It’s been a while since I closed the various “book stuff” tabs, so let’s take a run through those, shall we? I came to this by the Lord Dunsany connection, but I don’t think you need to be on that page at all to enjoy H. E. Gowers’ HASCHISCH HALLUCINATIONS, posted over at the blog of master-designer-and-artist-of-the-eldritch John Coulthart. I’ve… Read more →
Tag: poetry
For Lá Bealtaine
A Toast See this bowl of purple wine, Life-blood of the lusty vine! All the warmth of summer suns In the vintage liquid runs, All the glow of winter nights Plays about its jewel lights, Thoughts of time when love was young Lurk its ruby drops among, And its deepest depths are dyed With delight of friendship tried. Worthy offering,… Read more →
The Men That Don’t Fit In
There’s a race of men that don’t fit in, A race that can’t stay still; So they break the hearts of kith and kin, And they roam the world at will. They range the field and they rove the flood, And they climb the mountain’s crest; Theirs is the curse of the gypsy blood, And they don’t know how to… Read more →
Proud and Unrepentant: Part 4
A couple of years back I ran through several variations on the Lucifer character / story that appeal to me. You may recall Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. In doing some reading last night in The Eldritch Dark‘s archive of Clark Ashton Smith‘s poetyI do that sometimes., I found another interesting variant. Or rather, two interesting variants. The… Read more →
Quaero mihi similes, et adiungor pravis.
I spent a lot of time last night looking at translations of Latin and Middle High German poetry. Oh, and listening to what I can only refer to as operatic renditions of the pieces. How did this happen? Well, actually, like many times when I start following a trail of weird connections, it all comes back to James Burke–usually just… Read more →
I am weary of days and hours
Earlier today I ran into this passage in the course of my wanderings: From too much love of living, From hope and fear set free, We thank with brief thanksgiving Whatever gods may be That no life lives for ever; That dead men rise up never; That even the weariest river Winds somewhere safe to sea. Now I’m generally not… Read more →
Closing the book-related tabs
And here we go again… I’ve been reading Jeff’s daily reviews of the books in the Penguin Great Ideas series. While I don’t think I’m interested in trying to read all sixty of them in sixty days (despite Jeff’s examples and the exhortation of the Harvard University Press) I am very impressed with the presentation of the volumes, and have… Read more →
Diverse practyk in many sundry werkes
My goal is to redefine the whole history of rhyme ‘Cause the only way to free the soul is to free the mind And no wisdom as old as this should be confined To total mystery, so we’ll just read the signs And DaVinci codes, and try to see the science In this linguistically-composed pristine design –extracted from Rhyme Renaissance… Read more →
A man’s reach should exceed his grasp
When I was a student, in the days before I had covered my walls with art, I used to decorate with words. I would take those cheap 8.5 x 11 frames you could buy at the grocery store, and fill them with nicely formatted blocks of text–poems, quotes, things like that. I’ve always liked to be challenged by art, and… Read more →
Sunday night quick book links
As I write this I am watching the Australian movies made from Shane Maloney’s books about Murray Whelan. You may remember that those books were some of the big successes from my first Australian trip, and that I even mentioned the movies when I wrote that stuff up. Well, my usual online sources didn’t make the movies available, but just… Read more →
Early Saturday Morning Gallimaufry
And, time to close a few more tabs… It’s lovely that the Internet can bring me an interactive beer and food matching guide. Sadly, it uses a different algorithm than I do–resulting in far more matches with “see through” beer than my scheme would generate. Speaking of beer, I love the idea of beer haiku. My favourite so far: You… Read more →
Ions played instead of notes
This is how things happen: First, author Sarah Monette mentions a LiveJournal that posts a poem every Monday. I follow this link and make a note to come back later and look for poets I am not familiar with. And as I start looking over the list the first thing that grabs me is a post of Thylias Moss’s poem… Read more →
Pay Attention
I have always known That at last I would Take this road, but yesterday I did not know that it would be today. Ariwara no Narihira (translated by Kenneth Rexroth) A strange old man Stops me, Looking out of my deep mirror. Kakinomoto no Hitomaro (translated by Kenneth Rexroth) The mists rise over The still pools at Asuka. Memory does… Read more →
On H.P.L.
Without any further commentary, I present Clark Ashton Smith, writing about H. P. Lovecraft: To Howard Phillips Lovecraft Lover of hills and fields and towns antique, How hast thou wandered hence On ways not found before, Beyond the dawnward spires of Providence? Hast thou gone forth to seek Some older bourn than these– Some Arkham of the prime and central… Read more →
Leonard Cohen For Iron Doug
This post is primarily targeted to my pal “Iron” Doug Hern, who is having his 127thThis is an approximate value birthday today. This is a recording of Leonard Cohen doing a reading/performance at the 92nd Street YM-YWHA (yes, that’s the “The Young Men’s-Young Women’s Hebrew Association”) Hotel in New York City, New York on 14 February 1966. It includes Cohen… Read more →
