The Lovers’ Chronicle – 27 April – into the silence – art by Albert von Keller, Theodor Kittelsen & George Petty – verse by Cecil Day-Lewis

Dear Zazie,  Here is today’s Lovers’ Chronicle from Mac Tag.  Have you been into the silence?  Rhett

The Lovers’ Chronicle

Dear Muse,

another from the drama files
“Well if you had to go”
oh i did, the strongest
want and need ever known
“So you could understand”
not sure i knew that initially
but it was the only way for me
to make sense of it all
“We all have stuff to process”
right, thus into the silence
though now i prefer to go
into your arms

© copyright 2023 mac tag/cowboycoleridge all rights reserved

once ago, every day; just another way to be, not like there were any other options; went there to understand and i came to after awhile, the dramatic version is that i found myself but this i did not expect; from frequent trips to the edge, the fear was not of fallin’, but jumpin’; now i know i will not fall nor jump and i no longer need the silence

© copyright 2022.2023 mac tag/cowboycoleridge all rights reserved

i suppose
the conversation
went somethin’ like this;

is it far to go
“Yes.”
shall i be gone long
“Yes, a long time.”
to whom there belong
“To the silence.”
who will say farewell
“No one.”
will anyone miss me
“You dare ask.”

“But there is one
who awaits
on the other side.”

© copyright 2021 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

Pale Love, Pale Rider

no better feelin’, ever
than to be consumed
when the muse comes

to feel that rush
when inspiration
whisks you along
and you care not
for anything else
and time fades
as creation flows
effortlessly
onto the page
or canvas

so intimate
so needed

come on muse
take me

© copyright 2020 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

all over now
return to the house
to the bedroom
her dress,
hangin’ by the bed

in the silence,
with what was left
lost

how could it be
that nothin’
ever came of carin’

must have made a mistake,
maybe a misunderstandin’

tried hard
to discover what
denoted ‘joy and passion’
words that looked
so fine in books

it was as if everything
must need minister
to personal longin’s,
as if thrust aside
as of no account
whatever did not
instantly contribute
to stir emotions

sentimental temperament
seekin’

what was it
that would not allow

blinded by lust
no thoughts beyond
but then,
once indispensable
afraid of losin’
yet could not tell

in cold dark moments
when feelin’s grip
clasp all the tighter;
in the darkenin’ gloom

a sigh more profound,
a touch more intense,
and in the stillness
a word would float
upon their breath
tremblin’, into silence

© copyright 2019 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

no need to get
all that dramatic

how could it be
that nothin’
ever came of carin’

must have made a mistake,
maybe a misunderstandin’

tried hard to discover what

denoted ‘joy and passion’
words that looked
so fine in books

blinded by lust

no thoughts beyond
afraid of losin’
yet could not tell

***

“You’ve got your armour back on.
You aren’t going to let me in, are you?”
i wish it was that simple

© copyright 2018.2023 mac tag/cowboycoleridge all rights reserved

Lost
Then; gone. No more
Sadness in one who knows the bitterness
Nothin’ soothes, nothin’ forgives

Crazy heart abandoned
It awaits the return
It excuses my weakness
To get me down it hastens
For the words she uncovered
Are all i have

Shows there is no mercy
One of the not chosen
Has revealed its pain
Not to be blessed or sung
Though it will be known to me
Beyond time and age

© copyright 2015 mac tag/cowboycoleridge all rights reserved

Another one for the Dark Muse.  Inspired by a passage from Gustave Flaubert‘s Madame Bovary (1857).  Hope you like……

Into the Silence

When it was all over
He returned to the house
and went up into the bedroom
He saw her dress,
hangin’ there on the bed
Then he sat down
and remained there till it was dark,
in the silence,
with what was left of them
Lost in sorrow,
in sorrowful meditation
In spite of everything,
she had loved him
But happiness, somehow,
had not come from that love
It seemed to him
that he must have made a mistake,
have misunderstood in some way
or another
He had tried hard
to discover what, precisely,
it was in life that was denoted
by the words ‘joy and passion’
Those words had always looked
so fine to him in books
Why was it he only cared
for the sea when the waves
were lashed to a fury,
and for lushness
only when it served
as backdrop to a ruin
It was as if everything
must needs minister to his
personal longin’s
and as if he thrust aside,
as of no account, whatever
did not instantly contribute
to stir his emotions,
for his sentimental
temperament sought out emotions
What was it about him
that would not allow him to love
His passion blinded him at first,
and he had no thoughts beyond it
But then, when she
had become indispensable
to him, he was afraid
of losin’ her
Yet he could not tell her

In the cold dark moments
when these feelin’s gripped him
he would clasp her all the tighter
In the on comin’ gloom
a sigh seemed more profound,
a touch seemed more intense,
and in the stillness that enfolded them
a word, softly murmured,
would float upon their breath
tremblin’, into silence

And now, in this cold dark moment
with these feelin’s grippin’ him
he clasped her pillow tight
In the darkenin’ gloom
his sigh seemed more profound
His loss seemed more intense,
and in the stillness that enfolded him
a word, softly murmured,
her name, floatin’ upon his breath
tremblin’, into silence

© Copyright 2013 Cowboy Coleridge All rights reserved

Today is the birthday of Theodor Kittelsen (Theodor Severin Kittelsen; Kragerø, Grenland, United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway 27 April 1857 – 21 January 1914 Jeløya, Østfold, Norway); artist. Kittelsen became famous for his nature paintings, as well as for his illustrations of fairy tales and legends.

