The Lovers’ Chronicle 13 December – never as is – smitten Chopin – art by Franz von Lenbach & Emily Carr

Dear Zazie,  Here is today’s Lovers’ Chronicle from Mac Tag dedicated to his muse.  Have you told someone never?  Has someone told you never?  Are you as is or as you were?  Rhett

The Lovers’ Chronicle

Dear Muse,

this is from another Van Halen song,
“Requires a degree of acceptance
As in, Must accept as is”
“Shocked I say, you know the only surprise
is when the song you choose isn’t Van Halen”
ha, well done my dear
since this is all about us,
here is how it relates to me and you
we came to each other as as we were
no pretense, nothin’ fake, just two
at the right time right place
to leave as is behind

© copyright 2023 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

the way this swings depends on current status, on who you are ridin’ with; sorrow or joy or somewhere in between, since it implies goin’ from one to the other then bein’ stuck there, unless this is Inception and you git a kick out, could not ask more of how it swung for me, from sorrow to betwixt to with you

© copyright 2022.2023 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

all done with searchin’

all we need is here

the things you say to me
i cannot remember hearin’
before and these feelin’s
lengthen and there is after
each day an amazement
that converges in this

all it took
to go from
never to ever

© copyright 2021 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

Pale Love, Pale Rider

well there is a word,
overused for certain
and here
is the trouble with as is
it can be a very long time

i come here as i do
each night, to try
to make a little sense
of the trail left behind
and what comes after

but mostly just tryin’
to figure this

i never expected you

© copyright 2020 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserve

no point
in searchin’

all you need is here

verse is a force
that lengthens feelin’s
and there is after each one,
an amazement that emerges

it helps with gettin’ through
occurrences of nothin’ness
and understandin’ what it takes
to resign oneself to believe in it

how is it
that the things
you say to me
are things i cannot
remember anyone
ever sayin’ to me

© copyright 2019 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

yes, i take pleasure
in this indulgence
it is the only pleasure
goin’ on here these days

one needs only
to study the position
of the hands, to know
how to play as is

how strange
these words
on this page,
are but the debris
of those who came before

simplicity,
after one has been
through everything
and played all the notes,
is all that emerges

© copyright 2018 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

fast movin’ dream
tryin’ to keep up
whisperin’ voices
of many others
the Revelator says
believe
the lover says,
yes please

love is a many splintered thing
sorrow, a many splendored thing

tryin’ to love ’em all
hell, you could not even
love yourself

did you want for them
what they wanted, or
did you want for them
what you wanted

huge difference

“But don’t you miss…”
no, not really

and what of her
she was everything
you ever wanted
but you tossed around
never as if it were free
and now never is here

so own it

© copyright 2017 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

And, it always ends
Tryin’ to git
As far away
As possible

Stand my ground –
Sick, hurt, drunk,
Married, divorced,
On the run,
Run to the ground…
Always. Always

© copyright 2015 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

Flew too close to
The flame is all
Dammit, should have
Known better. Just
Have to keep that
Door shut, the way
It must be, and
Stay in the dark

© copyright 2014 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

Sorry, Dark Muse took over today.  Inspired in part by the Songs of the Day noted below:

Never As Is

This dream is movin’ pretty fast

Not sure I can keep up with it:

I hear whisperin’ voices
There are many others in here
The prophet said do not believe
The Dark Muse said these are the words
The lover said yes please like that
The Other One said come this way

All these voices comin’ at once
Somethin’ is written on the wall…

Love is a many splintered thing
Pain is a many splendored thing
You went about lovin’ ’em all
You should have tried to love yourself
You see I am you, you are me
She was everything you had hoped

There it is again, the writin’
SI SA REVEN: just makes no sense:

Did you want for her what she did
Or that which you wanted for her
Are you as is, or as you were,
Or as is, or as you will be
Never is ever as it is
Nothin’ is ever as it was

The voices come in unison
Now I understand the writin’:

Never say never say never
Here is the trouble with never
It can be a really long time
You used never with no regrets
She told you never and it is
And you will never be as is

Never as is, never as is

© copyright 2012 mac tag/Cowboy Coleridge all rights reserved

The Songs of the Day are “The Trouble with Never” and “As Is” both by Van Halen from their album, A Different Kind Of Truth. we do not own the rights to these songs. no copyright infringement intended.

