The Lovers’ Chronicle 6 June – crosses on the mesa – art by Diego Velázquez

06 June 2023 By Rhett 0 In Love, Poems, Random, Songs

Dear Zazie, Here is today’s Lovers’ Chronicle from Mac Tag. What cross do you bear? Rhett

The Lovers’ Chronicle

Dear Muse,

we are all the same
we are all blue
just different shades

troubles or problems
whatever you call ’em
it is all relative
what happiness should be

i gotta work mine out alone
only way i know how
you know your own truth
so work it out however you can

we are all the same
we all have crosses
some are just
bigger than others

Another from the Wyoming files. Inspired by something I saw in Wyoming and a story that has been rattlin’ around in my head for about a year. We all have crosses to bear. Some more than others. Some bigger than others. Some learn to live with their crosses. Some bury themselves and their ……

Crosses on the Mesa

Every year since ’87
On the first Saturday in June
He would hike to the top
of the mesa near Red Deer Creek
and plant a cross

One white wooden
cross every year
Put there to honor
their memory
He blamed himself
for what happened
on that night at the last
Blow-Out Party

Most folks see it that way
Me, I’m not sure
Some sad, desperate, crazy stuff
has been done in the name of love

I figure it this way…
They both loved her
Neither one could live without her
One of ’em proved it on that night
The other one,
proved it every day afterwards

For him there was never
another one
Oh sure, he sought comfort
in random low rent rendezvous
But then the guilt and grief
would drive him into a bottle
and a drunken, days lastin’ fog
Then he’d go up to that mesa
and sit amidst all those crosses
and write wring-your-heart-out sad poems

Of course, one day,
that is where we found him
Up there with those crosses,
his poetry notebook,
and an empty bottle
of Pendleton
And, with no more
crosses to bear

Diego Velázquez
Self-portrait

Today is the baptismal day of Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (Seville, baptized on June 6, 1599 – August 6, 1660 Madrid); painter who was the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV and one of the most important painters of the Spanish Golden Age. He was an individualistic artist of the contemporary Baroque period. In addition to numerous renditions of scenes of historical and cultural significance, he painted portraits of the Spanish royal family, other notable European figures, and commoners, culminating in the production of his masterpiece Las Meninas (1656). Velázquez’s artwork was a model for the realist and impressionist painters. Modern artists, including Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí and Francis Bacon, have paid tribute to Velázquez by recreating several of his most famous works.

Gallery

Vieja friendo huevos (1618, English: Old Woman Frying Eggs). National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh

Philip IV in Brown and Silver, 1632

El Triunfo de Baco or Los Borrachos 1629 (English: The Triumph of Bacchus/The Drunks)

Portrait of the Infanta Maria Theresa, Philip IV’s daughter with Elisabeth of France

La rendición de Breda (1634–1635, English: The Surrender of Breda) was inspired by Velázquez’s first visit to Italy, in which he accompanied Ambrogio Spinola, who conquered the Dutch city of Breda a few years prior. This masterwork depicts a transfer of the key to the city from the Dutch to the Spanish army during the Siege of Breda. It is considered one of the best of Velázquez’s paintings.