The Lovers’ Chronicle 23 October – dreams – art by Jean-Louis Forain – death of Théophile Gautier & Zane Grey

Dear Zazie,  Here is today’s Lovers’ Chronicle from Mac Tag dedicated to his muse.  What would poets write of your dreams?  Rhett

The Lovers’ Chronicle

Dear Muse,

dream impression…
-Place; Café de la Nouvelle Athènes in Montmartre
-Time; 1874
-Scene; he and the fabulous redhead
are sitting at a bench table sipping absinthe-
Cheers my love
cheers my dear
Tell me all about why we are here
this is the birthplace of Impressionism,
they met here to plan their first exhibition
Fabulous
and today is the birthday of Jean-Louis Forain,
he was the youngest of the group, also, Degas
was inspired to paint L'Absinthe here
Ok, I thought this looked familiar,
and who is that on piano
that is the composer Erik Satie, he appeared
here often to play, he was quite innovative,
often prone to whimsical titles for his songs,
Les trois valses distinguées du précieux dégoûte, or,
Three distinguished waltzes of a disgusted dandy
Ha that is awesome
he also wrote Je te veux, i want you,
In dreams or anywhere
we want this

© copyright 2024 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

several songs come to mind
gotta go with Roy on this one
“That is a beautiful, sad, song,
not surprised you picked it”
it reminds me of when the only
someone i had was in dreams
and how i would wake
to find them gone
but now
i wake to find you here
“That’s right, look at us”
livin’ not just in dreams

© copyright 2023 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

no excuse needed for this journey, que Édith for the kick, you have your totem, where would you like to go; a beach to watch the sunrise, the High Plains to watch the sunset, Joshua Tree to look at the stars, La Scala to see an opera, or a small dark bar in Paris; this dream is our dream

© copyright 2022.2023 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

one of few destinations
when seekin’ comfort
an escape hatch
pulled as needed
different places
the past, the future
do overs, do agains
just about anywhere would do
as long as it was away
from where i was, or,
did not figure this out till later,
from who i was

look back fondly
on those dreams
they served a purpose
no longer needed

© copyright 2021.2023 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

Pale Love, Pale Rider

let your eyes close
by dreams caress
upon your pillow lay
here, with no fear

have i come and will i stay
a vision by your side
only claim i, a touch,
a word, to be near you

would you go as i have gone
a poet on this vision welcomes,
herein lies where we should be

© copyright 2020 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

there is nothin’ truly
but that
which can never be

of any use whatsoever; everything
visionary, mysterious, melancholy,
three unknown words, brought by
eyes so transparent that through
them one sees the lucent soul

such is the world of the poet
where he receives no wounds

© copyright 2019 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

for Tamela

do dreams,
come true…

havin’ fun
was never an issue
for us

long lunches,
cocktails parties,
the opera,
doin’ nothin’

none of it
ever more fun,
before or after us

but as much
as i miss
those times

i miss most of all
not bein’ there
for you to lean on

a reminder y’all
to stop and take notice…

this mornin’, at 5am
on my way to the gym,
to the West,
the full moon settin’
to the North,
the Big Dipper
to the South,
Orion

i stopped
to take it all in,
and wished you were there

© copyright 2018 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

muse,
let your eyes close
by dreams caress
unto your breast,
upon your pillow lay
here, a world away
with no fears or tears

have i come and will i stay
a vision by your side
nothin’ claim i
nor touch, nor word,
but a lonely sigh,
to be near you
my only care

who would not go as i have gone
a poet on this dream could rhyme,
‘Here lies a dream, one for all time
Enter, this is where we belong’

© copyright 2017 mac tag/cowboy Coleridge all rights reserved

Road trip Sunday
360 miles
Plenty coffee
You on my mind

I only ever have clarity
When I am with you

Wanna road trip darlin’
Keep me in coffee
And I will drive you
anywhere

© copyright 2016 mac tag/cowboy Coleridge all rights reserved

So I reminisce
about moments that
slipped away. Words not
spoken, verses not
written, chances not
taken. I recall
it all with regret

I love all things:
Darkened, damaged,
blackened, hurtin’,
wounded, ruined,
forgotten and
unforgiven
I seek and adore them.

Road trip weekend y’all
1200 hundred miles, or
there about. Coffe
music, more coffee
and you on my mind

© copyright 2015 mac tag/cowboy Coleridge all rights reserved

lyrics inspired by Théophile Gautier, “Le fantôme de la rose”

The Phantom of the Dream

Muse, let your eyes unclose and gleam
Those lovely eyes by dreams caressed
I am the phantom of the dream
You held last night unto your breast,
Like love upon your pillow lay
I heard your weepin’, saw your tears,
Here in the other world array,
I came to keep at bay your fears

My dear sweet muse, for you I died
Yet have I come and will I stay
My vivid vision by your side
Will linger till the break of day.
Yet fear not, muse; nothin’ claim I
Nor touch, nor word, or mournful prayer
My soul is but a lonely sigh,
To be near you, my only care

My death is as my life was… sweet
Who would not go as I have gone
A fate like mine who would not meet,
Your fantasies to live upon
A poet on this dream could rhyme,
Engrave this legend with a kiss
‘Here lies a dream, one for all time;
Enter and succumb to its bliss’

© copyright 2012 mac tag/cowboy Coleridge all rights reserved

Today is the birthday of Jean-Louis Forain (Reims, France 23 October 1852 – 11 July 1931 Paris); Impressionist painter and printmaker, working in media including oils, watercolour, pastel, etching and lithograph.

