Poetry, stories, art, and music from the desk of Jezzie G, a writer without a label
Hasbi Rabbi
Album: My Ummah
Date: 2005
Genre: New Age
Artist: Sami Yusuf
Sami Yusuf is a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and composer. He released his debut album, ‘Al-Mu’allim,’ in 2003 gaining international attention. He has since released eight studio albums, five live albums, and a compilation album
Last Night as I Was Sleeping
Last night as I was sleeping,
I dreamt—marvelous error!—
that a spring was breaking
out in my heart.
I said: Along which secret aqueduct,
Oh water, are you coming to me,
water of a new life
that I have never drunk?
Last night as I was sleeping,
I dreamt—marvelous error!—
that I had a beehive
here inside my heart.
And the golden bees
were making white combs
and sweet honey
from my old failures.
Last night as I was sleeping,
I dreamt—marvelous error!—
that a fiery sun was giving
light inside my heart.
It was fiery because I felt
warmth as from a hearth,
and sun because it gave light
and brought tears to my eyes.
Last night as I slept,
I dreamt—marvelous error!—
that it was God I had
here inside my heart
Antonio Machado
Born: 26 July 1875, Seville, Spain
Nationality: Spanish
Died: 22 February 1939, Collioure, France
Machado was a poet and one of the leading figures of the Spanish literary movement Generation of ’98. His early modernist work evolved into an intimate form of symbolism with a romantic characteristic. Machado’s style engaged with humanity with a Taoist contemplation of existence
Interior with Young Woman Seen from the Back
1903-04
Symbolism
Oil on canvas
Randers Museum of Art, Denmark
‘Interior with Young Woman Seen from the Back’ is one of Hammershøi’s best-known and most replicated works. The artist’s wife Ida is the subject and stands turned away from the viewer with her head slightly bowed as if she is looking at something below the frame. A ceramic pot is placed on the sideboard, an object Hammershøi used several times in his painting
Vilhelm Hammershøi
Symbolism
Born: 15 May 1864, Copenhagen, Denmark
Nationality: Danish
Died: 13 February 1916, Copenhagen, Denmark
Hammershøi was a painter best known for his poetic and subdued portraits and interiors. His early works in their simplicity recorded the banality of everyday life and received critical acclaim. Hammershøi was sought out by both artists and literary figures of the time, including Rainer Maria Rilke who noted the artist’s retiring manner and reluctance to talk
First Day of May
Form: Gwawdodyn Byr
In the echoes of those days long past
The queen of the May can dance at last
At the height of Spring ancient voices sing
And the long summer days are coming fast
©JezzieG2024
One Summer’s Day
2001
Classical
Joe Hisaishi
Classical, Film and TV
Born: 6 December 1950, Nagano, Japan
Nationality: Japanese
Hisaishi is a composer, musical director, conductor, and pianist. He is known for over 100 film scores and solo albums dating back to 1981. Hisaishi’s music explores and incorporates different genres including minimalism, experimental electronic, Western classical, and Japanese classical
Inspired by and written for the Ragtag Daily Prompt, my thanks to CuriousCat
Form: Acrostic
Matinee performance at the West End
Ushered swiftly to our seats
Spur of the moment
I‘d said ‘Let’s see a show’
Classic story retold in song
Amazed and amused
Let’s do it again soon
©JezzieG2024
House and Street
1931
Urbanscape
Oil on Canvas
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA
Davis’s ‘House and Steet’ depicting lower Manhattan is a vast change from the gritty urbanscapes his paintings in the Ashcan tradition. The artist is seemingly less interested in the occupants of the tenement buildings and embraces modern energy and innovations instead. Davis was intrigued by how technological advances affected American life.
Stuart Davis
Modern Art, American Modernism
Born: 7 December 1892, Pennsylvania, USA
Nationality: American
Died: 24 June 1964, New York, USA
Davis was an early modernist painter. He is known for his jazz-influenced proto-pop art paintings of the 1940s and 1950s. Davis, already a famous painter, felt the negative effects of the Great Depression in the 1930s and was among the first artists to apply for the Federal Arts Project
Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart
1938
Film and TV
Judy Garland
Popular Music
Born: 10 June 1922, Minnesota, USA
Nationality: American
Died: 22 June 1969, London, UK
Judy Garland was an actress and singer who attained international fame in both musical and dramatic roles, and as a concert performer and recording artist. She was awarded the Academy Juvenile Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Special Tony Award
Reality Check
Form: Gwawdodyn
When your words speak so freely of flight
Refuge found on the wings soaring height
Your warrior’s heart waits ready to depart
But to the ground, your feet remain tight
©JezzieG2024
I’m A Fool to Love You
Some folks will tell you the blues is a woman,
Some type of supernatural creature.
My mother would tell you, if she could,
About her life with my father,
A strange and sometimes cruel gentleman.
She would tell you about the choices
A young black woman faces.
Is falling in love with some man
A deal with the devil
In blue terms, the tongue we use
When we don’t want nuance
To get in the way,
When we need to talk straight.
