Topic: Compilation of Tributes to Heath Ledger

[chameau]

Heathcliff Andrew Ledger
April 4, 1979 - January 22, 2008
 
~Without your beautiful light, the world will forever be a darker place~

[chameau]

Haven't posted in here for a while, but I just had to respond to this, it's just so true. He's just everywhere.....I loved that you listed happy things Keren, like clothing style, and a man walking with his daughter on his shoulders....I love that while they can make us hurt a bit, the things that remind us of him also make us smile.


I will be 28 years old tomorrow....in a little over 9 months I will have lived longer than you were able to Heath....and that's just not fair.

I will never be able to look at anything with stripes again and not smile...at least a little.

[chameau]

Here are a couple of sonnets I wrote for Heath.  The first one, I wrote after seeing him on the big screen in The Dark Knight, and the second one, very shortly after his passing.

I felt inspired to put them in sonnet form as a nod to his role in Ten Things, as his love interest writes one about him for class.

     
       
     Cinematic Sonnet

Like tidal waves capsize a raft
So grief sweeps o'er me,
As I sit here dazzled by your craft
Before the silver screen.
Oh that it could be a gate,
A threshold you could cross.
Oh if you could cheat cruel Fate
Replenish us your loss.
Alas, the silverscreen's a wall
Impregnable as brick
You won't waltz through it - it's a pall
For this my heart is sick

The star has truly left the stage
And flown free of the earthly cage.



   Goodnight, Sweet Prince

Goodnight, sweet prince, and bon boyage
So long, farewell, goodbye.
Robbed from us, thy sweet visage
Who knew thy time was nigh?
Goodnight sweet prince, adieu, adieu
They'll sing thee to thy rest.
That thee would drift, who knew, who knew?
Oh, how could one have guessed?
Sweet prince, goodnight.  Goodnight, goodnight!
Goodnight until the morn.
Let seraphim and angel-flights
Sing thee to thy dawn

Sweet Prince, thou art the very best
Dwelleth in thy heav'nly rest.

[chameau]

A Villanelle for Heath - He Went So Gentle 

(My response to the great Dylan Thomas Villanelle, "Do Not Go Gentle")


He did go gentle into it, into that good night -
He knew not that he'd have to fight the dying of the light.
He went so gentle into it, the dying of the light

How could he prepare to fight
The dying of the light?
He did go gentle into it, into that good night.

Wish he'd known he'd have to fight,
Then he'd have the might....
He went so gentle into it, the dying of the light.

As winter thieves the sunrays bright,
So Death did steal your Life.
He did go gentle into it, into that good night.

Death - a thief with jealous spite.
HE DIDN'T KNOW TO FIGHT
He went so gentle into it, the dying of the light.

So brave was he, at heart a knight,
...If he'd only known to fight...
He did go gentle into it, into that good night,
He went so gentle into it, the dying of the light.






*I love the incanting quality to Villanelles, and think Dylan Thomas' one to be one of the greatest.  I hope I haven't committed a travesty of any sorts in attempting to refer to it in mine...

[chameau]

The morning sunrise spread her wings
While the moon hung in the sky
Held the sea in your hands
And happy everafter in your eyes

Couldn't leave you to go to heaven
I carry you in my smile
For the first time my true reflection i see
Happy everafter in your eyes

Every star in the night
Promises the dawn
I will be there if you fall
To ever so heavily rest upon

All that i can give you
Is forever yours to keep
Wake up every day with a dream
And happy everafter in your eyes

Happy ever after is in your eyes


Happy Everafter In Your Eyes - Ben Harper
Written for Matilda

[chameau]

In a day like today you left us...Nine months have already passed,like a pregnancy full with sorrow and pain that gives birth to an infinite hole in our hearts.We're not fathers or mothers,but orphans of your talent,your beauty and your intelligence.Rest in peace,our sweet eyes cowboy... :\'(

[chameau]

You're welcome, dear Alicia.  You write like an angel.  I too am always saddened when this date rolls around; I guess we all Brokies are. 