Kittelsen’s style had elements of Neo-Romantic and naïve painting. As a national artist he is highly respected and well known in Norway, but doesn’t receive much international attention, which is the reason that his name is often not included in registers of internationally recognized painters and artists.

Black metal and folk metal bands such as Burzum, Empyrium, Otyg and Satyricon have used some of his pictures as album art, notably illustrations taken from Kittelsen’s book Svartedauen (The Black Death). Musician Phil Elverum named the tenth song on his 2017 album A Crow Looked at Me after Kittelesen’s painting “Soria Moria” specifically, using it as an illustration of his grief. Kittelsen’s 160th birthday was celebrated in a Google doodle on 27 April 2017, giving him some exposure outside of Norway.

Gallery

Ship in Storm by a Lighthouse (1892), black and white sketch

Illustrations for Svartedauen (Black death)

Today is the birthday of George Petty (George Brown Petty IV; Abbeville, Louisiana; April 27, 1894 – July 21, 1975 San Pedro, California); pin-up artist. His pin-up art appeared primarily in Esquire and Fawcett Publications’s True but was also in calendars marketed by Esquire, True and Ridgid Tool Company. Petty’s Esquire gatefolds originated and popularized the magazine device of centerfold spreads. Reproductions of his work, known as “Petty Girls,” were widely rendered by military artists as nose art decorating warplanes during the Second World War, including the Memphis Belle.

Gallery

And today is the birthday of Cecil Day-Lewis (or Day Lewis) (Ballintubbert, County Laois, Ireland; 27 April 1904 – 22 May 1972 Hadley, Greater London); poet and the Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1968 until his death in 1972.  He also wrote mystery stories under the pseudonym of Nicholas Blake.  Father of actor Daniel Day-Lewis and documentary filmmaker and television chef Tamasin Day-Lewis.

In 1928, Day-Lewis married Constance Mary King, the daughter of a Sherborne teacher. Day-Lewis worked as a schoolmaster in three schools, including Larchfield School, Helensburgh, Scotland (now Lomond School). During the 1940s, he had a long and troubled love affair with the novelist Rosamond Lehmann, to whom he dedicated his 1943 poetry collection Word Over All. In 1948, Day-Lewis met actress Jill Balcon, daughter of Michael Balcon, at the recording of a radio programme and began an affair with her that year. He conducted simultaneous relationships with his wife Constance Mary, who lived with their two sons in Dorset, with Lehmann, who lived in Oxfordshire, and with Balcon. Finally he broke with his wife and Lehmann, and after his marriage was dissolved in 1951, he married Balcon, but he was no more faithful to her than he had been to his wife or Lehmann. Jill’s father was deeply unhappy about the scandalous affair since she was named publicly as co-respondent in Day-Lewis’ divorce. He disinherited her and cut off all relationships with her and Day-Lewis.

Cecil Day-Lewis died from pancreatic cancer aged 68, at Lemmons, the Hertfordshire home of Kingsley Amis and Elizabeth Jane Howard, where he and his family were staying. As a great admirer of Thomas Hardy, he arranged to be buried near the author’s grave at St Michael’s Church in Stinsford, Dorset.

Tempt me no more, for I
Have known the lightning‘s hour,
The poet‘s inward pride,
The certainty of power.

Is it far to go? (1963)

Is it far to go?
A step — no further.
Is it hard to go?
Ask the melting snow,
The eddying feather.

What can I take there?
Not a hank, not a hair.
What shall I leave behind?
Ask the hastening wind,
The fainting star.

Shall I be gone long?
For ever and a day.
To whom there belong?
Ask the stone to say,
Ask my song.

Who will say farewell?
The beating bell.
Will anyone miss me?
That I dare not tell —
Quick, Rose, and kiss me.

“Is it far to go?” in Modern English poetry (1963) edited by N. Das Gupta, Vol. 2, p. 92

Requiem for the Living (1964)

• I have had worse partings, but none that so
  Gnaws at my mind still. Perhaps it is roughly
  Saying what God alone could perfectly show —
  How selfhood begins with a walking away,
  And Jove is proved in the letting go.
  • “Walking Away” (1962), p. 33

thanks for stoppin’ by y’all

Mac tag