My mother chooses my father
After choosing a man
Who was, as we sing it,
Of no account.
This man made my father look good,
That’s how bad it was.
He made my father seem like an island
In the middle of a stormy sea,
He made my father look like a rock.
And is the blues the moment you realize
You exist in a stacked deck,
You look in a mirror at your young face,
The face my sister carries,
And you know it’s the only leverage
You’ve got.
Does this create a hurt that whispers
How you going to do?
Is the blues the moment
You shrug your shoulders
And agree, a girl without money
Is nothing, dust
To be pushed around by any old breeze.
Compared to this,
My father seems, briefly,
To be a fire escape.
This is the way the blues works
Its sorry wonders,
Makes trouble look like
A feather bed,
Makes the wrong man’s kisses
A healing
Cornelius Eady
Born: 7 January 1954, New York, USA
Nationality: American
Eady is a writer focusing mainly on the subjects of race and society. His poetry is often centred on jazz and blues, family life, violence, and problems in society caused by race and class
Glory Days
Album: Born in the USA
Date: 1984
Genre: Rock
Artist: Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen is a rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist, He is known as the Boss’ and has released over 20 albums over a career spanning six decades. Most of his albums feature his backing band, the E Street Band. Bruce Springsteen is a pioneer of heartland rock, a combination of poetic and socially conscious lyrics primarily concerning working-class America
Inspired by and written for the Ragtag Daily Prompt, with thanks to Martha Kennedy
Form: Acrostic
Soft kisses
Took hold of
Attraction and spun the web of love
Resonating the heart and soul
Carried by the wave of fate on
Rolling tides of emotion
Opening the heart to love
Sealed in eternity’s future by
Sacred vows forever
Ever loving you until
Destiny tore us apart
©JezzieG2024
Inspired by and written for the Weekend Writing Prompt, my thanks to Sammi
Form: Free Verse
Divinity calling
Inviting the journey
Between the here and now
And the space for inner sanctuary
Where the gods and goddesses reveal
Destiny within nature
Each footstep a question
Asked in silent devotion
Guiding answers leading forward
As the eyes see the truth in the wood lands
And the forest whispers
Among the canopies of the trees
Offering shelter of a gentle embrace
Safe in the wild woods
And the choir of birds
Raise voices in worshipful song
Joining the devotional heart
Here
Deep in the wild forest
The gods and goddesses dance
Word count: 93
©JezzieG2024
Inspired by and written for the Weekly Prompts Weekend Challenge, my thanks to Sue and Gerry
Cool idea. I like the idea of thinking of a ‘one day’ so think for me it will work as a title, I hope that is okay
Form: Cornish Sonnet
Destiny leads the way and plays the tune
She’s marking the rhythm of passing time
And I see you waiting in mystic rune
Or deep within nightly magical dreams
That fill my mind to write in verse and rhyme
Of my love waiting beneath the moonbeams
And there we tango in the lunar light
Reunited in the hours of my sleep
That keeps the flames of true love burning bright
Although I know I must now live a life
My heart and soul are still yours to keep
Until once more I can hold you, my wife
Destiny leads the way and plays the tune
And there we tango in the lunar light
©JezzieG2024
Inspired by and written for the Ragtag Daily Prompt, my thanks to Dr Kottaway
Form: Acrostic
Enjoying the moment
Nature’s laughter echoes
Through the hills and valleys
Echoes, soft echoes
Remember, remember
Times of used to be
Amusing the senses
In those quiet moments, whisper
Never let go
©JezzieG2024
Power Junkie
Album: Cyberpunk
Date: 1993
Genre: Alternative/Indie
Artist: Billy Idol
Billy Idol is a singer, songwriter, and musician. He achieved fame in the 1970s as the lead singer of Generation X. His subsequent solo career led to international recognition as a lead artist of the MTV-driven “Second British Invasion” in the USA. During the 1990s Billy Idol focused on his private life out of the public eye. In 2005 he made a comeback with the release of “Devil’s Playground”
We’re Off to See the Wizard
1939
Musicals
Judy Garland
Popular Music
Born: 10 June 1922, Minnesota, USA
Nationality: American
Died: 22 June 1969, London, UK
Judy Garland was an actress and singer who attained international fame in both musical and dramatic roles and as a concert performer and recording artist. She was awarded the Academy Juvenile Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Special Tony Award
Telephone Booths
1968
Photo-Realism
Acrylic on Masonite
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain
‘Telephone Booths’ is occupied and breaks from many of Estes’ earlier urban paintings that often depicted deserted cities. The figures in the booths create a middle ground in the piece. The reflections of the city are fragmented on the booths and compete for space within the ambiguous depth of the composition.
Richard Estes
Photorealism, Contemporary Realism
Born: 14 May 1932, Illinois, USA
Nationality: American
Estes is an artist best known for photorealist paintings. He is regarded as one of the founders of the photorealist movement of the 1960s along with artists such as John Breeder and Chuck Close. Estes’ paintings often consist of reflective, clean, and inanimate cities and landscapes
Hesper
Her eyes are like the evening air,
Her voice is like a rose,
Her lips are like a lovely song,
That ripples as it flows,
And she herself is sweeter than
The sweetest thing she knows.