I'm so sorry to hear a Brokie passe away, too, this year.  I was unaware of this, and offer belatedly my condolences to Rajel's friends.  A hard year for ennisjack, to be sure.



On the ninth month marker of the loss of sweetest Heath, I'd just like to post this beautiful poem by Victor Hugo, "Tomorrow, At Dawn".  It's sadly sublime, and one of my favourites.

Here it is in it's original French, followed by an English translation:


Demain,  dès l'aube, à l'heure où blanchit la campagne,
Je partirai.  Vois-tu, je sais que tu m'attends.
J'irai par la forêt, j'irai  par la montagne.
Je ne puis demeurer loin de toi plus longtemps.

Je  marcherai les yeux fixés sur mes pensées,
Sans rien voir  au dehors, sans entendre aucun bruit,
Seul, inconnu, le dos  courbé, les mains croisées,
Triste, et le jour pour moi sera  comme la nuit.

Je ne regarderai ni l'or du soir qui tombe,
Ni  les voiles au loin descendant vers Harfleur,
Et quand j'arriverai,  je mettrai sur ta tombe
Un bouquet de houx vert et de bruyère  en fleur.



Tomorrow, at dawn, at the hour  when the countryside whitens,
I will set out.  You see, I  know that you wait for me.
I will go by the forest, I will  go by the mountain.
I can no longer remain far from you.

I  will walk with my eyes fixed on my thoughts,
Seeing nothing  of outdoors, hearing no noise
Alone, unknown, my back curved,  my hands crossed,
Sorrowed, and the day for me will be as the  night.

I will not look at the gold of evening which falls,
Nor  the distant sails going down towards Harfleur,
And when I arrive,  I will place on your tomb
A bouquet of green holly and of flowering heather.

[chameau]

Yes, 'tis sad indeed, Alicia.  :\'(  It always made me so sad even before associating it with Heath...  So now it's even sadder to me.


Just did a couple of my own (even if it probably is unwise to post them right next to Hugo's...)


 Lunar Elegy

The Moon has brought it round again
For a ninth and sorrowed time
And I would that my words could give you
The bouquet in my mind.                                                                     



Claire de Lune

Claire de Lune
Oh light of the moon
Your beauty is sallow
This night
Where teardrop shapes
Abound
And crescent shapes
Mark
A date so wintry blue

[chameau]

I only wanted you
They say memories are golden
well maybe that is true.
I never wanted memories,
I only wanted you.

A million times I needed you,
a million times I cried.
If love alone could have saved you
you never would have died.

In life I loved you dearly,
In death I love you still.
In my heart you hold a place
no one could ever fill.

If tears could build a stairway
and heartache make a lane,
I'd walk the path to heaven
and bring you back again.

[chameau]

On this day I have no words... I'll let the photos speak for me right now

These are different tributes from ennisjack members around the world

[chameau]

9 months. 9 months ..........

  I still can't can't believe you are gone.

 I am listening to your voice at your Santa Barbara speech right at this very moment and still finding a reason for you leaving us so soon.

With that very clear voice. how would anyone say we will never hear that voice again?

Every words are so clear and keeps me clinging to  those words one by one. one by one Heath....
How I wish  to hear more .. how I wish to hear you more.

I just can't let you go..................





AUDIO. Heath Ledger . Santa Barbara Speech
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20173623,00.html

[chameau]

It's hard to believe 9 months had passed already...   :\'(      To everyone who need it 
 

[chameau]

[chameau]

Anything interesting up there in heaven?



Nine months damn... Nine months...



Miss ya Cowboy!

[chameau]

Just sendin' up a prayer of thanks . . . .

[chameau]

I just can't let you go Heath... you're in my mind. you're in my heart....

[chameau]

[chameau]

My heart is empty. Will it ever get better?

[chameau]

directed by Heath Ledger

[chameau]

I love seeing these photos of him directing the video. God he had so much in him, so much talent, so much to give.

ELLEN DEGENERES: "He was good at anything he did. He and Michelle came over to the house once, and they were really late because he was directing a Ben Harper video. He was coming straight from that and he was telling us about it and how much he loved it. And then we played poker and he proceeded to take all of our money."

