The Lovers’ Chronicle 14 September – show me – verse by Francisco de Quevedo – art by Charles Dana Gibson & Richard Gerstl – photography by Terence Donovan

Dear Zazie, Here is today’s Lovers’ Chronicle from Mac Tag dedicated to his muse.  Follow us on twitter @cowboycoleridge.  Anything you want to show me? Any first kiss memories?   Rhett

The Lovers’ Chronicle

Dear Muse,

show
i ain’t showin’ nobody nuthin’ if i cain’t…
wait, that is not how that song goes,
must be another dream, ok lets go
show me your worst on the day
Richard Gerstl set fire to his paintings
distraught over the loss of his love
Mathilde, he stabs himself
and then he makes a noose
to be consumed by darkness

© copyright 2024 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

obviously, Kristofferson’s song
with perhaps the best ever openin’ line;
“If you’re feelin’ salty then I’m your tequila”
“Oh fabulous, he is a treasure”
one of the rare ones
a poet and melody maker
also like the line;
“There ain’t nothin’ sweeter than naked emotions”
which is really what this,
two lovers livin’ and sharin’,
is all about
“Altogether now”;
“So you show me yours hon and I’ll show you mine”

© copyright 2023 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

back in time; please do not drone on about happiness, whatever the hell that is, tell me about your darkness, what kept you up at 3am, does it still chase you, do you have enough baggage to fill the Denver airport; good, lets hear it; where are your scars, i want to know, promise i will show mine

© copyright 2022.2023 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

easily mostly interested
in seein’ someone’s pain
havin’ shouldered my share,
i want to see that soonest

each persons is unique
and no we are not
runnin’ down old banalities
that it builds blah, blah, blah

it tells me about the depth
of your feelin’s, your passion

yours, i was honored to hear
and i cherish that you showed me

© copyright 2021.2023 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

Pale Love, Pale Rider

away with pretension,
tissues of falsehood
give me the wild thrill
of the soul-breathin’ glance,
or the rapture which dwells
on the lips of a first kiss

you, in whom inspiration blooms,
whose passions are made for this
from what verse, what life will flow

© copyright 2020 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

to find who i am
to find in you
we are our kind

sketches
of what was thought lost
hum once more

fascination blooms
with shared minds

remembrance
which dwells
on your lips

blest inspiration, sonnets flow,
in each breathin’ glance
could you ever have known
that this would come

© copyright 2019 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

yesterday, tomorrow, today
i am and was and will be
because all that matters
must be said

without stoppin’
undress me
of all that was
and i will for you

show me
and i will show you
away with ordinary
join me on the journey
that matters not
where we go

for we will be whole

© copyright 2018 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

have you been intimate
with beauty and sorrow
then we are kindred
nothin’ else matters
aside from beauty
and sorrow

and i will only ever
ask one thing of you
show me, share with me
your beauty and sorrow

© copyright 2017 mac tag/cowboy Coleridge all rights reserved

bitter truth
out of my mouth
Mendin heart, buryin’
needs, the soul murmurs
Strip me of me, that could be
through piety pay what must be paid

© copyright 2016 mac tag/cowboy Coleridge all rights reserved

Remembrance

Age has chilled my blood
And my pleasures are past
If nothin’ else
I will have this
My dearest remembrance
Will be till the last
The memory
Of that first kiss

© copyright 2012 mac tag/Cowboy Coleridge all rights reserved

Today I was thinkin’ about a first kiss, which occurred on this day (thanks Tina) and a first kiss that never happened.  Jett told me about a conversation he had with his great unrequited love.  He said he remembered tellin’ her that first kisses were his favorite memories from past relationships.  She told him she understood, but she preferred the prelude to the kiss;  the build-up, the “playing it out in your head” dozens of times before it happens, the “you know it’s going to happen, it’s just a matter of time.”  They never had that first kiss.  It is Jett’s biggest regret. This is for Julie.

The Poem of the Day comes to us from Lord Byron:

The First Kiss Of Love

Away with your fictions of flimsy romance;
Those tissues of falsehood which folly has wove!
Give me the mild beam of the soul-breathing glance,
Or the rapture which dwells on the first kiss of love.

Ye rhymers, whose bosoms with phantasy glow,
Whose pastoral passions are made for the grove;
From what blest inspiration your sonnets would flow,
Could you ever have tasted the first kiss of love!

If Apollo should e’er his assistance refuse,
Or the Nine be deposed from your service to rove,
Invoke them no more, bid adieu to the muse,
and try the effect of the first kiss of love.

I hate you, ye cold compositions of art!
Though prudes may condemn me, and bigots reprove,
I court the effusions that spring from the heart,
Which throbs with delight to the first kiss of love.

