The Lovers’ Chronicle 4 February – try – art by Władysław Podkowiński & Fernand Léger – verse by Jacques Prévert

Dear Zazie,  Here is today’s Lovers’ Chronicle from Mac Tag dedicated to his muse.  Follow us on twitter @cowboycoleridge.  What do you like about the one who stirs you?  Rhett

The Lovers’ Chronicle

Dear Muse,

try every day and do most of ‘em,
work gits in the way some days
we are only worth a damn at two things
hey there it is, the only time we will agree today
now lets open up for what the muse may bring
-He pours a shot of mezcal, Los Amantes Anejo,
picks up a cigar, Tenorio Habano Azul robusto,
walks out onto his office patio, pulls a chair up
to the fire pit, imaginin’ those blue eyes, he writes…

She tries every day, and mostly manages,
to get through the emotional swings without
letting it show, of course, only she notices
when she struggles, she is too strong
for the signs to be obvious
Today she managed well and she is now
sitting up in her bed looking at the painting,
Frenzy by Podkowiński, trying to imagine…
She takes a sip of wine and returns to the email
she has been working on to send to him, she writes…

tune in tomorrow 


© copyright 2025 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

hear that dream a comin’…
he thought he was asleep, the first indication he was not in their bed was the irregular rhythm of a fast moving train
he looked around to see he was seated in a Pullman car
he admired the suit and tie he was wearing, saying; i do enjoy a well dressed dream
across the seat from him was a woman busy with her knitting and a blonde haired man who was asleep
at the dawn of recognition of the man his mouth went dry and his mind spun
he carefully got up so as to not wake blondie and moved to the other end of the car
You look like you saw a ghost, said the ravishing redhead
pretty sure that sleepin’ guy over there is Bruno Antony, which makes me Guy Haines, and us, strangers on a train
Oh, that doesn’t end well
no, lets try to change this by goin’ to the next car
Ok, what if the next car is the Orient Express
well, then we will try not to be the dead guy

© copyright 2024 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

this one belongs to the incomparable Janis
and her version of “Try (Just a Little Bit Harder)”
“Oh we love Pearl”
she was fabulous, and the lyrics work
as advice as long as doin’ follows the tryin’
“Right, don’t try just do”
i have written how that applies to writin’
i did not try to write, i just started writin’
same goes for two bein’ in love
“Don’t try just do”

© copyright 2023.2024 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

at least one notable poet said don’t, Bukowski, implyin’ just do, best advice i heard and follow, was to write every day, not a challenge when that was my life, became a little more so after i re-entered life, bastard time would not expand to allow it, but figured a way, and every time i sat down the words came, not tryin’ just doin’ for me and you

© copyright 2022.2024 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

here is here
and stayin’

two lovers
two survivors
entwined and spared

we are not over
and we can never
disappoint

what happens
is as clear as can be
and it is yours and mine

it is such a wonder
the stuff of life

here tryin’ is all
holdin’ on to you
against the stillness

© copyright 2021 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

Pale Love, Pale Rider

so yes,
the word was said

“Every time you come,
I fall more and more.”

two lovers
two survivors tryin’
entwined
stronger
more so,
wiser

as clear as day,
simple as hey there
hand in hand,
it is yours and mine

the sweetest sleep
the fairest dreams

and yes, i do

© copyright 2020 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

we can try
standin’ in the sun
in the wind
in sleep and dream

two lovers
two survivors
entwined and spared

you are not over
and you can never
disappoint

what happens
is as clear as can be
and it is yours and mine

© copyright 2019 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

there was there
but stayin’ was not
sometimes,
it was so pretty
the stuff
of moons and suns
then faults and mistakes
this is how i write
the tryin’ is all
if only to try again
anything
against the stillness
of the heart

© copyright 2018 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

long sleepless stretch…
a face; the face of one
here in this room…
a soul never led
to its repose; this
is the cross born

on top of a mesa
on the llano estacado
a wooden cross of white
such is the cross born,
through the changin’ scenes

such is the cross born
these thirteen years
through changin’ scenes
and seasons, changeless
since the choice was made