Forain’s quick and often biting wit allowed him to befriend poets Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine and writer Joris-Karl Huysmans. He was one of only seven known recipients to receive a first edition of Une saison en enfer directly from Rimbaud.  He was the youngest artist to frequent and participate in the feverish debates led by Édouard Manet and Edgar Degas at the Café de la Nouvelle Athènes in Montmartre.

Forain joined the Impressionist circle in time to take part in the fourth independent exhibition in 1879; he participated in four of the eight Impressionist Exhibitions (1879, 1880, 1881 and 1886). Influenced by Impressionist theories on light and color, he depicted scenes of everyday life: his watercolors, pastels and paintings focused on Parisian popular entertainments and themes of modernity—the racetrack, the ballet, the comic opera and bustling cafés.

Forain was the most famous caricaturist of the Belle époque, and drew, among others, for Le Figaro for more than 30 years. From 1898–1899 Forain worked as an illustrator for the weekly French magazine Psst…!, a satirical publication to promote the anti-Dreyfus.

Aside from being influenced by Degas, Forain was greatly influenced by Honoré Daumier, and his treatment of subjects in his drawings for publications such as Le Figaro and Le Courrier Francais are often reminiscent of Daumier’s. In 1892 he published the first volume of La Comédie Parisienne, a collection of Forain’s illustrations and commentary on the major political stories that disrupted France’s Third Republic—such as the anarchic crisis and the Dreyfus affair. In 1891 Forain married the painter Jeanne Bosc with whom he had a son, Jean-Loup, born in 1895.

During the first World War, Forain’s illustrations honored the patriotism of his contemporaries, and he enlisted in the Section de Camouflage under Lucien-Victor Guirand de Scévola. In his later years, Forain created numerous scenes of the Law Courts and other Parisian institutions plus social satire caricatures of late 19th and early 20th century French life.

In 1931, shortly before his death, he was made a member of the Royal Academy of Arts in London. He was one of France’s most revered artists during his time. He was, perhaps, most highly respected for his numerous drawings which chronicled and commented on Parisian city life at the end of the 19th century.

Gallery

on this day in 1872, French poet Théophile Gautier died in Paris.  From TG we get the Poem of the Day.  To borrow from Shakespeare: Once more unto the dreams we go dear muse.  And talk of phantoms as Halloween approaches…

The Phantom of the Rose

Sweet lady, let your lids unclose.–
Those lids by maiden dreams caressed;
I am the phantom of the rose
You wore last night upon your breast.
Like pearls upon my petals lay
The weeping fountain’s silver tears,
Ere in the glittering array
You bore me proudly ‘mid your peers.

O lady, ’twas for you I died–
Yet have I come and will I stay;
My rosy phantom by your side
Will linger till the break of day.
Yet fear not, lady; naught claim I–
Nor mass, nor hymn, or funeral prayer;
My soul is but a perfumed sigh,
Which pure from Paradise I bear.

My death is as my life was–sweet;
Who would not die as I have done?
A fate like mine who would not meet,
Your bosom fair to lie upon?
A poet on my sentient tomb
Engraved this legend with a kiss:
‘Here lies a rose of fairest bloom;
E’en kings are jealous of its bliss.

And on this day in 1939, author Zane Grey died in Altadena, California.  Grey married Dolly Roth, an apparently fine and forgivin’ woman.  Durin’ his courtship of Dolly, Grey still saw previous girlfriends and warned her frankly, “But I love to be free. I cannot change my spots. The ordinary man is satisfied with a moderate income, a home, wife, children, and all that….But I am a million miles from being that kind of man and no amount of trying will ever do any good“.  He added, “I shall never lose the spirit of my interest in women.”  It was in Altadena that he spent time with his mistress Brenda Montenegro.  The two met while hikin’ Eaton Canyon in California.  Of her he wrote, “I saw her flowing raven mane against the rocks of the canyon. I have seen the red skin of the Navajo, and the olive of the Spaniards, but her…her skin looked as if her Creator had in that instant molded her just for me. I thought it was an apparition. She seemed to be the embodiment of the West I portray in my books, open and wild.”  Just as I felt that you muse, had been molded for me.

The Song of the Day is “Dreams of Sanity” from Andrew Lloyd Webber‘s The Phanton of the Opera as performed by Sarah Brightman and Michael Crawford.

Mac Tag

thanks for stoppin’ by y’all

Perhaps when we find ourselves wanting everything, it is because we are dangerously close to wanting nothing. – Syvia Plath

If . . . I myself can understand what I’ve written, I feel the day hasn’t been totally wasted. — S. J. Perelman