A simple treasure

I always quote a particular line from a movie. "It's the simple things in life you treasure." Galaxy Quest.

This evening was one of those treasures.

My boyfriend and I reheated some delicious leftover Chinese food, sat on the living room floor by the coffee table, sipped from a couple mugs of Oolong tea, and listened to poetry. A while back, he had bought Poet's Corner, which was composed by John Lithgow. It's a collection of Lithgow's favorite poems. The book comes with a CD that showcases certain poems from the collection, all read by popular actors and actresses--Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren, Billy Connolly, Jodie Foster, and a bunch of others, including Lithgow. It became a treat to recognize both the actors' voices and the poems. For a few, we exchanged tidbits of information, like how Lewis Carroll wrote the "Jabberwocky" because he wanted to show the fickleness of language and prove that people understand the intent of nonsense words.

Before putting in the CD, I didn't want to listen to it. I'd been reading all day and wanted to sit back and enjoy a favorite show or movie. But my boyfriend didn't feel like watching anything. He sometimes becomes "romantic" and wants to share poetry with me, and this, apparently, was one of those nights. And I have to admit, I was having fun halfway through the small amount we had listened to. It was nice to lounge around with a mug of hot tea on a lukewarm October Saturday, with no electronic distraction other than the sound of classic poetry.