The Lovers’ Chronicle 16 February – time, reprise no. 1 – birth and death of Octave Mirbeau – photography by Edward S. Curtis & Esther Bubley

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

The Lovers’ Chronicle

Dear Muse,

dreamin’ in time…
so many songs, so many dreams, so little…;
“Time keeps on slippin’, slippin’, slippin’ into the future”
“And my time was runnin’ wild”
“If I could turn back time”
“Is it any wonder I’ve got too much time on my hands”
“It’s the time of the season for loving”
“Are the good times really over for good”
“If I could save time in a bottle”
“Cause I haven’t got time for the pain”
“Love me two times baby”
“It feels like the first time”
“Time is on my side”
“I think it’s high time we lay it out there on the line
Now it’s about time
It’s about time
It’s about time”
Dear, what are you doing, asks the talented redhead
nothin’ just killin’ time with the playlist in my head, waitin’ for you
Oh we have time, turn it up so I can hear
absolutely

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straight to joe jackson
got it tick, tick, tickin’ in my head
“Do the days pass faster now”
what about this debate:
is it a friend passin’
along with us,
or a stalkin’ enemy
“I’ll take friend for $2000 Alex”
you should to balance us
cuz Carson said it best,
the endless idiot
“As long as now is the…”

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another favorite topic, chasin’ or followin’, not sure which, but now that found is settled, makin’ the most of each moment carries all that matters, now lookin’ back can be seen as down payment for the credibility necessary to spread these feelin’s across the page, and we take time as we please

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did someone say it is about time
yes, and toss a damn in there
appropriate phrase
from both ways of lookin’ at it

as in, time is what all of this is about
how much we have been given
and how we use it

most importantly, this,
me and you bein’ here
we waited long enough
time now to be

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Pale Love, Pale Rider

a tree covered hilltop
against the Carolina sky
where the scene is painted
by two who have waited
a very long time

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it almost all slipped away
probably only did not
outta stubbornness

every day now turns the dial
a little more from wasted
to invested or justified

appropriate that birth
and rebirth both
came on the High Plains

felt a strong pull to come back
but did not see this comin’,
the time to git it right

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jouir en bien
literally,
enjoy in good
idiomatically…
well, come with me
and together
we will find out

after all,
time gits away

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time, too much perhaps,
spent turnin’ an eye
towards the past
the broken trail behind
the chances taken
and not taken
not so much
a review of regret
have those stacked
up like cord wood,
dealt and done with

© copyright 2017 mac tag/cowboycoleridge all rights reserved

learn to live without
amid temptations
apparently, stored up
plenty in days gone by
it is strength that deprives

***

Wish I was back
With you in our
Favorite place
Waltzin’ on that
Old wooden floor
Then later; lovin’
Down by the river

***

Warnin’…
Will brake
For random
Poetic thoughts

© copyright 2016 mac tag/cowboycoleridge all rights reserved

“I was going to say you should go get a cup of coffee. Shut your door turn your volume down and pull up the ” you should leave your hat on” video.   In the movie nothing seemed to matter but the two of them.  She couldn’t even do her job.  Sometime I wish I could get lost in that.”

© copyright 2011 mac tag/cowboycoleridge all rights reserved

Today is the birth and death day of Octave Mirbeau (Trévières, Normandy 16 February 1848 – 16 February 1917 Paris); novelist, art critic, travel writer, pamphleteer, journalist and playwright, who achieved celebrity in Europe and great success among the public, whilst still appealing to the literary and artistic avant-garde with highly transgressive novels that explored violence, abuse and psychological detachment. His work has been translated into 30 languages.

Mirbeau ghostwrote ten novels, including three for the Swiss writer Dora Melegari.  He made his own literary debut with Le Calvaire (Calvary, 1886), in which writing allowed him to overcome the traumatic effects of his devastating liaison with the ill-reputed Judith Vinmer (1858-1951), renamed Juliette Roux in the novel.

In 1888, Mirbeau published L’Abbé Jules (Abbé Jules), the first pre-Freudian novel written under the influence of Dostoyevsky to appear in French literature; the text featured two main characters: l’abbé Jules and Father Pamphile. In Sébastien Roch (1890), Mirbeau purged the traumatic effects of his experience as a student at a Jesuits school in Vannes. In the novel, the 13-year-old Sébastien is sexually abused by a priest at the school and the abuse destroys his life.

Mirbeau then underwent an existential and literary crisis, yet during this time, he still published in serial form a pre-existentialist novel about the artist’s fate, Dans le ciel (In the Sky), introducing the figure of a painter (Lucien), directly modeled on Van Gogh. In the aftermath of the Dreyfus Affair — which exacerbated Mirbeau’s pessimism — he published two novels judged to be scandalous by self-styled paragons of virtue: Le Jardin des supplices (Torture Garden (1899) and Le Journal d’une femme de chambre (Diary of a Chambermaid) (1900), then Les Vingt et un Jours d’un neurasthénique (The twenty one days of a neurasthenic person) (1901). In the process of writing these works, Mirbeau unsettled traditional novelistic conventions, exercising collage techniques, transgressing codes of verisimilitude and fictional credibility, and defying the hypocritical rules of propriety.

Mirbeau lies buried in the Passy Cemetery, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris.  See The Final Footprint for more.

Quotes

”Ceux qui se taisent disent plus de choses que ceux qui parlent tout le temps.”

Today is the birthday of Edward Curtis (Edward Sherriff Curtis; Whitewater, Wisconsin; February 19, 1868 – October 19, 1952 Los Angeles); photographer and ethnologist whose work focused on the American West and on Native American people.  Sometimes referred to as the “Shadow Catcher”, Curtis traveled the United States to document and record the dwindling ways of life of various native tribes through photographs and audio recordings.

Self portrait

In 1892, Curtis married Clara J. Phillips (1874–1932), who was born in Pennsylvania. Her parents were from Canada. 
During the years of work on The North American Indian, Curtis was often absent from home for most of the year, leaving Clara to manage the children and the studio by herself. After several years of estrangement, Clara filed for divorce on October 16, 1916. In 1919 she was granted the divorce and received Curtis’s photographic studio and all of his original camera negatives as her part of the settlement. Curtis and his daughter Beth went to the studio and destroyed all of his original glass negatives, rather than have them become the property of his ex-wife.

Curtis died of a heart attack in the home of his daughter Beth, aged 84. He was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. 

Gallery

And today is the birthday of Esther Bubley (Phillips, Wisconsin; February 16, 1921 – March 16, 1998 Manhattan); photographer who specialized in expressive photos of ordinary people in everyday lives. She worked for several agencies of the American government and her work also featured in several news and photographic magazines.

In the late 1960s, Bubley reduced her workload as sales of photographic magazines declined, and she wearied of the grueling travel schedule. She spent more time at home in New York City where she pursued projects of personal interest, producing two children’s books about animals and a book featuring macro photography of plants.

A devoted animal lover, she spent her mornings in Central Park walking her dog, taking photographs, and making notes that she hoped to turn into a book about the park. In 1991 the Minneapolis College of Art and Design awarded Bubley an honorary doctorate. She died of cancer.

Gallery

thanks for stoppin’ by y’all

mac tag