Your shepherds, your flocks, those fantastical themes,
Perhaps may amuse, yet they never can move:
Arcadia displays but a region of dreams:
What are visions like these to the first kiss of love?

Oh! cease to affirm that man, since his birth,
From Adam till now, has with wretchedness strove,
Some portion of paradise still is on earth,
And Eden revives in the first kiss of love.

When age chills the blood, when our pleasures are past-
For years fleet away with the wings of the dove-
The dearest remembrance will still be the last,
Our sweetest memorial the first kiss of love.

The Song of the Day is “First Kiss” by Ryan O’Shaughnessy

Francisco de Quevedo
by Juan van der Hamen? after a painting by Diego Velázquez

Today is the birthday of Francisco de Quevedo (Francisco Gómez de Quevedo y Santibáñez Villegas; Madrid 14 September 1580 – 8 September 1645 Villanueva de los Infantes, Spain); nobleman, politician and writer of the Baroque era.  Along with his lifelong rival, Luis de Góngora, Quevedo was one of the most prominent Spanish poets of the age.  His style is characterized by what was called conceptismo.  This style existed in stark contrast to Góngora’s culteranismo.

Verse

Ayer se fue, mañana no ha llegado,
Hoy se está yendo sin parar un punto;
Soy un fue, y un seré y un es cansado 

Pues amarga la verdad
quiero echarla de mi boca

Un nuevo corazón, un hombre nuevo
ha menester, señor, el alma mía.
¡Desnúdame de mí, que ser podría
que a tu piedad pagase lo que debo!
(soneto “Un nuevo corazón, un hombre nuevo…”)

Today is the birthday of Charles Dana Gibson (Roxbury, Massachusetts; September 14, 1867 – December 23, 1944 Manhattan); illustrator who created the Gibson Girl, an iconic representation of the beautiful and independent American woman at the turn of the 20th century.

He published his illustrations in Life magazine and other major national publications for more than 30 years, becoming editor in 1918 and later owner of the general interest magazine.

On November 7, 1895, Gibson was married to Irene Langhorne (1873–1956), a daughter of railroad industrialist Chiswell Langhorne. Irene was born in Danville, Virginia, and was one of five sisters, all noted for their beauty, including Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor, the first woman to serve as a Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. Irene and Charles were the parents of two children.

For part of his career, Gibson lived in New Rochelle, New York, a popular art colony among actors, writers and artists of the period. The community was best known for its unprecedented number of prominent American illustrators. Gibson also owned an island off Islesboro, Maine which came to be known as 700 Acre Island; he and his wife spent an increasing amount of time there through the years.

Gibson died of a heart ailment, aged 77, at his home 127 East 73rd Street. After a private funeral service at the Gibson home in New York, he was interred at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Irene died at her home in Greenwood, Virginia in April 1956 at the age of 83.

gallery

And today is the birthday of Richard Gerstl (Vienna; 14 September 1883 – 4 November 1908 Vienna); painter and draughtsman known for his expressive psychologically insightful portraits, his lack of critical acclaim during his lifetime, and his affair with the wife of Arnold Schoenberg which led to his suicide.

Around 1907, he began to associate with composers Schoenberg and Alexander von Zemlinsky, who lived in the same building at the time. Gerstl and Schoenberg developed a mutual admiration based upon their individual talents. Gerstl apparently instructed Schoenberg in art.

During this time, Gerstl moved into a flat in the same house and painted several portraits of Schoenberg, his family, and his friends. These portraits also included paintings of Schoenberg’s wife Mathilde, Alban Berg and Zemlinsky. His highly stylized heads anticipated German expressionism and used pastels as in the works by Oskar Kokoschka. Gerstl and Mathilde became extremely close and, in the summer of 1908, she left her husband and children to travel to Vienna with Gerstl. Schoenberg was in the midst of composing his Second String Quartet, which he dedicated to her. Mathilde rejoined her husband in October.

Distraught by the loss of Mathilde, his isolation from his associates, and his lack of artistic acceptance, Gerstl entered his studio during the night of 4 November 1908 and apparently burned every letter and piece of paper he could find. Although many paintings survived the fire, it is believed that a great deal of his artwork as well as personal papers and letters were destroyed. Other than his paintings, only eight drawings are known to have survived unscathed. Following the burning of his papers, Gerstl hanged himself in front of the studio mirror and somehow managed to stab himself as well. He was 25.

The incident had a significant impact on Schoenberg and his “drama with music” (i.e., opera) Die glückliche Hand is based on these events.

Gallery

Arnold Schoenberg

Mac Tag

thanks for stoppin’ by y’all