© copyright 2016 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

I have the words
At least, I think
I do. Or is
It possibly
That they have me

© copyright 2015 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

This was inspired by you.  Hope you like……

Do I Like…

As is the case with her,
She swept into the room
And the light and everything
That mattered was drawn to her
Nothin’ she did consciously
Just the way it was with her
She had a new hairdo and she asked,
‘Do you like my hair? ‘

Do I like your hair?
Do I like to breathe?
Do I like to eat steak?
Do I like dark beer and red wine?
Do I like cornbread and iced tea?
Do I like all kinds of coffee and dark chocolate?
Do I like a good rope and a fine horse?
Do I like Luchese boots and Texas Hatters cowboy hats?
Do I like to dream?
Do I like starry nights?
Do I like dancin’ by moonlight?
Do I like romancin’ by candlelight?
Do I like to read and write and ruminate?
Do I like long walks in the rain?
Do I like to watch the sun rise and set?
Do I like thunderstorms and cool mountain mornins?
Do I like snowy days spent in front of the fireplace?
Do I like Elvis and Hank and Frank?
Do I like Clint and Duke and Duvall?
Do I like Woodrow and Gus and Ethan?
Do I like Mozart and Millay and Monet?
Do I like Audrey and Sophia and Vivien?
Do I like Rhett and Scarlett and Stella?
Do I like Italian opera and French poetry?
Do I like Van Gogh and Van Morrison and Van Halen?
Do I like Shakespeare and Hemingway and Tennessee?

Do I like your hair?
Do I like your fill-in-the-blank?
I like your anything and everything
That is what I like about you

© copyright 2013 mac tag/Cowboy Coleridge all rights reserved

The Song of the day is “What I Like About You” by The Romantics.  We do not own the rights to this song.  No copyright infringement intended.  All rights reserved by the rightful owner.

Today is the birthday of Władysław Podkowiński (Warsaw 4 February 1866  – 5 January 1895 Warsaw); painter and illustrator associated with the Young Poland movement during the Partition period.

His first watercolor and oil paintings were produced during this time, but Podkowiński still considered them personal, not a public endeavor. Those early paintings were mainly influenced by Aleksander Gierymski. He adopted painting as a profession after a trip to Paris in 1889, where he was profoundly influenced by French Impressionist painters including Claude Monet. Podkowiński was later credited for bringing the Impressionist movement to Poland, but toward the end of his life, his failing health inclined him toward Symbolism. He died at age 28 due to tuberculosis.

His best known painting, Frenzy of Exultations (Szał uniesień), see below, exhibited first in Zachęta, is surrounded by the turn-of-the-century atmosphere of scandal and public outcry. In 1894, it was featured in a Warsaw art exhibition and criticized. The exhibition lasted only 36 days because Podkowinski brought a knife on the 37th day, and slashed his work on display. The painting was restored after his death and is prominently exhibited at the Sukiennice Museum in Kraków.

Gallery

Fernand Léger

Today is the birthday of Fernand Léger (Fernand Léger; Argentan, Orne, France; February 4, 1881 – August 17, 1955 Gif-sur-Yvette, France); painter, sculptor, and filmmaker.  In his early works he created a personal form of cubism which he gradually modified into a more figurative, populist style.  His boldly simplified treatment of modern subject matter has caused him to be regarded as a forerunner of pop art.

In December 1919 he married Jeanne-Augustine Lohy, and in 1920 he met Le Corbusier, who would remain a lifelong friend.

After the death of his wife in 1950, Léger married Nadia Khodossevitch in 1952.  In 1954 he began a project for a mosaic for the São Paulo Opera, which he would not live to finish.  Léger died at his home and is buried in Gif-sur-Yvette, Essonne.

