Like Telling the Truth
  • 13 Ways: Illustrated Stories
  • About Like Telling the Truth
  • Meet Your Hosts
  • Social Media & Email Addresses

Archive for

Heliodora, by HD

td Whittle

Posted on February 26, 2012

James Pradier (1790-1852), The Three Graces, The Louvre (Photo by Ward Serrill)

Heliodora, by HD (c.1922)

He and I sought together,
over the spattered table,
rhymes and flowers,
gifts for a name.

He said, among others,
I will bring
(and the phrase was just and good,
but not as good as mine)
“the narcissus that loves the rain.”

We strove for a name,
while the light of the lamps burnt thin
and the outer dawn came in,
a ghost, the last at the feast
or the first,
to sit within
with the two that remained
to quibble in flowers and verse
over a girl’s name.

He said, “the rain loving,”
I said, “the narcissus, drunk,
drunk with the rain.”

Beata Beatrix, Dante Gabriel Rosetti (1864-1870), Tate Gallery   

Yet I had lost
for he said,
“the rose, the lover’s gift,
is loved of love,”
he said it,
“loved of love;”
I waited, even as he spoke,
to see the room filled with a light,
as when in winter
the embers catch in a wind
when a room is dank:
so it would be filled, I thought,
our room with a light
when he said
(and he said it first)
“the rose, the lover’s delight,
is loved of love,”
but the light was the same.

Then he caught,
seeing the fire in my eyes,
my fire, my fever, perhaps,
for he leaned
with the purple wine
stained in his sleeve,
and said this:
“Did you ever think
a girl’s mouth
caught in a kiss
is a lily that laughs?”

Venus Verticordia, Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1868), Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum, Bournemouth

Venus Verticordia, Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1868), Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum, Bournemouth

I had not.
I saw it now
as men must see it forever afterwards;
no poet could write again,
“the red-lily,
a girl’s laugh caught in a kiss;”
it was his to pour in the vat
from which all poets dip and quaff,
for poets are brothers in this.

So I saw the fire in his eyes,
it was almost my fire
(he was younger)
I saw the face so white;
my heart beat,
it was almost my phrase,
I said, “surprise the muses,
take them by surprise;
it is late,
rather it is dawn-rise,
those ladies sleep, the nine,
our own king’s mistresses.”

A name to rhyme,
flowers to bring to a name,
what was one girl faint and shy,
with eyes like the myrtle
(I said: “her underlids
are rather like myrtle”),
to vie with the nine?

Alessandro Botticelli (1445-1510), La Primavera (detail), Galleria degli Uffizi

Alessandro Botticelli (1445-1510), La Primavera (detail), Galleria degli Uffizi

Let him take the name,
he had the rhymes,
“the rose, loved of love,”
“the lily, a mouth that laughs,”
he had the gift,
“the scented crocus,
the purple hyacinth,”
what was one girl to the nine?

He said:
“I will make her a wreath;”
he said:
“I will write it thus:
‘I will bring you the lily that laughs,
I will twine
with soft narcissus, the myrtle,
sweet crocus, white violet,
the purple hyacinth and, last,
the rose, loved of love,
that these may drip on your hair
the less soft flowers,
may mingle sweet with the sweet
of Heliodora’s locks,
myrrh-curled.'”

(He wrote myrrh-curled,
I think, the first.)

I said:
“they sleep, the nine,”
when he shouted swift and passionate:
“that for the nine!

Eustache Le Sueur; Clio, Euterpe, and Thalia (three muses), c. 1652-1655, The Louvre

Eustache Le Sueur; Clio, Euterpe, and Thalia (three muses), c. 1652-1655, The Louvre

Above the mountains
the sun is about to wake,
and to-day white violets
shine beside white lilies
adrift on the mountain side;
to-day the narcissus opens
that loves the rain.”

I watched him to the door,
catching his robe
as the wine-bowl crashed to the floor,
spilling a few wet lees
(ah, his purple hyacinth!);
I saw him out of the door,
I thought:
there will never be a poet,
in all the centuries after this,
who will dare write,
after my friend’s verse,
“a girl’s mouth
is a lily kissed.”

Auguste Rodin, Eternal Spring, c 1906-1907, The Metropolitian Museum of Art

Auguste Rodin, Eternal Spring, c 1906-1907, The Metropolitian Museum of Art

The Sun Never Says, by Hafiz

td Whittle

Posted on February 19, 2012

Riza-yi `Abbasi (ca. 1565–1635), The Lovers, Persian Date: dated A.H. 1039/ A.D. 1630 Metropolitan Museum of Art, Islamic Collection

Riza-yi `Abbasi (ca. 1565–1635), The Lovers, Persian Date: dated A.H. 1039/ A.D. 1630 Metropolitan Museum of Art, Islamic Collection

 Even after all this time

The sun never says to the earth,

“You owe Me.”

