clips of a movie from 1998 "Girl," with Dominique Swain and supporting casts which includes Portia de Rossi (Ellen DeGeneres's wife).  The movie has a girl meets boy story like many chick flicks:  Centerstage, Almost Famous.  These movies have another story other than romance:  Girls coming of age and finding herself. She begins to trust herself.  You've seen these themes before —girl meets the boy she's crazy in head over heels for, but the ride doesn't go that well, so she does not win the boy at the end but finds her strength, her talent —a river which leads to her bank in which she invests in herself.  Penny Lane (Kate Hudson) turns a blind eye to a relationship with a bad-boy rock star, who is indifferent to her, opting to rid of her for a case of beer; Jody in Center Stage meets a boy dancer but the casual encounter does not mount to a relationship and quickly turns sour; finally in Girl, Andrea (Dominique Swain) too falls for a rock star only to be treated badly by him.  So what do these girls do?  They move on.  Lane wakes up to reality by her younger male pal and flies out-of-town like the rock star that she is; Jody rises to the occasion and takes the center stage in her group's dance performance; Andrea ditches the guy because she can do better.  The last stanza is inspired from the movie Girl, where Dominique Swain drives to her college, Brown University and takes a moment (it is about time) to look at herself, her image in the car rear-view mirror.  She sees her face, her eyes.  She smiles.  "Me," she says.  She realizes she's worth something giving to.  (It's about time she started focusing more on herself.)  Yes, you.  You have that something.  You got it.  You may not know it.  There's something you've got that nobody else has.  Use it.  Work on it.    

The poem has been re-edited in Rondeau form (in the mood for Italian), 10 syllables in each of the 15 line, 3 stanza, and 3 refrains (1st stanza: 1st line, 2nd stanza: last line, 3rd stanza: last line) with the following rhyme schemes:  A/A/B/B/A; A/A/B/A; A/A/B/B/A/A.


Girl

Girls’ mellow lisps roll, ripen and mature,

Because she’s not yet worldly-wise, unforced,

She sets her heart on her fancy, worldlings,

But most just cut and hurt, heartrending,

Girl coming of age, simple and pure.

She falls to trials—some charm or beguile,

And fall in slip-ups, trip, and err,

Don’t leave her hanging but be breathtaking,

Girls’ mellow lisps roll, ripen, and mature,

Not glance back but resume at overture,

So begin, learn to uncloud the obscure,

First admit, thank your merit, tis sterling,

Treasure it and so you’ll rise to ceiling,

Second, swear by it, suffice and secure,

Girls’ mellow lisps roll, ripen and mature.