The Lovers’ Chronicle 2 June – longed for – art by Domenico Ghirlandajo, Federico Zandomeneghi & Paul-Albert Besnard – birth of Thomas Hardy

Dear Zazie,  Here is today’s Lovers’ Chronicle from Mac Tag.  Do you know the Dark Muse?  Rhett

The Lovers’ Almanac

Dear Muse,

strugglin’ to find a song
found two songs called ‘’Longing’’
from polar opposite musical genres,
one by the doom metal band Bell Witch
’’I didn’t know that was a thing’’
neither did i, but i kinda liked it
the other a beautiful piano piece
by the classical composer Josef Suk
’’That’s about as different as can be’’
also, found an unreleased album
from Dusty Springfield called Longing
’’Wow, it was recorded but not released’’
yes, for various reasons she gave up on it
’’Damn, wish we could listen to it’’
you might say, we long to hear it
’’Ha, I think I’m longing for something else’’
me too, the only thing that can ever reach us

© copyright 2023.2024 mac tag/cowboycoleridge all rights reserved

could have chosen atonement, that has consistently shown up on this day, hell, it is really what this entire trail of verse has been about, makin’ amends to myself and anyone else along the way, but enough has been written about that, the theme today relates to the words never heard, rather, the words not heard from the right one, those words were heard and said often but they were empty, not full as they were when i heard what i longed for from you

© copyright 2022.2024 mac tag/cowboycoleridge all rights reserved

how ’bout this
reality starts up,
to awaken a chance
in time no longer hushed,
the longed for song

feelin’s
with no name
now known

form, syllables & stanzas
verse, with this intent

dark words at rest,
blank page fillin’
inspired by you and

our voice echoes
through it all

© copyright 2021.2023 mac tag/cowboycoleridge all rights reserved

Pale Love, Pale Rider

For stones that were thrown
atonement is a……

dream starts up,
to awaken and dance,
the longed for song

familiar face
blank page slayed
never miss

your name

vision, seal the past
a pen to quell regret

mercy, to shield
from torment
protectin’ reveries

that which you know well
a part of you, a part of all

© copyright 2020 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

when i set out
those many miles ago,
the verse was there,
but i knew not why

and moonlight
risin’ on the ranch
lit the lonesomeness

whence comes solace
from sufferin’, bein’
in cleavin’ to the dream
in gazin’ within

atonement clearly

i remember
waltzin’ across
the Piazza San Marco

do you

© copyright 2019 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

dream starts up,
to awaken and dance
in time hushed long since,
the longed for song

familiar face
with no name
if only i knew

form, stanzas and syllables
verse, display and all obey

dark words sent,
blank page slayed
never miss

your name

vision, know not but decay
an arm upraised in a prayer
seal the unforgiven past
a pen to quell regret

mercy, to shield
from torment
protect reveries
from turnin’
into rhapsodies

“That which you know well
(Selective self delusion
only a short ride away)
A part of you, part of all
(Wicked, ways
and choices made,
must be paid)
One of the unforgiven
(Never is as is,
a really long time)
of dark words”
(For stones that were thrown
atonement is a……)

dream starts up,
to stay the course
in time at last heard
the longed for words

© copyright 2018 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

waitin’ for someone
from a half remembered dream

for atonement perhaps

© copyright 2017 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

They said she had
a dark streak of gloom and anger
They said she was
powerful, rather than tender
They got that right

Comal County Blues
damn these memories
comin’ back…
dancin’, drinkin’ Shiner
lovin’ her
from my knees
please someone
take ’em away

atonement, right

© copyright 2016 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

C’mon darlin’, love
me always. Or at
least until first light
Whichever comes first

***

I sacrificed
my soul on the
alter of my
selfishness. A
crime which cannot
be forgiven.

Why do I want
to tell you things
I have never
told anyone

Atonement I suppose

You show me your
sins babe, and I
will show you mine

Amazin’ bravery
Awed and flattered
And never ever
to be forgotten

Will brake for poems
about you in
my head that must
be written now!

© copyright 2015 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

As I have said before, all of my poems are about love or the lack thereof.  Here is another for the lack thereof.  Another for the Dark Muse.  The first in a what will likely be a series of Dark Muse poems.  Inspired by the Dark Lady Sonnets by Shakespeare.

Dark Muse

My dream starts up, beams
to make my sad heart awake
and dance in time hushed too long,
the longed for song; hope, love, faith

Who smiles there? A stray spirit
A lovely woman perhaps?
Soul in air, speak, who are you?
Your appearance, what portends?

Your face does seem familiar
If only I knew your name
If only I knew……
When bad tidings this way come
When storm clouds amass
Stern commands are then given:
Form stanzas and syllables
Poems, display and all obey
The dark words sent, blank page slayed
The words in dark skies born, charged
bolts that never miss the truth
Your name, savior? Nemesis?

As halcyon days in spring,
vision in this ray, floatin’,
for me; know not but decay
One arm upraised in a prayer
Seal the unforgiven past
Hold a pen to quell regret
Mercy, wings stretched broad across
to shield and free from torment
To protect my reveries
from turnin’ into painful
rhapsodies
Your name, tell now or depart!

