The Lovers’ Chronicle 9 January – awakenin’ – art by Simon Vouet – birth of Simone de Beauvoir

Dear Zazie,  Here is today’s Lovers’ Chronicle from Mac Tag dedicated to his muse.  Rhett

The Lovers’ Chronicle

Dear Muse,

welcome to my dream…
he wakes up in the basement, i must be here sleepwalkin’, he thinks, wait
we do not have a basement, then he checks his hands for crimson dots
ok well this is not welcome to my nightmare, he thinks, though
it would be cool to bump into Alice down here
lookin’ for stairs he follows a corridor that leads to a door
openin’ it and goin’ through, he is standin’ in a courtyard and sees the beautiful redhead sittin’ on a bench
yes, i know this moment, the awakenin’
and he sits next to her

© copyright 2024 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

thought of a line from a song written
by Bob McDill, best sung by Waylon;
“But it’s an awful awakenin‘ in a country boy’s life,
To look in the mirror in total surprise”
“Should fate have made her a gentleman’s wife”
ha good one, well he thought so
i never had that literal moment
but i was aware i was not gittin’ any younger
and might be facin’ ever after solomiente
“You had a different awakening”
a beautiful one lookin’ in your eyes

© copyright 2023.2024 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

that is life, a series of revelations, good and bad, some folks have many, some a few, the ones that matter the most for me came late in life; that i should write started comin’ at the turn of the century but did not take hold until about five years ago, the romantic awakenin’ took almost a lifetime, but saved the best for last

© copyright 2022.2024 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

when breath passes through your lips,
holdin’ you suspended at the entrance,
prone spread open, through you desire
feelin’, helpless, huggin’ you closer
without measure in an ardent swarm
such transport is already the future
that stirs in us, this touch, all there is

© copyright 2021 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

Pale Love, Pale Rider

it certainly was

he walked into the large foyer
she was standin’ a few feet away
he noticed her fine figure
and her long blonde hair
she looked excitin’
and mysterious
like someone you see drivin’ by,
alone, in a convertible, someone
unattainable and more desirable
than anyone you have ever known
someone who is on her way
to make love to somebody else
someone who is not for you…

and you were not
though i wanted you
more than i have ever
wanted anyone

and now,
a decade later,
that i could be that someone
leaves me, wave on wave, awash
in feelin’s so strong, that i am
stugglin’ for the right words

© copyright 2020 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

ok, so it was not
that tough
doin’ nothin’ prevailed
i know, shockin’ right
the sideline suits just fine
watchin’ and writin’
as it all slip slides away

© copyright 2019 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

bent, for sure
“Broken?”
mebbe
time will tell

an awakenin’
perhaps
a “to be or not to be”
moment for sure
this is tough
it would be so easy
to do nothin’
to take the path
of least resistance
to stay on the sidelines
and watch and write
as time slips away

© copyright 2018 mac tag/cowboycoleridge all rights reserved

been ridin’ blind for so long
never saw a reason to believe

© copyright 2017 mac tag/cowboycoleridge all rights reserved

when a breath passes through your lips,
on streams holdin’ you suspended
at the entrance, prone spread open

through you distraught

on this heart that will soon harden
another sufferin’ vain point of view,
feel you, helpless, you hug

infinity in your arms
delusions, these desires without measure
rampagin’ in your flanks as ardent swarms
such transport is already the future

that stirs in you
it will dissolve, this touch
that launched feelin’s of joy and pain
the winds disperse this dust
which was once a heartbeat

will other hearts emerge which will re-new
your broken hopes, of your love extinguished,
perpetuatin’ your tears, your dreams, your flame,
in distant ages all feelin’s, form a chain
the torch of what could be
quick take the truth
and make it turn

© copyright 2016 mac tag/cowboy Coleridge all rights reserved

I know right
where I went wrong
and damn my soul,
I would go back
and change it
if I could

***

no denyin’
the pull that place
has on me
so much pain
so many spirits
not wise goin’ there
but I escaped
unscathed
this time

© copyright 2016 mac tag/cowboy Coleridge all rights reserved

Dark haired beauty
Misunderstood
By most. Lucky
Is the one who
Does understand

She hears the talk
She does not care
But she hears it

She just wants to
Have some fun and
Be herself and
Perhaps find a
True someone to
Hold on to her

© copyright 2015 mac tag/cowboy Coleridge all rights reserved

Today is the birthday of Simon Vouet (Paris 9 January 1590 – 30 June 1649 Paris); painter and draftsman, who today is perhaps best remembered for helping to introduce the Italian Baroque style of painting to France.

