Pat Perrin's Blog

“My husband makes things that live forever.”“Then he must be a fool.” I’ve been doing a bit of work on my new play “The Rake’s Visit: A One-Act Capriccio on a Theme from Don Giovanni,” about a fictional meeting between Giacomo Casanova and Constanze Mozart (downloadable here). These new lines come right after a playful […]

Wim is grateful to the editors of Scud for publishing these two poems: Beacon They say you can seefutility from space—the flickeringbioluminescent SOSof a solitary storm cloudbursting overan infinite ocean. A Passion In the old woman’sairtight home (whichshe never left exceptto go to church) ourdruggist savior foreverstretched his armsin benign and ruinedransom across theliving room […]

As a storyteller, I’m always looking for new approaches to old stories. I don’t know how many times I’ve read Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, but one episode in particular never fails to shock and horrify me. Poor Justine Moritz! Rescued by the Frankenstein family from poverty as a child, she grows up to become their loyal […]

Let none admireThat riches grow in Hell: that soil may bestDeserve the precious bane.—John Milton, Paradise Lost “Them that die’ll be the lucky ones.”—Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island We godless devils want the treasure map;you good and godly fellows want to live.It’s fair straightforward bart’ring, Cap’n Smollett,with not much elbow room for give nor take.We’ll […]

Wim is grateful to editor Nolcha Fox for including five of his poems—including this one—in Chewers by Masticadores. The Purloined X A poem should not mean   But be.—Archibald MacLeish Tomorrow’s assignment(Mr. Fritz told us,lo, those many years ago),is to find the poem’s meaningand bring it to class,in cuffs if it resists,sedated if necessary. To find its […]

I just finished writing a new two-character play: “The Rake’s Visit: A One-Act Capriccio on a Theme from Don Giovanni.” It is a revisionist take on Mozart’s opera, his wife Constanze, and especially the notorious adventurer Giacomo Casanova. You can download the entire play by clicking here. Here’s a synopsis: Prague, 1787: It is the […]

Characters: Adolf Hitler Wernher von Braun The scene is Adolf Hitler’s vast office in the New Reich Chancellery in Berlin, December 1944. Downstage, an imaginary window in the “fourth wall” looks out into the night. Hitler is seated at his desk. Wearing an SS uniform, Wernher von Braun enters and salutes. VON BRAUN. Sieg Heil, […]

I see this meme pop up from time to time. And yes, I too feel a certain pang about the Library of Alexandria. Even so, I can’t help but wonder if our grief might be a tad misplaced. For one thing, just which of the four fabled destructions of the Library of Alexandria is supposed to […]

Reaching my 90th birthday seems to be important, but in another sense, this is just another day in a life full of a lot to think about and usually too much to do. There’s an unfinished fiber piece hanging on the wall that I haven’t gotten back to in months. There are art supplies ordered […]

It’s been almost five years since I posted some thoughts about Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court and how it relates to our times. Revisiting those thoughts today, those thoughts seem even more sadly apt than they were back then. A Connecticut Yankee is mysterious and disturbing book, so unlike its reputation […]