Dear Zazie, Here is today’s Lovers’ Chronicle from Mac Tag dedicated to his muse. Follow us on twitter @cowboycoleridge. Mac Tag is right; this is one of my favorite topics. Are you a rover? Have you bid adieu to love? Has love bid adieu to you? Rhett
The Lovers’ Chronicle
Dear Muse,
© copyright 2020 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved
weary for sure
so pour more wine
a lightsome eye,
a poet’s mien
the cloudy blue sky
a doublet
of the lonesome kind
what more of me
shall ye know
in the fadin’
light of day
give the reins a shake,
let yourself
be taken in
ere time slips away
© copyright 2018 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved
an evenin’, so fine
and you, very charmin’
as you silently walk
beside me
through the darkness
of the lane
then the words you whisper,
as you walk beside me,
embellished by the silence
of three o’clock in the mornin’,
and the enchantments of night
how simple it seems
after all,
to allow myself
to be taken in
© copyright 2017 mac tag/cowboy Coleridge all rights reserved
Today’s topic is rovin’. One of Rhett’s favorite topics. He has done his fair share.
Rover’s Adieu
No more of me you know
No more of me you know
The sage will bloom amid winter
Before we meet again,
Turnin’ his horse sayin’,
Adieu, for evermore
Adieu for evermore
She stood alone,
And watched him fade away
She was strong, and so cold,
Standin’ alone
Goodbye, so long, adieu…
© copyright 2012 mac tag/Cowboy Coleridge all rights reserved
| Barbara Longhi | |
|---|---|
Self-portrait
as Saint Catherine of Alexandria |
|
Today is the birthday of Barbara Longhi (Ravenna 21 September 1552 – 23 December 1638 Ravenna); painter. She was much admired in her lifetime as a portraitist, although most of her portraits are now lost or unattributed. Her work, such as her many Madonna and Child paintings, earned her a fine reputation as an artist.
Gallery
Santa Caterina d’Alessandria (1580 circa; Bologna, Pinacoteca Nazionale)
Today is the birthday of Lodovico Cardi (21 September 1559 – 8 June 1613), also known as Cigoli; painter and architect of the late Mannerist and early Baroque period, trained and active in his early career in Florence, and spending the last nine years of his life in Rome.
Gallery
self-portrait
Maddalena
Venus and Adonis
***********************************************
On this day in 1832, the great Scottish novelist, playwright and poet, Sir Walter Scott died in Scotland. His most famous poem is probably “The Lady of the Lake” but for our Poem of the Day I chose this one:
The Rover’s Adieu
Weary lot is thine, fair maid,
A weary lot is thine!
To pull the thorn thy brow to braid,
And press the rue for wine.
A lightsome eye, a soldier’s mien,
A feather of the blue,
A doublet of the Lincoln green—
No more of me ye knew,
My Love!
No more of me ye knew.
‘This morn is merry June, I trow,
The rose is budding fain;
But she shall bloom in winter snow
Ere we two meet again.’
—He turn’d his charger as he spake
Upon the river shore,
He gave the bridle-reins a shake,
Said ‘Adieu for evermore,
My Love!
And adieu for evermore.’
And today is the birthday of Leonard Cohen (Leonard Norman Cohen; Westmount, Quebec, Canada; September 21, 1934 – November 7, 2016 Los Angeles); singer-songwriter, poet and novelist. His work explored religion, politics, isolation, depression, sexuality, loss, death, and romantic relationships. He was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He was invested as a Companion of the Order of Canada, the nation’s highest civilian honour. In 2011, he received one of the Prince of Asturias Awards for literature and the ninth Glenn Gould Prize.
Cohen pursued a career as a poet and novelist during the 1950s and early 1960s, and did not begin a music career until 1967. His first album, Songs of Leonard Cohen (1967), was followed by three more albums of folk music: Songs from a Room (1969), Songs of Love and Hate (1971) and New Skin for the Old Ceremony (1974). His 1977 record Death of a Ladies’ Man, co-written and produced by Phil Spector, was a move away from Cohen’s previous minimalist sound.
In 1979, Cohen returned with the more traditional Recent Songs, which blended his acoustic style with jazz, East Asian, and Mediterranean influences. Cohen’s song, “Hallelujah”, was released on his seventh album, Various Positions (1984). I’m Your Man in 1988 marked Cohen’s turn to synthesized productions. In 1992, Cohen released its follow-up, The Future, which had dark lyrics and references to political and social unrest.
