The Lovers’ Chronicle 17 December – the day we met – verse by John Greenleaf Whittier – art by Paul César Helleu – photographs by Alexandr Hackenschmied

Dear Zazie,  Here is today’s Lovers’ Chronicle from Mac Tag dedicated to his muse.  How has the day you met someone special touched your life?  Rhett

The Lovers’ Chronicle

Dear Muse, 

I have played the SOD over and over and over today

i found this song back in 2012
when i came up with the theme,
“The Day We Met” by Vermillion Lies
“I don’t know them or the song”
i did not either but this beautifully
hauntin’ song about two people
fallin’ in love on the day they met,
quickly became a favorite
“I like it very much”
our story began that day
lets keep tellin’ it

© copyright 2023 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

we had to wait for a table so we walked down Church street and sat on a bench near the square, the weather was nice, cool, you were beautiful, we had been talkin’ on the phone and tradin’ messages so we knew there was a connection but neither of us could have seen what was comin’, the day we met

© copyright 2022.2023 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

a Friday, the day before Halloween
i was stayin’ at the Courtyard
in downtown Decatur
a storm had moved through
knockin’ out the power at my house

we agreed to meet at Leon’s
a few blocks from the hotel
you drove up from your condo
on Peachtree

i first saw you walkin’ up
the sidewalk on Ponce

the day we began to fall

© copyright 2021.2023 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

Pale Love, Pale Rider

the night we met
sittin’ on a bench
on the plaza

so engrossed
we knew not
what else existed

we are now
not the same

when i think of the path we took
to get to that day, how did we

was it fate or luck or magic

whatever

what matters now,
from that day to this

© copyright 2020 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

give ourselves up
to denied feelin’s,
seekin’ increase
in every reflection

to hear those lines
which drive me,
delivered
with such intensity

found, our own contentment
where we want for nothin’
beyond what we have

or give it a more
fascinatin’ name

call it hope

© copyright 2019 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

what it is
or what it means
can never be said

but it is here

a pledge
of the possible
from that first day

a sense
of harmony
only found here

the justification
of bein’
here

with you

© copyright 2018 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

yes, thinkin’ about
the day we met,
always a good way
to git things flowin’
i wish i could remember
i wish i could forget
we were invincible
why did we not stay
why was it not enough
why is it never enough

the day we met
the day we fell

© copyright 2017 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

When she smiled… Well,
That was it for
Me. Never been
The same since then

When she sang… Well,
That was it for
Me. Never been
The same since then

A meetin’ with despair
The clock, sand and water
Epitaph: Je reste avec vous
But I’m strugglin’ to stay with you

© copyright 2014 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

The Day We Met

The day we met
Stands apart
From all the days
In my memories

To say that I am
Changed by that day
Is to not say
Near enough

Before that day
My way had been lost
More importantly
My words had been lost

After that day, after darkness
My words began to flow again
At times I was so engrossed in you
I knew not what else existed
You became my greatest pleasure
We touched and two became one

When I think of the path I took
To get to that day, to get to you
I am left in wonder at how
We managed to meet that day
Was it fate or luck or magic or what
Whatever it was it matters not

What matters is this
I have loved you
From that day
To this day

© copyright 2012 mac tag/Cowboy Coleridge all rights reserved

The Song of the Day is “The Day We Met” by Vermillion Lies

John Greenleaf Whittier

Today is the birthday of John Greenleaf Whittier (Haverhill, Massachusetts; December 17, 1807 – September 7, 1892 Hampton Falls, New Hampshire); Quaker poet and advocate of the abolition of slavery in the United States.  Frequently listed as one of the Fireside Poets.  Whittier is also remembered for his book Snow-Bound.

Verse 

• Better heresy of doctrine than heresy of heart.
  • Mary Garvin
• Tradition wears a snowy beard, romance is always young.
  • Mary Garvin
• The Night is Mother of the Day,
  The Winter of the Spring,
  And ever upon old Decay
  The greenest mosses cling.
• A Dream of Summer,
• Beauty seen is never lost.
  • Sunset on the Bearcamp

The Beauty which old Greece or Rome
Sung, painted, wrought, lies close at home.

• To ———
• Low stir of leaves and dip of oars
  And lapsing waves on quiet shores.
• Snow Bound

• All hearts confess the saints elect,
  Who, twain in faith, in love agree,
  And melt not in an acid sect
  The Christian pearl of charity!
• Snow Bound
• Life is ever lord of Death
  And Love can never lose its own.

Paul César Helleu

Today is the birthday of Paul César Helleu (Vannes, Brittany 17 December 1859 – 23 March 1927 Paris); oil painter, pastel artist, drypoint etcher, and designer, best known for his numerous portraits of beautiful society women of the Belle Époque.  He also conceived the ceiling mural of night sky constellations for Grand Central Terminal in New York City.

Helleu was commissioned in 1884 to paint a portrait of a young woman named Alice Guérin (1870–1933).  They fell in love, and married two years later, on 28 July 1886.  Throughout their lives together, she was his favourite model.  Charming, refined and graceful, she helped introduce them to the aristocratic circles of Paris, where they were popular fixtures.

Gallery

And today is the birthday of Alexandr Hackenschmied, known later as Alexander Hammid (Alexander Siegfried George Hackenschmied; Linz, Austria; December 1907 – 26 July 2004, New York City); photographer, film director, cinematographer and film editor. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1938 and became involved in American avant-garde cinema. He is best known for three films: Crisis (1939), Meshes of the Afternoon (1943) and To Be Alive! (1964). He made Meshes of the Afternoon with Maya Deren, to whom he was married from 1942 to 1947. His second marriage was to the photographer Hella Heyman, who had also collaborated with Hammid and Deren on several films.

He won the 1965 Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject) for To Be Alive! (1964), which he co-directed with Francis Thompson.

Gallery

Mac Tag

thanks for stoppin’ by y’all

Perhaps the greatest reading pleasure has an element of self-annihilation. To be so engrossed that you barely know you exist. – Ian McEwan

Tell me,
Is it your message, stars, that when death comes
My soul shall touch with his, and the two flames
Be one?
- W. B. Yeats