Gallery

Nudes in the forest (Nus dans la forêt), 1910, oil on canvas, 120 x 170 cm, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands

Les Fumeurs (The Smokers), 1911-12, oil on canvas, 129.2 x 96.5 cm, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

1916, Soldier with a pipe (Le Soldat à la Pipe), oil on canvas, 130 x 97 cm, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dùsseldorf

Still Life with a Beer Mug, 1921, oil on canvas, Tate, London

• Le compotier (Table and Fruit), 1910–11, oil on canvas, 82.2 x 97.8 cm, Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Reproduced in Du “Cubisme”, 1912
• Les Toits de Paris (Roofs in Paris, 1911, oil on canvas, private collection. Reproduced in Du “Cubisme”, 1912
• Paysage (Landscape), 1912–13, oil on canvas, 92 x 81 cm
• Contrast of Forms (Contraste de formes), 1913. Published in Der Sturm, 5 September 1920
• Nature morte (Still life), 1914
• Dans L’Usine, 1918, oil on canvas, 56 x 38 cm
• The City (La ville), 1919, oil on canvas, 231.1 x 298.4 cm, Philadelphia Museum of Art
• The Railway Crossing, 1919, oil on canvas, 54.1 x 65.7 cm, Art Institute of Chicago

Jacques Prévert

And today is the birthday of Jacques Prévert (Neuilly-sur-Seine; 4 February 1900 – 11 April 1977 Omonville-la-Petite); poet and screenwriter.  His poems became and remain popular in the French-speaking world.  His best regarded films formed part of the poetic realist movement, and include Les Enfants du Paradis (1945).

Verse  

Paroles (1945)

Notre Père qui êtes aux cieux
Restez-y
Et nous nous resterons sur la terre
Qui est quelque fois si jolie

• Paroles, Jacques Prévert, éd. Pléiade Gallimard, 1992, Pater noster, p. 40

De deux choses lune
l’autre c’est le soleil

• Paroles, Jacques Prévert, éd. Gallimard, 1949, Le paysage changeur, p. 87

Histoires (1946)

C’est ma faute
C’est ma faute
C’est ma très grande faute d’orthographe
Voilà comment j’écris
Giraffe

• Histoires, Jacques Prévert, éd. Folio Gallimard, 1963, Mea culpa, p. 83

Spectacle (1951)

Il faudrait essayer d’être heureux, ne serait-ce que pour donner l’exemple.

• Spectacle, Jacques Prévert, éd. Pléiade Gallimard, 1992, Intermède, p. 378

Une pluie de larmes ne peut rien contre la sécheresse du cœur…
Pas plus que l’eau dans le vin pour en ranimer le bouquet.

• Spectacle, Jacques Prévert, éd. Pléiade Gallimard, 1992, Intermède, p. 381

Arbres (1976)

arbres
         chevaux sauvages et sages
à la crinière verte
au grand galop discret
         dans le vent vous piaffez
debout dans le soleil vous dormez
                              et rêvez

• Arbres, Jacques Prévert, éd. Gallimard, 1976, p. 7

Jadis
les arbres
étaient des gens comme nous

Mais plus solides
plus heureux
plus amoureux peut-être
plus sages

C’est tout.

• Arbres, Jacques Prévert, éd. Gallimard, 1976, p. 39

       qu’ils déboisaient déboisaient
déboisaient
on a trouvé qu’ils abusaient

Bien sûr la fin des arbres
ou la fin de la terre
c’est pas la fin du monde
mais tout de même on s’était habitué
[…]
Autrefois les bûcherons
avaient des égards pour les arbres
autrefois les bûcherons
buvaient à leur santé

• Arbres, Jacques Prévert, éd. Gallimard, 1976, p. 58

deux amoureux humains
deux rescapés
s’approchèrent d’un peuplier
sur son cœur ils gravèrent
leurs cœurs et leurs noms enlacés
et furent épargnés.

• Arbres, Jacques Prévert, éd. Gallimard, 1976, p. 69

Citations pêle-mêle

L’amour est clair comme le jour, l’amour est simple comme bonjour, l’amour est un comme la main, c’est ton amour et le mien…

• « Saint-Valentin – Amour, toujours – Citations », Jacques Prévert, Direct Soir, nº 700, Vendredi 12 février 2010, p. 9

thanks for stoppin’ by y’all

Mac Tag

The sweetest sleep, and fairest-boding dreams 

That ever enter’d in a drowsy head, 

Have I since your departure had

– Shakespeare