The Lovers’ Chronicle 24 March – rememberin’, reprise no. one – birth of William Morris – art by Frank Weston Benson – photography by Edward Weston – Hollywood premiere of Wuthering Heights – Broadway premiere of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Dear Zazie,

Here is today’s Lovers’ Chronicle from Mac Tag:

The Lovers’ Chronicle

Dear Muse,

dream on a hot tin roof…
How did we get here and is here a taxi cab, asks the always alluring redhead,
yes, definitely a cab
Where are we and what have you got us into now, she asks
where and when are good questions, it looks like the Theatre District in Manhattan, sometime in the fifties based on the cars and the way folks are dressed
Here ya’ go, says the cabbie, 217 w 45th
-Exiting the cab and helping the redhead out;
wow, this is the Morosco Theatre, it was torn down in 1982 by the bank that owned the property
You mean goddamn bank, she says
right, that word should always precede or succeed the word bank
The marquee says Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, she notes
oh cool, we must be here for the premiere, i can almost smell the obnoxious odor of mendacity
Ha, and I thought I was the one with the sensitive nose, she says
ok lets go see Maggie and Brick
Wait, what about the theme, she asks
the theme, oh yeah, rememberin’, uh, ok, i think i have it;
remember when we were in tough situations, like cats stuck on a hot tin roof, when we had to stay on as long as we could stand it, now look at us
Lovers on a balcony enjoyin’ the view, and knowin’ it’s true

© copyright 2024 mac tag/cowboycoleridge all rights reserved

this one started out with our intrepid hero
reminiscin’ about the one that never was
“Then it changed”
yes into said hero recallin’, that man
does not live on solitude and sadness alone
“Glad to have inspired that”
you did, it was as if a fresh wind
came along and blew out the clouds and blew in
long forgotten feelings and i remembered
i could feel

© copyright 2023 mac tag/cowboycoleridge all rights reserved

dreamed a dream of somethin’ not known, read plenty about it, saw it up close with the only couple i knew who had it, saw the movies, over and over, and listened to the songs so i knew it could happen but no one was more surprised than i, when i awakened to find you standin’ there

© copyright 2022 mac tag/cowboycoleridge all rights reserved

when beginnin’ over
gittin’ reacquainted
with the things
given up for lost
along the way

what was forgotten,
rushin’ towards
what was buried
can be overcome

the new moon
and the wind
blowin’ your hair

an awakenin’ man
standin’ at the foot
of ever after

© copyright 2021 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

Pale Love, Pale Rider

practically a way of life
when that was all we had
in the darkest times before the verse
and when the words started comin’,
went there often for inspiration'
and still goin’ there since not much
inspirin’ happenin’ here
with just the two of us
we have learned that,
writin’ can be fed through
readin’, watchin’, listenin’ 
and rememberin’
hey remember that time when…

© copyright 2020.2024 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

remember what was said
when last to which we came

all we sought,
yet could not have
right there, right then
but could not be

and now years hence,
dreams, born of due time

let it suffice, this verse,
tellin’ a tale not too abstract
and hopefully, not too late

© copyright 2019 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

rememberin’ the moments,
oh, there were more than one,
when everything could have changed

i really do not like carryin’ on
with too many words
so suffice to say, those moments
were every day i saw you

© copyright 2018 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

que saudade

i go, rememberin’
what was said and what
could not be said
when every day
seemed what we sought

© copyright 2017 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

when beginnin’ over
gittin’ reacquainted
with the things
given up for lost
along the way

what was forgotten
cannot rush towards
or sing about
what was buried
cannot overcome
or write about

the new moon
and the wind
blowin’ your hair

horses runnin’
across the plains
an awakenin’ man
standin’ at the foot
of a half remembered dream

© Copyright 2016 Mac Tag/cowboy coleridge  all rights reserved

Be my canvas
Come, be my words
Be my light. Be
my melody
Come, be my dream

***

Lost my way. Lost
my love. Lost my
nerve. Damn near lost
my mind. Lost my
will. Lost sight of
where the trail meets
the High Plains sky

***

The wind in her
hair. Sun settin’
She never looked
prettier. There
is nothin’ as
good as lovin’
a High Plains Girl

***

The totem spins: Open your eyes,
How can I sleep when you lie near?
Were I with you all night we could,
From sleep be free and never need

© Copyright 2015 Mac Tag/cowboy coleridge  all rights reserved

Today is the birthday of William Morris (Walthamstow, Essex, England 24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896 Hammersmith, Middlesex, England); textile designer, poet, novelist, translator, and socialist activist, born at Elm House in Walthamstow, Essex.

Morris married Jane Burden at St Michael at the Northgate in Oxford on 26 April 1859. After the marriage, the Morrises lived at Red House in Bexleyheath, Kent. While living there, they had two daughters, Jane Alice “Jenny,” born in January 1861, and Mary “May” (March 1862–1938), who later edited her father’s works. They moved to 26 Queen Square in London, which they shared with the design firm of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co., and later bought Kelmscott House in Hammersmith as their main residence.

Burden was an embroiderer and artists’ model who embodied the Pre-Raphaelite ideal of beauty. She was a model and muse to Morris and to Rossetti.

quotes

I too
Will go, remembering what I said to you,
When any land, the first to which we came
Seemed that we sought, and set your hearts aflame,
And all seemed won to you: but still I think,
Perchance years hence, the fount of life to drink,
Unless by some ill chance I first am slain.
But boundless risk must pay for boundless gain.