MICHELLE WILLIAMS: "He was good at sports. He was good at directing. He was good at painting. He was good at taking pictures. He was good at building things. It could be infuriating to a lot of his friends--I mean, he had a talent for everything that he put his mind to, pretty much, so he didn't know limits. Maybe he had never been told that he couldn't do something, so everything was possible for him."

[chameau]

TODD HAYNES: He shared with me some rock videos that he'd made. They are so extraordinary. He was so gifted beyond what we'd already seen. The last one I saw that he made was to a Nick Drake song. He did it in one day in London. He went out and shot it in black and white--it's the only video that he himself appears in. It is just a stunning piece of work. He had an instinct.

SEAN PENN: Heath was not simply a quiet and gifted actor who liked to go surfing, though that is how I primarily knew him in life. In the time we spent together, we spoke a bit about family, about travels, but most of all, about film. Yet, in his unassuming way, he never revealed to me the visual poet of the first order who I discovered watching the film clips he directed, music videos and such, after his death. His talent does speak volumes of the kind man, the loving father, and, in fact, the brilliant and gifted guy I really missed out on--that we all did in the long run. Heath might have been a giant.

[chameau]

This is the 1st poem I have written for Heath. It means a lot to me. I have poured my heart out.

HEATH


You are a sweet breeze that makes our hearts rejoice everyday
We are so fortunate that you passed our way
You are gone and we are soar
You left us so much love and hope
We are glad that you were here
There is so much joy in our tears


Your face reflects the depths of the Ocean
Your presence is felt as a light longing to be found
We can’t thank you enough for being with us
Your journey has made our lives more enriched and loved
We need you even more so much
Don’t ever leave the shadow we have in us


It sometimes feels like there is a hole in our heart
The pain of you going has broken us apart
Like our souls are longing to be touched
Life is never the same for either of us
You are with us at every step
We are still here and always will be at the same place


By
Cleo

[chameau]

Tonight it's Halloween,that means mainly a funny fête for you; but for us,here,it's the time when we remind our beloved ones who have left us.And today I've heard "Hallelujah" on TV,a simple commercial ad that used this song,but I've reminded Heath. :\'( And I've felt like posting it here-even if it has already been posted before-as a tribute,not only to him,but to all these persons we've lost in our life.God grant they'll be with us this night and always...

I HOPE THAT YOUR JOURNEY IS PEACEFUL,HEATH...

[chameau]

It's 6:15 am here, I've just woken up, but even before I get any caffeine into me I feel the need to come to this thread...I've just woken from the most vivid dream about Heath to the worst kind of shock that he's gone and I just feel torn apart.  It feels much the same way I imagine Ennis must have felt those times he awoke to that wet pillow. 

I know he's gone.  I do.  And yet...remembering the fact just upon waking somehow drives it shockingly home, makes it all the more poignant and real and heartbreaking.  Being in that state of pre-consciousness, not quite awake or asleep...well, for me all thoughts and perceptions in that state are very intense, so to be hit with the remembrance that Heath is gone in that half-conscious state first thing in the morning has just really devastated me.  It's shocked me anew.

My heart feels smashed and I can't stop crying.  Not a good way to start the day.   :\'(





God, I miss him.

[chameau]

HEATH,I HOPE YOU HAVE FOUND THE NICEST CLOUD WHERE YOUR SOUL CAN REST.WHERE YOUR SWEET EYES CAN COMPARE WITH ANGEL'S EYES.MY POOR BABY...   :\'( 

[chameau]

I always feel compelled to write something for Heath on the 22nd (or 23rd, actually, in Oz), and this month was no different.   :\'(

                                                               

                                                                   Mourning Mist
                                                                   
                                                               A mirage, your face,
                                                                   when I awoke
                                                               when I rose on this
                                                                       morning.
                                                          It cast a haze upon my day,
                                                                this date of quiet
                                                                     mourning.
                                                                    A haze of you
                                                              of beauty and sorrow
                                                            a mist of joy and mourning,
                                                              a seaspray of sadness
                                                               a smoke of happiness
                                                           like dense fog in the morning.
                                                                       Beautiful.
                                                                      Wretched.
                                                                Exquistite and awful,
                                                          profound, condensed, concealed.
                                                        And ever there beneath life's noise,
                                                            so quiet, like the morning.
                                                             The haze grows denser
                                                                  it aches so much
                                                        This tenth month of the mourning.