Look what happens with

A love like that,

It lights the whole sky.

– from The Gift

+Read more

On the Road with Coco

Sandra Peterson Ramirez

Posted on February 11, 2012

coco travelling

coco travelling

Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before me,
The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose.
Henceforth I ask not good-fortune, I myself am good-fortune,
Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing,
Done with indoor complaints, libraries, querulous criticisms,
Strong and content I travel the open road.

— excerpt from Song of the Open Road, Walt Whitman

Photo by Sandra Peterson Ramirez

Yum-Yum Breakfast Toast

td Whittle

Posted on February 6, 2012

Yum-Yum Breakfast Toast, which we enjoyed under the stars this evening

Yum-Yum Breakfast Toast, to enjoy any time of day.

When life’s slings and arrows seem too many, and its happy fortunes too few, I usually bake a chocolate cake. But then again, nothing says comfort quite like hot buttery toast, does it? (I would bet a hundred bucks that no one brought up in the good ole USA can hear “nothin says lovin” without mentally responding “like somethin from the oven,” while picturing gooey cinnamon rolls, poppin’ fresh biscuits, rolls of chocolate chip cookie dough, and the giggly Pillsbury Dough Boy getting his belly poked. If you are not American, this may make no sense to you, but you can see what I mean here.)

 

We are taking a brief respite from our usual posts – fiction, poetry, personal essays, etc. – in order to bring you this recipe for a restorative treat, which promises to uplift both body and soul; unless you hate toast, but who hates toast? Or, I suppose you could be antipathetic to bananas, loathe avocados, and believe that capsicums are a fruit of the Devil. In that case, we cannot help you. You will have to seek succor elsewhere.

 

This recipe is my husband Robin’s sole contribution to the culinary arts, and it is worthy of its good name: Yum-Yum Breakfast Toast. Don’t let the timing of breakfast constrain you, as it is delicious for afternoon tea or an evening snack as well. The ingredients you will need are in bold.

+Read more

Home is So Sad, by Philip Larkin

td Whittle

Posted on February 1, 2012

Gertrude Abercrombie, The Past and the Present, c. 1945, The Art Institute of Chicago

Gertrude Abercrombie, The Past and the Present, c. 1945, The Art Institute of Chicago

Home is so Sad, by Philip Larkin

Home is so sad. It stays as it was left,
Shaped to the comfort of the last to go
As if to win them back. Instead, bereft
Of anyone to please, it withers so,
Having no heart to put aside the theft

 

And turn again to what it started as,
A joyous shot at how things ought to be,
Long fallen wide. You can see how it was:
Look at the pictures and the cutlery.
The music in the piano stool. That vase.

 

From Collected Poems by Philip Larkin. Copyright © 1988, 2003 by the Estate of Philip Larkin.

  

13 Ways: Illustrated Stories

13 Ways: Illustrated Stories

Click on the cover to buy 13 Ways via Amazon.

The Infinite Loop

The Infinite Loop

Click on the cover to buy The Infinite Loop via Amazon.

Stranger Places: A Pie Town Novel

Stranger Places: A Pie Town Novel

Click on the cover to buy Stranger Places via Amazon.

Amazon Services LLC Associates

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Categories

  • 13 Ways: Illustrated Stories
  • Book Reviews and Essays
  • Fairy Tales
  • Ice Cream Stories
  • Life Unfolding
  • Miscellany
  • Music Videos
  • Photo Essays
  • Photo Poetry
  • Photo Sets
  • Random Recipes
  • Thirteen Ways Press Publications
  • Uncategorized

Quotes

T.D.’s quotes

"I have always found that actively loving
saves one from a morbid preoccupation
with the shortcomings of society."— Alan Paton

Goodreads Quotes

Recent Posts

  • Killing Commendatore, by Haruki Murakami
  • Book Review: Tales From The Inner City, by Shaun Tan
  • Book Review: The Garden of Evening Mists, by Tan Twan Eng
  • Book Review: The Thin Man, by Dashel Hammett
  • Book Review: Moon Magic, by Dion Fortune

Archives

  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • December 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • June 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • June 2010

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Return to top

© Copyright 2011

Duet Theme by The Theme Foundry