…

Dreamer of dreams, born out of my due time,
Why should I strive to set the crooked straight?
Let it suffice me that my murmuring rhyme
Beats with light wing against the ivory gate,
Telling a tale not too importunate
To those who in the sleepy region stay,
Lulled by the singer of an empty day.

…

“Ah! wilt thou leave me then without one kiss,
To slay the very seeds of fear and doubt,
That glad to-morrow may bring certain bliss?
Hast thou forgotten how love lives by this,
The memory of some hopeful close embrace,
Low whispered words within some lonely place?”

…

Love is enough: have no thought for to-morrow
If ye lie down this even in rest from your pain,
Ye who have paid for your bliss with great sorrow…

…

Lo, the lovers unloved that draw nigh for your blessing!
For your tale makes the dreaming whereby yet they live
The dreams of the day with their hopes of redressing,
The dreams of the night with the kisses they give,
The dreams of the dawn wherein death and hope strive.

…

Eve shall kiss night,
And the leaves stir like rain
As the wind stealeth light
O’er the grass of the plain.
Unseen are thine eyes
Mid the dreamy night’s sleeping,
And on my mouth there lies
The dear rain of thy weeping.

…

“Come — pain ye shall have, and be blind to the ending!
Come — fear ye shall have, mid the sky’s overcasting!
Come — change ye shall have, for far are ye wending!
Come — no crown ye shall have for your thirst and your fasting,
But the kissed lips of Love and fair life everlasting!
Cry out, for one heedeth, who leadeth you home!“

Today is the birthday of Frank Weston Benson, (Salem, Mass. March 24, 1862 – November 15, 1951 Salem, Massachusetts); artist perhaps best known for his Realistic portraits, American Impressionist paintings, watercolors and etchings. He began his career painting portraits of distinguished families and murals for the Library of Congress. Some of his best known paintings (Eleanor, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Summer, Rhode Island School of Design Museum) depict his daughters outdoors at Benson’s summer home, Wooster Farm, on the island of North Haven, Maine. He also produced numerous oil, wash and watercolor paintings and etchings of wildfowl and landscapes.

In the summer of 1884 Benson painted at Concarneau. While there, Benson became engaged to Ellen Perry Peirson, the daughter of friends from Salem, Massachusetts. They married in 1888 when Benson had established himself in his career.

Gallery

Tody is the birthday of Edward Weston (Edward Henry Weston, Highland Park, Illinois, March 24, 1886 – January 1, 1958 Carmel Highlands, California); photographer. In my opinion, one of the the most innovative and influential American photographers. Over the course of his 40-year career Weston photographed an expansive set of subjects, including landscapes, still lives, nudes, portraits, genre scenes and even whimsical parodies. His focus was on the people and places of the American West. In 1937 Weston was the first photographer to receive a Guggenheim Fellowship, and over the next two years he produced nearly 1,400 negatives using his 8 × 10 view camera. Some of his most famous photographs were taken of the trees and rocks at Point Lobos, California, near where he lived for many years.

He knew he wanted to be a photographer from an early age, and initially his work was typical of the soft focus pictorialism that was popular at the time. Within a few years, however, he abandoned that style and went on to be one of the foremost champions of highly detailed photographic images.

In 1947 he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and he stopped photographing soon thereafter. He spent the remaining ten years of his life overseeing the printing of more than 1,000 of his most famous images.

Soon after moving to Tropico, California, Weston was introduced to his sister’s best friend, Flora May Chandler. She was a graduate of the Normal School, later to become UCLA. She assumed the position of a grade-school teacher in Tropico. She was seven years older than Weston and a distant relative of Harry Chandler, who at that time was the head of an influential family in Southern California. On January 30, 1909, Weston and Chandler married in a simple ceremony.

Sometime in the fall of 1913, Los Angeles photographer, Margrethe Mather visited Weston’s studio because of his growing reputation, and within a few months they developed an intense relationship. Weston was a quiet Midwestern transplant to California, and Mather was a part of the growing bohemian cultural scene in Los Angeles. She was very outgoing and artistic in a flamboyant way, and her permissive sexual morals were far different from the conservative Weston at the time – Mather had been a prostitute and was bisexual with a preference for women. Mather presented a stark contrast to Weston’s home life, and he found Mather’s uninhibited lifestyle irresistible and her photographic vision intriguing.

Over the summer of 1920 Weston met two people who were part of the growing Los Angeles cultural scene: Roubaix de l’Abrie Richey, known as “Robo” and a woman he called his wife, Tina Modotti. Modotti, who was then known only as a stage and film actress, was never married to Robo, but they pretended to be for the sake of his family. Weston and Modotti were immediately attracted to each other, and they soon became lovers.

Gallery

And it was on this day in 1955 that Tennessee Williams‘ play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof premiered in New York City at the Morosco Theatre. It was directed by Elia Kazan and starred Barbara Bel Geddes, Ben Gazzara and Burl Ives.  Williams won a second Pulitzer Prize for the play, and a Tony Award, and the show ran for 694 performances. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof was reportedly, Williams’ favorite play.

.Bel Geddes as Maggie in the original Broadway production

Maggie: I’ll win, all right.

Brick: Win what? What is the victory of a cat on a hot tin roof?

Maggie: Just staying on it, I guess. As long as she can.

thanks for stoppin’ by y’all

mac tag