The Lovers’ Chronicle 23 December – what matters – Emma by Jane Austen – birth of Norman Maclean – photography by Yousuf Karsh – art by Nancy Graves

Dear Zazie,  Here is today’s Lovers’ Chronicle from Mac Tag dedicated to his muse.  Follow us on twitter @cowboycoleridge.  Who or what matters to you?  Rhett

The Lovers’ Chronicle

Dear Muse,

the story of our song
“Oh good, one of my favorites”
you were drivin’ us in your little red
convertible on a perfect sunny day
we had just finished a picnic lunch
when it came on the radio;
“So close, no matter how far
Couldn’t be much more from the heart
Forever trusting who we are”
“And we both started singing along”
we knew right away, that was it
because we live this life our way
and nothin’ else matters

© copyright 2023 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

a river, but not of water, most of the rivers and creeks i grew up around were dry, except durin’ flash floods, the Canadian, not far from where i was born, was dammed when i was a kid to make Lake Meredith, so yes Norman, a river does run through it but i am castin’ in it for words for you, that is all that matters

© copyright 2022.2023 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

how appropriate
our song, the song
of the day

for what else does

you hear from me
in tones sincere,
you know who i am
you understand
yes, you see,
you know

i ask only to hear
your voice,
it comes complete
and the feelin’s
that accompany
nothin’ else matters

´What did she say?´
just what she should
enough to show
that it does matter

© copyright 2021 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

Pale Love, Pale Rider

when i saw you,
you were walkin’
up the sidewalk
towards me

there were others
but it did not matter,
all i saw was you

and as i came forward,
my mind was already
slidin’ along the cracks
that let the light in

that it should have been this
i was always lookin’ for

© copyright 2020 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

i knew exactly
how long it had been
she remembered exactly where,
i figured out how many miles

nine years and six months
twenty seven hundred miles
and countless dreams later,

their we were
so familiar
so new
so…

“I cannot breathe.”

i am strugglin’
to put this into words

© copyright 2019 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

you hear from me
in tones sincere,
if i felt less
i might be able
to talk about it more
but you know who i am

i have been indifferent
but you understand
yes, you see, you know

i ask only to hear
your voice

seldom,
does it come complete
seldom can it happen
but when the feelin’s
are there,
nothin’ else matters

“What did she say?”
just what she should

enough to show
though it may not matter

© copyright 2018 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

no worries about
a white Christmas here
good, leaves more time
for dreamin’ of another,
other kinda of Christmas…

walked down
to a local bar
yeah,
she was there,
with her friends,
lookin’ great
she said hello
and smiled
all i could ask

her perfume
smelled good
i had a beer
and worked
on a poem
(nothin’ if not
the life of the party)

when i got up to go
she gave me a hug
more than i could hope

verse and a hug
what else matters

© copyright 2017 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

Nothin’ Else Matters

Nothin’ I have
to give matters
Except these words

Else I lose myself,
I must keep findin’ ’em
Fore if they do not come
Then will all be lost

Matters not what this way comes

I will find them and give them to you

© copyright 2012 mac tag/Cowboy Coleridge all rights reserved

The Song of the Day is “Nothing Else Matters” by Metallica. we do not own the rights to this song. no copyright infringement intended

On this day in 1815, The novel Emma by Jane Austen is first published. The novel is about youthful hubris and the perils of misconstrued romance. The story takes place in the fictional village of Highbury and the surrounding estates of Hartfield, Randalls, and Donwell Abbey. Emma Woodhouse is described as  handsome, clever, and rich. Emma is spoiled, headstrong, and self-satisfied; she greatly overestimates her own matchmaking abilities; she is blind to the dangers of meddling in other people’s lives; and her imagination and perceptions often lead her astray. It was the last novel to be completed and published during Austen’s life.

1898 illustration of Mr. Knightley and Emma Woodhouse

quotes

• I cannot make speeches, Emma:’ he soon resumed; and in a tone of such sincere, decided, intelligible tenderness as was tolerably convincing.—’If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more. But you know what I am.—You hear nothing but truth from me.—I have blamed you, and lectured you, and you have borne it as no other woman in England would have borne it.—Bear with the truths I would tell you now, dearest Emma, as well as you have borne with them. The manner, perhaps, may have as little to recommend them. God knows, I have been a very indifferent lover.—But you understand me.—Yes, you see, you understand my feelings—and will return them if you can. At present, I ask only to hear, once to hear your voice.’
  • Chapter 13: Mr. Knightley to Emma.
• Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure; seldom can it happen that something is not a little disguised, or a little mistaken; but where, as in this case, though the conduct is mistaken, the feelings are not, it may not be very material.
  • Chapter 13: On Emma’s response to Mr. Knightley’s proposal.
• What did she say? Just what she ought, of course. A lady always does. She said enough to show there need not be despair – and to invite him to say more himself.
  • Chapter 13: Description of Emma’s response to Mr. Knightley’s proposal.