Cohen returned to music in 2001 with the release of Ten New Songs, a major hit in Canada and Europe. His 11th album, Dear Heather, followed in 2004. In 2005, Cohen discovered that his manager had stolen most of his money and sold his publishing rights, prompting a return to touring to recoup his losses. Following a successful string of tours between 2008 and 2013, he released three albums in the final years of his life: Old Ideas (2012), Popular Problems (2014), and You Want It Darker (2016), the last of which was released three weeks before his death. A posthumous album, Thanks for the Dance, was released in November 2019, his fifteenth and final studio album.
Lyrics
Suzanne takes you down to her place near the river.
You can hear the boats go by,
You can spend the night beside her,
And you know that she’s half crazy
But that’s why you want to be there,
And she feeds you tea and oranges
That come all the way from China.
And just when you mean to tell her
That you have no love to give her
Then she gets you on her wavelength
And she lets the river answer
That you’ve always been her lover.
And you want to travel with her,
And you want to travel blind,
And you know that she will trust you,
For you’ve touched her perfect body with your mind.
“Suzanne” – Isle of Wight performance (1970) – Live in London (2008)
And she shows you where to look
Among the garbage and the flowers.
There are heroes in the seaweed,
There are children in the morning,
They are leaning out for love,
And they will lean that way forever,
While Suzanne holds the mirror.
“Suzanne”
And Jesus was a sailor
When he walked upon the water
And he spent a long time watching
From his lonely wooden tower
And when he knew for certain
Only drowning men could see him
He said “All men will be sailors then
Until the sea shall free them”
But he himself was broken
Long before the sky would open
Forsaken, almost human
He sank beneath your wisdom like a stone
“Suzanne”
It’s true that all the men you knew were dealers
who said they were through with dealing
Every time you gave them shelter.
I know that kind of man
It’s hard to hold the hand of anyone
who is reaching for the sky just to surrender.
“The Stranger Song” (1966)
It’s true that all the men you knew were dealers
who said they were through with dealing
Every time you gave them shelter.
I know that kind of man
It’s hard to hold the hand of anyone
who is reaching for the sky just to surrender.
“The Stranger Song”
O you’ve seen that man before
his golden arm dispatching cards
but now it’s rusted from the elbow to the finger
And he wants to trade the game he plays for shelter
“The Stranger Song”
Alludes to the dealer in Nelson Algren’s 1949 novel The Man
with the Golden Arm.
Please understand, I never had a secret chart
to get me to the heart of this
or any other matter.
When he talks like this
you don’t know what he’s after.
“The Stranger Song”
Oh the sisters of mercy, they are not departed or gone.
They were waiting for me when I thought that I just can’t go on.
And they brought me their comfort and later they brought me
this song.
Oh I hope you run into them, you who’ve been travelling so
long.
“Sisters of Mercy”
Yes, you who must leave everything that you cannot control,
It begins with your family, and soon it comes round to your
soul.
Well I’ve been where you’re hanging, I think I can see how
you’re pinned:
When you’re not feeling holy your loneliness says that you’ve
sinned.
“Sisters of Mercy”
When they lay down beside me I made my confession to them.
They touched both my eyes and I touched the dew on their
hem.
If your life is a leaf that the seasons tear off and condemn,
They will bind you with love that is graceful and green as a
stem.
“Sisters of Mercy”
When I left they were sleeping, I hope you run into them soon.
Don’t turn on the lights, you can read their address by the
moon.
And you won’t make me jealous if I hear that they sweetened
your night:
We weren’t lovers like that and besides it would still be all right.
“Sisters of Mercy”
I loved you in the morning, our kisses deep and warm,
Your hair upon the pillow like a sleepy golden storm,
Yes many loved before us, I know that we are not new,
In city and in forest they smiled like me and you,
But let’s not talk of love or chains and things we can’t untie,
your eyes are soft with sorrow,
Hey, that’s no way to say goodbye.
“Hey, That’s No Way To Say Goodbye” · Duet with Judy Collins on Soundstage (January 1976)
The Song of the Day is “Adieu” by Emily Bindiger.
The bonus SOD is “The Rover“ by Led Zeppelin if you prefer to rock out!
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