The Lovers’ Chronicle 10 September – fallin’ – premiere of Benvenuto Cellini by Hector Berlioz – art by Marianne von Werefkin – verse by H.D.

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

The Lovers’ Chronicle

Dear Muse,

this one comes from the song
“Fallin’ & Flyin’” written by
Gary Nicholson and Steven Bruton
from the movie Crazy Heart
“I haven’t seen that one yet”
one i wish i had written
because i have lived it
“On the trail behind you”
if i had to pick a theme
song for the first 60 years
this could be it
“Well now you can write one
for now and the years to come”
could be, ‘’Feel like Fallin’’’, for you

© copyright 2023 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

in case you need a road sign; a confessional poet, from the first, buttoned up tight in every other way but never shy about speadin’ vulnerability on the page, the old ones were very structured but the new ones are free, with no idea where they are goin’ when i start; call it fallin’ and flyin’ verse

© copyright 2022.2023 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

a convergence of time, place
of purpose, vision and the one

as oft told, years of not bein’
able to follow through mostly
because i was ill equipped

there were times
when it sure felt right
but sadly
they were short lived

now though, feelin’ like,
fallin’ and flyin’

© copyright 2021.2023 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

Pale Love, Pale Rider

perhaps there is
after all

moments sought
of beauty, grace,
and i now know
i will only find
peace in the end
in your presence

let us live, love,
and say it well
in verse

let us spread
it across the canvas
of what we know,
what we see
in this vision
each other

© copyright 2020 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

none of that goin’ on here
perhaps with memories

may or may not provide
any insight or worthy verse
but that never stopped before

i do miss the fallin’ part
the reason to go back
and try again

just remember if and when,
make sure the back door
has easy access

© copyright 2019.2023 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

there is no
ever after here
got some
for awhile
and while it lasts,
but that is all

shoulda known all along
that B. B. was right,
long gone for sure

and for those of you
who say i am wrong,
that i should not
give up hope,
i say…

sadness is borne of ignorin’
that which is inevitable

so there will be no despairin’
of what was meant to be
for this is where i belong

© copyright 2018 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

“Your vulnerability
is freaking me out.
Is it real?”
it is the only thing
i have left that is

“Remember when you told me
when you were young
and you met someone new,
you thought you were flying,
but you were really falling?”

“And didn’t you tell me
there were times
when you knew
you were going to fall,
but you tried to fly
because the falling
felt like flying?”

oh, I see where this is goin’…
“Well come on!
Fly you big dummy!”

© copyright 2017 mac tag/cowboy Coleridge all rights reserved

Today is the premiere day of Benvenuto Cellini, an opera semiseria in two acts with music by Hector Berlioz and libretto by Léon de Wailly and Henri Auguste Barbier. It was the first of Berlioz’s operas, premiered at the Académie Royale de Musique (Salle Le Peletier) on this day in 1838. The story is inspired by the memoirs of the Florentine sculptor Benvenuto Cellini, although the elements of the plot are largely fictional. The opera is technically very challenging and rarely performed. However, the overture to the opera sometimes features in symphony orchestra programs, as does the concert overture Le carnaval romain which Berlioz composed from material in the opera.

Marianne von Werefkin
Self portrait, circa 1910

Today is the birthday of Marianne von Werefkin (Marianna Wladimirowna Werewkina; Tula, Russian Empire; 10 September [O.S. 29 August] 1860 – 6 February 1938, Ascona, Switzerland); Expressionist painter.

In 1892 she met Alexej von Jawlensky, who desired to be her protégé, and in 1896 she, Jawlensky, and their servant moved to Munich.  For the sake of Jawlensky’s painting, Werefkin interrupted her painting for almost ten years. She initiated a Salon in Munich which soon became a center of lively artistic exchange.

At the outbreak of the First World War, Werefkin and Jawlensky immigrated to Switzerland, near Geneva.  They later moved to Zurich.  By 1918, they had separated, and Werefkin moved alone to Ascona, on Lago Maggiore where she painted many colorful, landscapes in an expressionist style.

Werefkin was buried in the Russian graveyard in Ascona.

Gallery

And today is the birthday of Hilda “H.D.” Doolittle (Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; September 10, 1886 – September 27, 1961 Zurich); poet, novelist, and memoirist known for her association with the early 20th century avant-garde Imagist group of poets such as Ezra Pound and Richard Aldington.  She published under the pen name of H.D.

H.D. married Aldington in 1913.  After he enlisted in the army, the couple became estranged, and he reportedly took a mistress in 1917.  H.D. became involved in a close but platonic relationship with D. H. Lawrence.  She moved into a cottage in Cornwall with the composer Cecil Gray, a friend of Lawrence and became pregnant with Gray’s child, however, by the time she realised she was expecting, the relationship had cooled and Gray had returned to live in London.  Close to the end of the war, H.D. met the wealthy English novelist Bryher (Annie Winifred Ellerman).  They lived together until 1946, and although both took numerous other partners, Bryher remained her lover for the rest of H.D.’s life.

Verse

 So you may say,
Greek flower; Greek ecstasy
reclaims forever
one who died
following intricate song’s
lost measure.

Let Zeus Record

For one moment seek
a lesser beauty
and a lesser grace,
but you will find
no peace in the end
save in her presence.

• Amaranth

Be indigestible, hard, ungiving.
so that, living within,
you beget, self-out-of-self,
selfless,
that pearl-of-great-price.

• The Walls Do Not Fall

The reason is:
rats leave the sinking ship
but we…
we…
didn’t leave,
so the ship
didn’t sink,
and that’s madness,
Lear’s song
that’s Touchstone’s forest jest,
that’s swan of Avon logic.

• May 1943

We don’t have to know,
only to be:
let go the jumble of worn words,
reason and vanity.

• Star by Day

mac tag

thanks for stoppin’ by y’all

What does a woman see in another woman that she doesn’t see in a man: tenderness. – Sylvia Plath

Let me live, love, and say it well in good sentences. – Sylvia Plath

A poet, when he is growing old, will ask himself if he cannot keep his mask and his vision without new bitterness, new disappointment. – W.B. Yeats