The Lovers’ Chronicle 6 June – crosses on the mesa – art by Diego Velázquez

Dear Zazie,  Here is today’s Lovers’ Chronicle from Mac Tag.  What cross do you bear?  Rhett

The Lovers’ Chronicle

Dear Muse,

have to go with The Allman Brothers
from their first album;
‘’But I’ll live on
And I’ll be strong
‘Cause it just ain’t my cross to bear’’
’’Good song by the boys from Georgia’’
would have saved me some heartache
if my nine-year-old self had heard
that when it first came out
‘’You bore some crosses you didn’t need to’’
i had a damn collection and it took a long time
to figure out i did not have to bear any
’’One of those things that getting there
is what matters’’
if it was part of what it took to git to you
i would go back and bear a hundred more

© copyright 2023.2024 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

i have used strength as an excuse, as in; if i only had the strength to go there, but that was just dramatics, playin’ to the crowd; one of the few things i have been clear about; the reserve of strength is unlimited, to carry any burden, any pain, as many crosses as necessary

© copyright 2022.2023 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

no more to bear
laid the past to rest
took awhile
there was some stuff
as i am sure you know

prob’ly a good thing
we did not meet before

i had to get to where
i knew i could step
in and out of darkness

as we have said,
it happened the way
it was supposed to

grateful it did

© copyright 2021.2023 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

oh i can put myself back there

blinded by need or
was it just weakness

i think the latter

had it wrapped up tight,
the best only place to be
but let that damn belief
come around, sayin’
hey friend, been awhile
may as well stay and oh
what the hell, take it
what can go wrong

you have no idea

© copyright 2020.2023 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

see if i can put myself back there

it was a time of searchin’
there was a need drivin’ me
and often abstract thoughts
came along and found a way

long night on the high plains
still the moon and Orion shine
knowin’, though not certain
when the return, but this

in the eyes, you will see

© copyright 2019.2023 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

we are all the same
we are all blue
just different shades

troubles or problems
whatever you call ’em
it is all relative
what happiness should be

i gotta work mine out alone
only way i know how
you know your own truth
so work it out however you can

we are all the same
we all have crosses
some are just
bigger than others

© copyright 2018 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

I still remember
How to give you a
tear. How to chase your
fears. How to hold you
tight. How to tell you
it will be all right

i figure fate
gave me shoulders
two-feet wide, to
carry a load,
a heavy one
So give me your
burdens; i can
carry them too

© copyright 2015 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

Another from the Wyoming files.  Inspired by something I saw in Wyoming and a story that has been rattlin’ around in my head for about a year.  We all have crosses to bear.  Some more than others.  Some bigger than others.  Some learn to live with their crosses.  Some bury themselves and their ……

Crosses on the Mesa

Every year since ’87
On the first Saturday in June
He would hike to the top
of the mesa near Red Deer Creek
and plant a cross

One white wooden
cross every year
Put there to honor
their memory
He blamed himself
for what happened
on that night at the last
Blow-Out Party

Most folks see it that way
Me, I’m not sure
Some sad, desperate, crazy stuff
has been done in the name of love

I figure it this way…
They both loved her
Neither one could live without her
One of ’em proved it on that night
The other one,
proved it every day afterwards

For him there was never
another one
Oh sure, he sought comfort
in random low rent rendezvous
But then the guilt and grief
would drive him into a bottle
and a drunken, days lastin’ fog
Then he’d go up to that mesa
and sit amidst all those crosses
and write wring-your-heart-out sad poems

Of course, one day,
that is where we found him
Up there with those crosses,
his poetry notebook,
and an empty bottle
of Pendleton
And, with no more
crosses to bear

© 2013 Cowboy Coleridge All rights reserved

The Song of the Day is a cover version of Billy Joel’s “Cross to Bear“.  We do not own the rights to this song.  All rights reserved by the rightful owner.  No copyright infringement intended.

Today is the baptismal day of Diego Velázquez (Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez; Seville, baptized June 6, 1599 – August 6, 1660 Madrid); painter who was the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV and, in my opinion, one of the most important painters of the Spanish Golden Age.  He was an individualistic artist of the contemporary Baroque period.  In addition to numerous renditions of scenes of historical and cultural significance, he painted portraits of the Spanish royal family, other notable European figures, and commoners, culminating in the production of his masterpiece Las Meninas (1656).  Velázquez’s artwork was a model for the realist and impressionist painters. 
Most of his work entered the Spanish royal collection, and the best collection is in the Museo del Prado in Madrid, though some portraits were sent abroad as diplomatic gifts, especially to the Austrian Habsburgs.

On 23 April 1618, Velázquez married Juana Pacheco (1 June 1602 – 10 August 1660), the daughter of his teacher. They had two daughters. The elder, Francisca de Silva Velázquez y Pacheco (1619–1658), married painter Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo at the Church of Santiago in Madrid on 21 August 1633. The younger, Ignacia de Silva Velázquez y Pacheco, born in 1621, died in infancy.

Gallery

Las Meninas

thanks for stoppin’ by y’all

Mac Tag

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