I can't believe it's been ten months....  Almost a year.  It's gone so quickly for me, but in other ways, also slowly and sadly.  I've said this before but I'll say it again: I'm so thankful to all you wonderful people for understanding that the grief is so real.  Most of my real-life friends expect me to just get over it, and don't seem to realize how profound the loss is for all of us that loved and worshiped him so much.  Thank you all. 

[chameau]

I think I talked here after Barack Obama was elected for president of the US, and said how I thought Heath would've liked that. Apparently I wasn't the only one who thought that.

This is Michael Stipe during a performance in Austin TX, dedicating his song Until The Day Is Done to his friend Heath (it's a very political song from R.E.M's new album). I saw another video with this dedication before but the quality was too poor and I couldn't understand what he said. Here I could here it.

"Number one, I know that Austin came out strong for Barack Obama and I wanna salute you for that.

Number two, I just wanna say that I'm really sick to death of politicians telling me what I should be afraid of and what I should fear.

And number three, I'm gonna dedicate the first song to a man who heard this song and loved it, and his name is Heath Ledger. this is called Until The Day Is Done".

These are the lyrics:

The battle's been lost, the war is not won
An addled republic, a bitter refund
The business first flat earthers licking their wounds
The verdict is dire, the country's in ruins

Providence blinked, facing the sun
Where are we left to carry on
Until the day is done
Until the day is done

As we've written our stories to entertain
These notions of glory and bull market gain
The teleprompt flutters, the power surge brings
An easy speed message falls into routine

Providence blinked, facing the sun
Where are we left to carry on
Until the day is done
Until the day is done

A voice whispers "Son,
The blessed vision comes."
What have I done
What have I done

So hold tight your babies and your guns
Forgive us our trespasses, father and son

Providence blinked, facing the sun
Where are we left to carry on
Until the day is done
Until the day is done
Until the day is done
Until the day is done
Until the day is done
Until the day is done

[chameau]

Miss you more and more every day Heath. You are always on my mind and always in my heart... :\'(

[chameau]

Same here, Emzan.  Same here.   

The other day the sadness struck me all of a sudden at work, and I had to take a little break for a moment, during which I made this picture.  I ended up kinda liking it:



I hope our angel has found peace and joy.

[chameau]

I dreamed last night:  I was in a cool small local grocery story in Brooklyn (about the size of Monroe's store).  I saw Matilda buzzing around having fun and being more cute than the law allows.  I thought, cool, this is a very safe place, where she's free to roam around and  can't be hurt.  Then I saw Michelle, doing her shopping.  I kind of maneuvered myself near her, just another shopper.  I said hi, started to talk to her, and she said, "write to my agent if you want..." [I guess like "if you want an autographed picture" or whatever].  I said, oh I don't want anything, I just wanted to say how much I like and love and respect you and your work, and of course I want to say how sorry and sad I am about Heath.  So we started talking -- it was very beautiful, and some tears and hugs.  We talked about Brokeback Mountain, also.  Then Matilda came back.  Such a darling funny girl, I can hardly stand it.  Michelle talked about her; I played with her.  Then, Matilda did one of her "tricks."  She turned into a rabbit!  A little small one on the floor.  Then she popped back up into her little three-year-old girl self again.

What I thought at the time in the dream and when I just woke up, was reincarnation.  Whether we believe in that literally or not, there was Matilda, who is a reincarnation of Heath if we want to call it that; and the rabbit, I felt like was Heath also.  We can see him in Matilda, and we can see him anywhere we look, at the animals and the trees and the sky and the stars...

kathy