In 1626 he married Virginia da Vezzo, “a painter in her own right…known for her beauty,” who modeled as the Madonna and female saints for Vouet’s religious commissions. The couple would have five children. Virginia died in France in 1638. Two years later Vouet married a French widow, Radegonde Béranger, with whom he had three more children.

Gallery

Portrait de Louis XIII entre deux figures de Femmes symbolisant la France et la Navarre Paris, musée du Louvre

“La romaine avec père “, le musée des beaux arts de Riazan , Russie

La Mise au tombeau (vers 1636-1638), Le Havre, musée d’art moderne André-Malraux

Saint Louis recevant la couronne d’épines des mains de Jésus (1639), Paris, église Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis.

Saint Jérôme et l’ange (1620-1630), Washington, National Gallery of Art.

Portrait d’Angélique Vouet (1635-1638), pastel sur papier, Paris, musée du Louvre

Simone de Beauvoir
in 1968

Today is the birthday of Simone de Beauvoir (Simone Lucie Ernestine Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir; Paris; 9 January 1908 – 14 April 1986 Paris); writer, intellectual, existentialist philosopher, political activist, feminist and social theorist.  Though she did not consider herself a philosopher, she had a significant influence on both feminist existentialism and feminist theory.

De Beauvoir wrote novels, essays, biographies, autobiography and monographs on philosophy, politics and social issues.  She was known for her 1949 treatise Le Deuxième Sexe (The Second Sex), a detailed analysis of women’s oppression and a foundational tract of contemporary feminism; and for her novels, including She Came to Stay and The Mandarins.  She was also known for her lifelong open relationship with French philosopher Sartre.

During October 1929, Sartre and De Beauvoir became a couple and, after they were confronted by her father, Sartre asked her to marry him.  De Beauvoir said, “Marriage was impossible. I had no dowry.”  So they entered a lifelong relationship.  De Beauvoir chose never to marry and did not set up a joint household with Sartre.  She never had children.  This gave her time to earn an advanced academic degree, to join political causes, to travel, to write, to teach and to have lovers (both male and female; the latter sometimes shared with Sartre).

Sartre and De Beauvoir at the Balzac Memorial

Le Deuxième Sexe, 1949

On ne naît pas femme : on le devient.

• Le Deuxième Sexe, Simone de Beauvoir, éd. Gallimard, 1950, t. II. L’expérience vécue, partie première: Formation, chap. premier: Enfance, p. 13

Le propre des manies et des vices, c’est d’engager la liberté à vouloir ce qu’elle ne veut pas.

• Le Deuxième Sexe (1949), Simone de Beauvoir, éd. Gallimard, coll. « Folio », 1976, t. II. L’expérience vécue, p. 266

La femme est vouée à l’immoralité parce que la morale consiste pour elle à incarner une inhumaine entité : la femme forte, la mère admirable, l’honnête femme etc.

• Le Deuxième Sexe (1949), Simone de Beauvoir, éd. Gallimard, coll. « Folio », 1976, t. II. L’expérience vécue, p. 310

C’est la femme qui travaille – paysanne, chimiste ou écrivain – qui a la grossesse la plus facile du fait qu’elle ne se fascine pas sur sa propre personne ; c’est la femme qui a la vie personnelle la plus riche qui donnera le plus à l’enfant et qui lui demandera le moins, c’est celle qui acquiert dans l’effort, dans la lutte, la connaissance des vraies valeurs humaines qui sera la meilleure éducatrice.

• Le Deuxième Sexe (1949), Simone de Beauvoir, éd. Gallimard, coll. « Folio », 1976, t. II. L’expérience vécue, p. 384

Si l’on dit que les hommes oppriment les femmes, le mari s’indigne, mais le fait est que c’est le code masculin, c’est la société élaborée par les mâles et dans leur intérêt qui a défini la condition féminine sous une forme qui est à présent pour les deux sexes une source de tourments.

• Le Deuxième Sexe (1949), Simone de Beauvoir, éd. Gallimard, coll. « Folio », 1976, t. II. L’expérience vécue, p. 237

thanks for stoppin’ by y’all

Mac Tag