Dear Zazie, Here is today’s Lovers’ Chronicle from Mac Tag. Follow us on twitter @cowboycoleridge. On an enchanted evenin’ in a starlit garden, have you seen a stranger, or heard someone laughin’ or found your true love? Rhett
The Lover’s Chronicle
Dear Muse,
© copyright 2019 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved
Sculpture by Hannah Frank
out of the night
i thank whatever
for my unconquerable soul
in the clutch of circumstance
and after the bludgeonin’
from choices gone awry,
and countin’ up the losses,
remain unbowed
and doin’ just fine,
thank you
but damn,
some of the losses
come around once in awhile
and i struggle to hang on
© copyright 2018 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved
just heard…
a childhood friend,
a free-spirited beauty
used to go to her house
and explore nascent urges
with her and her sister
gone too soon
goddamnit
it is never fair
but of course fairness,
has nothin’ to do with it
and never will
hurtin’ for her
her parents worked
for us at my uncle’s ranch
when i was growin’ up
we would ride horses
and skinny dip
in the spring fed
water tanks
and talk of dreams
some that came true
and some that never did
© copyright 2017 mac tag/cowboy Coleridge all rights reserved
| William Ernest L. Henley | |
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Today is the birthday of William Ernest Henley (Gloucester; 23 August 1849 – 11 July 1903 Woking); poet, critic and editor of the late-Victorian era in England. Perhaps best remembered for his 1875 poem
“Invictus”
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul
Another of his poems:
Some Starlit Garden Grey With Dew
Some starlit garden grey with dew,
Some chamber flushed with wine and fire,
What matters where, so I and you
Are worthy our desire?
Behind, a past that scolds and jeers
For ungirt loins and lamps unlit;
In front, the unmanageable years,
The trap upon the Pit;
Think on the shame of dreams for deeds,
The scandal of unnatural strife,
The slur upon immortal needs,
The treason done to life:
Arise! no more a living lie,
And with me quicken and control
Some memory that shall magnify
The universal Soul.
Today is the birthday of Eugène Lanceray (Yevgeny Yevgenyevich Lanceray, Russian: Евгений Евгеньевич Лансере; 23 August 1875 – 13 September 1946 Moscow), also often spelled Eugene Lansere; graphic artist, painter, sculptor, mosaicist, and illustrator, associated stylistically with Mir iskusstva (the World of Art).
Lanceray was the only prominent member of Mir iskusstva to remain in Russia after the Revolution of 1917. Being a representative of traditional painting (not avant-garde movement) and the bourgeoisie, he was not in great demand with the new Soviet government for a long time. Even his sister found the revolutionary milieu alien to her art and, in 1924, she fled to Paris.
Lanceray himself hated the new Soviet regime that he had to exist in after 1917. It referred to his own understanding of the historical way of Russia and the massive oppressions towards his relatives and close friends (some of them immigrated and some of them were killed). In February 1932 he left a note in his diaries: ‘There is incredible impoverishment. Of course, this is the government’s goal to bring everyone and everything to poverty, since it is easier to manage the poor and the hungry’.
Lanceray left Saint Petersburg in 1917, and spent three years living in Dagestan, where he became infatuated with Oriental themes. His interest increased during journeys made in the early 1920s to Japan and Ankara, Turkey. In 1920, he moved to Tiflis, Georgia. During his stay in Georgia, he lectured at the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts (1922–1934) and illustrated the Caucasian novellas of Leo Tolstoy. Amongst his students was Apollon Kutateladze.
Lanceray left Georgia in 1934, settling in Moscow, where he became engaged in the decoration of the Moscow Kazansky railway station and the Hotel Moskva. During the same period, Lanceray also worked as a theatrical designer.
Three years before his death, he was honored with the Stalin Prize, and in 1945 he was awarded the title of the People’s Artist of the RSFSR.
Gallery
Street in Tbilisi, 1921
Today is the birthday of Hannah Frank (Glasgow 23 August 1908 – 18 December 2008 Glasgow); artist and sculptor. She was known for her art nouveau monochrome drawings until she decided to concentrate on sculpture in 1952.
Frank and her husband Lionel were members of the Glasgow group of the Friends of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
From 25 April – 5 June 2004 the Lancaster City Museum and Art Gallery hosted the first show of the successful touring exhibition: Hannah Frank: A Glasgow Artist. This toured for five years in the run up to Frank’s 100th birthday, which coincided with the exhibition’s final destination, her alma mater, the University of Glasgow. As part of this touring exhibition, Frank had her first solo exhibition in London at Ivy House, Golders Green, home to the London Jewish Cultural Centre. At the end of the London show Frank presented her 1943 drawing Sun to the Ben Uri London Jewish Museum of Art. Although she was not able to be there, due to travelling difficulties at the age of 98, she said that she was ‘glad that people in London are becoming as enthusiastic about my work as they are in Scotland’. She was present at the opening of the final exhibition of the tour, at the University of Glasgow Chapel, where she was given a standing ovation by the 150 guests present.
The University of Glasgow recognised Frank’s talent and “international distinction” and the day before her death (too late for her to know) a letter had been sent, offering her an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters.
Gallery
And today marks the anniversary of the death of lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II. He wrote the words to many fine songs and of course, one of them shall be the SOD, but which one. Well, it is not much of a stretch to go from “Some Starlit Garden Grey With Dew” to “Some Enchanted Evening”.
The Song of the Day – Frank Sinatra’s version of “Some Enchanted Evening”.
Some enchanted evenin’ in a starlit garden grey with dew, I found my true love. I felt her call me and I flew to her and made her mine. But then I let her go. But then I let her go. And now, my evenin’s are enchanted no more.
One enchanted evenin’
in a starlit garden
grey with dew, I found her
I felt her call me and
I came to her and we
made love ‘neath the stars
But then I let her go
But then I let her go
And now, my evenin’s
are enchanted no more.
Mac Tag
05/01/2013 at 2:22 am Permalink
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06/01/2013 at 1:08 pm Permalink
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