I am that which you know well
(Selective self delusion
only a heartbeat away) 
A part of you, part of all
(Wicked, wicked ways
and choices made, must be paid) 
One of the unforgiven
(Never is as is, 
a really long time) 
Mother of Dark Words
(For stones that were thrown
atonement is a……)

My dream starts up, streams
to force my sad heart on course
and march in time at last heard,
the longed for words of darkness

© 2013 Cowboy Coleridge All rights reserved

Today is the birthday of Domenico Ghirlandajo (Domenico di Tommaso Curradi di Doffo Bigordi; Florence; 2 June 1448 – 11 January 1494 Florence); Renaissance painter.

Considered a self-portrait
from Adoration of the Magi, 1488

Ghirlandaio was part of the so-called “third generation” of the Florentine Renaissance, along with Verrocchio, the Pollaiolo brothers and Sandro Botticelli. Ghirlandaio led a large and efficient workshop that included his brothers Davide and Benedetto, his brother-in-law Bastiano Mainardi from San Gimignano, and later his son Ridolfo.  Many apprentices passed through Ghirlandaio’s workshop, including Michelangelo.  His particular talent lay in his ability to posit depictions of contemporary life and portraits of contemporary people within the context of religious narratives, bringing him great popularity and many large commissions.

Gallery

Thomas Hardy

Today is the birthday of Thomas Hardy (Stinsford, Dorset, England 2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928 Dorchester, Dorset, England); novelist and poet.  A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, especially William Wordsworth.  Charles Dickens was another important influence.  Like Dickens, he was highly critical of much in Victorian society, though Hardy focused more on a declining rural society.  While Hardy wrote poetry throughout his life and regarded himself primarily as a poet, his first collection was not published until 1898.  Initially, he gained fame as the author of novels, including Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), Tess of the d’Urbervilles (1891), and Jude the Obscure (1895).  Hardy’s poetry, though prolific, was not as well received during his lifetime.  It was rediscovered in the 1950s, when Hardy’s poetry had a significant influence on the Movement poets of the 1950s and 1960s.

In 1874, he fell in love with and married Emma Lavinia Gifford, but he later became estranged from her.  After her death, he married his much younger secretary, Florence Emily Dugdale.  But he felt intensely remorseful about the estrangement from Emma, and his Poems 1912-1913 were elegies for her and explorations of his grief.  A biographer of Hardy called the collection “one of the finest and strangest celebrations of the dead in English poetry”.

Verse

Florence Hardy at the seaside

When I set out for Lyonnesse,
A hundred miles away,
The rime was on the spray,
And starlight lit my lonesomeness.

• “When I Set Out For Lyonnesse” (1870), lines 1-4, from Satires of Circumstance (1914)

Whence comes solace? Not from seeing,
What is doing, suffering, being;
Not from noting Life’s conditions,
Not from heeding Time’s monitions;
But in cleaving to the Dream
And in gazing at the Gleam
Whereby gray things golden seem.

• “On a Fine Morning” (1899), lines 1-7, from Poems of the Past and Present (1901)

• We two kept house, the Past and I,
  The Past and I;
  I tended while it hovered nigh,
  Leaving me never alone.
  • “The Ghost of the Past”, lines 1-4, from Satires of Circumstance (1914)
• In a solitude of the sea
  Deep from human vanity,
  And the Pride of Life that planned her, stilly couches she.
  • “The Convergence of the Twain” (Lines on the loss of the Titanic) (1912), lines 1-3, from Satires of Circumstance (1914)

Woman much missed, how you call to me, call to me,
Saying that now you are not as you were
When you had changed from the one who was all to me,
But as at first, when our day was fair.

• “The Voice” (1912), lines 1-4, from Satires of Circumstance (1914)

today is the birthday of Federico Zandomeneghi (Venice; June 2, 1841 – December 31, 1917 Paris); Impressionist painter.

in 1862, he moved to Florence for 5 years where he frequented the Caffè Michelangiolo. There he met a number of the artists and he joined them in painting landscapes outdoors. Painting outside of the studio, “en plein air”, was at that time an innovative approach, allowing for a new vividness and spontaneity in the rendering of light.

In 1874, he went to Paris, where he was to spend nearly the rest of his life. He quickly made the acquaintance of the Impressionists, who had just had their first group exhibition. Zandomeneghi, whose style of painting was similar to theirs, would participate in four of their later exhibitions, in 1879, 1880, 1881, and 1886. To supplement the meager returns from the sale of his paintings, Zandomeneghi found work drawing illustrations for fashion magazines.

Gallery

And today is the birthday of Paul-Albert Besnard (Paris 2 June 1849 – 4 December 1934 Paris); painter and printmaker. He studied at the École des Beaux-Arts, studied with Jean Bremond and was influenced by Alexandre Cabanel. He won the Prix de Rome in 1874 with the painting Death of Timophanes.

On 19 November 1879 he married the sculptor Charlotte Dubray (1854–1931). They had four children, of whom three were artists.

A virtuoso, he achieved successes alike in watercolour, pastel, oil and etching, both in portraiture, in landscape and in decoration. His close analysis of light can be studied in his picture La femme qui se chauffe at the Luxembourg in Paris, one of a large group of nude studies of which a later example is Une Nymphe au bord de la mer; and in the work produced during and after a visit to India in 1911. A large panel, Peace by Arbitration, was completed seven days before the outbreak of war in 1914.

Gallery

The Song of the Day is “Dark Shines” by Muse.  We do not own the rights to this song.  All rights reserved by the rightful owner.  No copyright infringement intended.

Mac Tag

Follow us on twitter  @cowboycoleridge