The Lovers’ Chronicle 21 March – intimate – art by Clarice Beckett

21 March 2024 By Rhett 0 In Love, Poems, Random, Songs

Dear Zazie, Here is today’s Lovers’ Chronicle from Mac Tag. Have you had one of these intimate conversations? Rhett

The Lovers’ Chronicle

Dear Muse,

if there is a category
for great words,
this one belongs
“Oh I agree”
it can be used to describe
a place or a conversation
“In a bar or a cafe”
it brought to mind the meal
we had at Terra Terroir
“After we bought the Fiat”
just the two of us up front
no one else came in
“It was lovely”
my favorite use of the word
is in descrbin’ how we end
each day, skin on skin
layin’ here kissin’
and readin’ poetry
“Nothing more intimate”

or wonderful

nothin’ more meanin’ful
through the echoin’
it strikes to hear the song
the descendin’, all in a rush
with such intensity

this is believin’
to have
an intimacy,

made, thy choice
and worth everything

when to this session of verse to be written,

i summon remembrance of time with you,

a sigh and the moments, intense, savored

and deep afresh long since worries away,

for while i think on thee, you are here

no matter how far and i can feel

your breath rise and fall

twilight darkens the clouds;

along the rock strewn hill

our time hastens towards us,

risin’ and fallin’ with each breath

darkness settles on the skylight,

and the need within calls,

touches, with calloused hands,

follow the curves up and down,

and the breaths, rise and fall

nothin’ more meanin’ful
through the echoin’
it strikes to hear the song
the descendin’, all in a rush
with such intensity

can this be
believin’ again
to have
but soon
before it closes,
and sours without

an intimacy,
made, thy choice
and worth anything

stopped talkin’
waves of relief
wash over
how easily
came the words
as if in the throes
of good verse

scared, vulnerable, but good
feelin’s, surprisin’ly still there
opened up as never before

those eyes,
a look
did you hear
words,
understandin’
those hands
through your hair

more words
in awe
insight,
wisdom
so damn good lookin’

sharin’ a story
but are you here
is this happenin’
is this Inception
spin the totem

whatever this is,
so intimate,
may it not end

Another vignette turned into a poem. Hope you like……

Intimate Conversation

He finally stopped talkin’
A wave of relief washed over him
Surprised how easily came the words
As easily as how the words came
When he had ahold of a good poem

He felt scared, vulnerable, but good
A feelin’ he’d never felt before
He had never opened up,
Opened himself, not to anyone
She watched him with those beautiful eyes,
Those eyes that he could look at all day
Her look told him she had heard
Every word, and understood
She ran her pretty fingers
Through her hair,
He loved it when she did that,
She began to talk
And he was in awe
Not just because what she said
Made so much sense, which it did
She was so insightful,
So wise and…
So damn good lookin’
No, he was amazed
And so moved that she had shared
Part of her story with him
He just could not get over the fact
That she was there, that they were havin’
This conversation
Made him wonder, was this real
Or an Inception moment
He wished he had a totem
To spin to see if he was dreamin’
Whatever this was,
He did not want it to end
It felt so intimate
And instantly became
One of his favorite memories
Perhaps his most favorite
Memory of all

Today is the birthday of Clarice Beckett (Clarice Majoribanks Beckett; Casterton, Victoria 21 March 1887 – 7 July 1935 Sandringham, Victoria); Tonalist painter whose works are featured in the collections of the National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria and the Art Gallery of South Australia.

Beckett never left Victoria and rarely travelled outside Melbourne, much of her adult life being spent caring for her ailing parents at their home in bayside Beaumaris. She did however paint prolifically, often en plein air in and around Beaumaris, and mostly at daybreak or towards evening, when she was exempted from domestic duties. In her method and choice of “everyday” subject matter, Beckett remained indebted to Meldrum, but her work also differed from that of other tonalists, in part due to its emotional and spiritual qualities, reflecting her interest in Buddhism, Theosophy and Freud. By 1926, she was creating landscapes unprecedented in Australian art for their “radical simplicity”, and from 1930, she experimented further with a broader colour palette and more challenging compositions. In 1935, while painting the sea off Beaumaris during a winter storm, Beckett contracted pneumonia and died four days later, aged 48.

In what has been called “one of the great disasters of Australian art history”, well over one thousand of Beckett’s works were destroyed in the decades after her death, including many by her father that he deemed “unfinished”—works from her final years that were said by friends to be more abstract and spiritual. More works were lost in a bush fire, and in 1970, in an open-sided shed in country Victoria, as many as two thousand works were found abandoned, two thirds of which had been destroyed by the elements. Those that did survive were exhibited the following year in Melbourne, precipitating a resurgence of interest in Beckett. Catalogues, biographies and major exhibitions followed, and today she is represented in Australia’s national and state galleries.