Norman Maclean

Today is the birthday of Norman Maclean (Norman Fitzroy Maclean, Clarinda, Iowa; December 23, 1902 – August 2, 1990 Chicago); author and scholar noted for his books A River Runs Through It and Other Stories (1976) and Young Men and Fire (1992).

Maclean met his future wife, Jessie Burns, during a December party in the Helena valley of Montana. They were returning home after the party with another couple in Jessie’s car, when a blizzard descended and the car’s radiator froze. He tried pouring water in, only to have the water freeze as well. He then started hiking to seek help but soon found that the car had caught up with him, as the cold had prevented the engine from overheating. He felt foolish, but Jessie always considered him the hero of the blizzard. He and Burns married on September 24, 1931

Quotes

A River Runs Through It (1976)

• The brain gives up a lot less easily than the body.
  • p. 22
• “Help,” he said “is giving part of yourself to somebody who comes to accept it willingly and needs it badly.”
  • p. 22
• One of life’s quiet excitements is to stand somewhat apart from yourself and watch yourself softly becoming the author of something beautiful even if it is only a floating ash.
  • p. 68
• Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world’s great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.
  I am haunted by waters.

Everything that was to happen had happened and everything that was to be seen had gone. It was now one of those moments when nothing remains but an opening in the sky and a story — and maybe something of a poem. Anyway, as you possibly remember, there are these lines in front of the story:

And then he thinks he knows
The hills where his life rose …

These words are now part of the story.

• “USFS 1919: The Ranger, the Cook, and the Hole in the Sky”, p. 217

Today is the birthday of Yousuf Karsh (Mardin, Diyarbekir Vilayet, Ottoman Empire (present-day Turkey) December 23, 1908 – July 13, 2002 Boston); photographer known for his portraits of notable individuals. He has been described as one of the greatest portrait photographers of the 20th century.

An Armenian genocide survivor, Karsh migrated to Canada as a refugee. By the 1930s he established himself as a significant photographer in Ottawa, where he lived most of his adult life, though he traveled extensively for work. His iconic 1941 photograph of Winston Churchill was a breakthrough point in his career, through which he took numerous photos of known political leaders, men and women of arts and sciences. Over 20 photos by Karsh appeared on the cover of Life magazine, until he retired in 1993.

Karsh’s first marriage was to Solange Gauthier (1902−1961) in 1939. He met her at the Ottawa Little Theatre in 1933, where she was a performer. Gauthier was born in Tours, France and migrated to Canada as a young girl. They initially moved into her apartment and in 1940, into an Art Deco home called Little Wings on the Rideau River just outside Ottawa. She died in January 1961 of cancer.

His second marriage was to Estrellita Maria Nachbar, a medical writer 21 years his junior, in August 1962. Their wedding was officiated by Fulton J. Sheen, Auxiliary Bishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of New York. From 1972 to 1992 they lived in a third-floor suite at Château Laurier, Ottawa and maintained Little Wings and an apartment and studio in Manhattan. They had no children.

Gallery

And today is the birthday of Nancy Graves (Pittsfield, Massachusetts; December 23, 1939 – October 21, 1995 New YorkCity); sculptor, painter, printmaker, and sometime-filmmaker known for her focus on natural phenomena like camels or maps of the Moon. Her works are included in many public collections, including those of the National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.), the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the National Gallery of Australia (Canberra), the Des Moines Art Center, Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), and the Museum of Fine Arts (St. Petersburg, FL).  When Graves was just 29, she was given a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art. At the time she was the youngest artist, and fifth woman to achieve this honor.

Edelson’s Some Living American Women Artists / Last Supper appropriated Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper, with the heads of notable women artists collaged over the heads of Christ and his apostles. John the Baptist’s head was replaced with Graves, and Christ’s with Georgia O’Keeffe. This image, addressing the role of religious and art historical iconography in the subordination of women, became “one of the most iconic images of the feminist art movement.”

Gallery

thanks for stoppin’ by y’all

Mac Tag