Chopin is smitten

Frédéric Chopin and George Sand by Eugène Delacroix On this day in 1836, the composer Frederic Chopin held a musical soiree in his apartment in Paris. The Paris Opéra tenor Adolphe Nourit, the Pavarotti of his day, sang some Schubert songs, accompanied at the piano by Chopin’s friend, Franz Liszt. Liszt and Chopin also played a new Sonata in E-flat for piano four-hands by Ignaz Moscheles. One of the people Chopin invited was a petite, olive-skinned Baroness turned writer, who, despite her sex, went by the name George Sand. Sand was known for her novels, which included passages considered quite racy in that day, and for her unorthodox lifestyle. She liked cigars and often showed up at parties dressed as a man. Chopin had met her earlier, and at first was not attracted to her. The 26 year-old composer was engaged to a much younger girl back home in Poland, who could not be more unlike the 32-year-old Sand. But opposites attracted in this case. Sand showed up for Chopin’s soiree wearing white pantaloons and a scarlet sash (the colors of the Polish flag)—and left her cigars at home. Before long the Chopin-Sand romance was the talk of Paris. “My heart was conquered,” wrote Chopin in his journal, “She understood me.”

Today is the birthday of Franz Seraph Lenbach, after 1882, Ritter von Lenbach (Schrobenhausen, Kingdom of Bavaria 13 December 1836 – 6 May 1904 Munich); painter known primarily for his portraits of prominent personalities from the nobility, the arts, and industry. Because of his standing in society, he was often referred to as the “Malerfürst” (Painter Prince).

From 1875 to 1876 he, Hans Makart, and other associates made a trip to Egypt, which left a deep impression in his style. In 1882, he was awarded the Order of Merit of the Bavarian Crown, which entitled him to become “Von Lenbach”. The following year, he was back in Rome, where he lived in apartments at the Palazzo Borghese. One of his sitters was Clara Schumann, whose portrait he drew in pastel in 1878. In 1885, he was commissioned to do a portrait of Pope Leo XIII. As the Pope did not have time to sit for the portrait, a new technique was used to create a photographic template. He left Rome in 1887 and began building a villa in Munich. Later that year, he married Countess Magdalena Moltke.

By the 1890s, he was painting almost entirely from photographs, a common practice at the time, but he also began working too fast, in an effort to create sufficient income. In 1895, a major scandal erupted when one of his assistants took unfinished paintings and sketches, had students fill in the details, and passed them off as Lenbach’s work. In 1896, he and Magdalena were divorced, over suspicions of infidelity with her doctor, Ernst Schweninger, whom she did in fact later marry. Lenbach also remarried, to Charlotte von Hornstein, daughter of the composer Robert von Hornstein.

Gallery

Emily Carr

And today is the birthday of Emily Carr (Victoria; December 13, 1871 – March 2, 1945 Victoria); artist and writer heavily inspired by the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast.  One of the first painters in Canada to adopt a Modernist and Post-Impressionist painting style.  As she matured, the subject matter of her painting shifted from aboriginal themes to landscapes; forest scenes in particular.   As a writer, Carr was one of the earliest chroniclers of life in British Columbia.  The Canadian Encyclopedia describes her as a “Canadian icon”.

Carr suffered a heart attack in 1937, and another in 1939, forcing her to move in with her sister Alice to recover.  In 1940 Carr suffered a serious stroke, and in 1942 she had another heart attack.  Carr’s focus shifted from her painting to her writing.  She suffered her last heart attack and died on March 2, 1945, at the James Bay Inn in her hometown of Victoria, British Columbia.  Carr is buried at Ross Bay Cemetery.

Gallery

Mac Tag

thanks for stoppin’ by y’all

Great Powers of falling wave and wind and windy fire,
With your harmonious choir
Encircle her I love and sing her into peace.
- W. B. Yeats