A slender, haunting, twilight form
Of wonder and surprise,
She seemed a fairy or a child,
Till, deep within her eyes,
I saw the homeward-leading star
Of womanhood arise
Henry Van Dyke
Born: 10 November 1852, Pennsylvania, USA
Nationality: American
Died: 10 April 1933, New Jersey, USA
Van Dyke was an author, educator, diplomat, clergyman, and poet. Various religious themes are often expressed in his poetry, hymns, and essays. Van Dyke composed the lyrics of the hymn ‘Joyful, Joyful! We Adore Thee’
Out on the Hills
Form: Free Verse
A backpacker roaming the English hills
Saw the wind dancing over the peaks
Its tango rhythm catching the trees and then letting go
And the tree nymphs wanted more
So the wind swirled around
Rustling the leaves like flowing gowns
Eager nymphs dance blissfully unaware
Of the changing tempo moving through the wind
Branches stretching and bending too far
SNAP!
And the wind moved away
©JezzieG2024
Inspired by and written for the Weekly Prompts Wednesday Challenge, my thanks to Gerry and Sue
Form: Contrapuntal Poems
Take-Out
The apps light up offering choices
Which one to choose
Main courses and sides
Ordering drinks too
Work Day
Booting up a computer screen
A click on the work icon reveals even more
Where does one start
And the aroma from the pot calls
Menu
Booting up a computer screen
The apps light up offering choices
A click on the work icon reveals even more
Which one to choose
Where does one start
Main courses and sides
And the aroma from the pot calls
Ordering drinks too
©JezzieG2024
Scylla
1938
Surrealism
Oil on board
Collection of the Tate, United Kingdom
‘Scylla’ is Colquhoun’s most important work. The canvas is dominated by two vertical rocks rising out of clear water. Both phallic and feminine the painting situates Colquhoun’s work within the surrealist movement in its widest sense.
Ithell Colquhoun
Surrealism
Born: 9 October 1906, Shillong, India
Nationality: British
Died: 11 April 1988, Cornwall, England
Colquhoun was a painter, occultist, poet, and author. In the 1930s she was part of the British Surrealist Group but was expelled when she refused to renounce her connection with occult groups
Viola Concerto
1945
Orchestral
Béla Bartók
Classical, Russian Dance
Born: 25 March 1881, Sânnicolau Mare, Romania
Nationality: Hungarian
Died: 26 September 1945, New York, USA
Bartók was a composer, pianist, and ethnomusicologist, considered one of the 20th century’s most important composers. His collection and study of folk music and was a founder of comparative musicology, now known as ethnomusicology
Englishman In New York
Album: …Nothing Like the Sun
Date: 1987
Genre: Pop
Artist: Sting
Sting is a musician and actor. He was the former frontman, songwriter, and bassist for the new wave band The Police from 1977 until their breakup in 1986. Sting began his solo career in 1985 and his music includes elements of rock, jazz, reggae, classical, new age, and world music within his compositions
Guadarrama
1969
Guadarrama, is it you, old friend,
mountains white and gray
that I used to see painted against the blue
those afternoons of the old days in Madrid?
Up your deep ravines
and past your bristling peaks
a thousand Guadarramas and a thousand suns
come riding with me, riding to your heart
Antonio Machado
Born: 26 July 1875, Seville, Spain
Nationality: Spanish
Died: 22 February 1939, Collioure, France
Machado was a poet and one of the leading figures of the Spanish literary movement Generation of ’98. His early modernist work evolved into an intimate form of symbolism with a romantic characteristic. Machado’s style engaged with humanity with a Taoist contemplation of existence
Inspired by and written for the Ovi Poetry Challenge, with thanks to Ronovan
Form: Ovi
If life is seen as but a year
Do seasons laugh or shed a tear
Do changing tides bring hope or fear
In spring, summer, fall, or winter
From darkness, we come into life
Without doubts, adult stress, or strife
In this our spring we’re running rife
While learning and growing too fast
Summer comes with pubescent pains
Too young for love we want its gains
Broken hearts sobbing summer’s rains
Soon enough we find that one love
Together hear wedding bells ring
See our children begin their spring
Then feel the chill autumn can bring
Beneath greying hair, time moves on
Our sunset years of growing old
Are graced by colours bright and bold
Until widowhood makes it cold
Then winter must be faced alone
©JezzieG2024
Inspired by and written for the Ragtag Daily Prompt, my thanks to Punam
Form: Acrostic
Creativity breathing
Random lines in pencil and ink
Art in motion carving emotive
Forms and shape that explode from lines
To reveal imagination
©JezzieG2024
Inspired by and written for the Ragtag Daily Prompt, my thanks to Bushboy
Form: Zejel
I found a pebble on the beach
It lay within the tidal reach
Beneath blue skies where seagulls screech
Pebble please will you answer me
How does it feel there in the sea
Rushed by the tides, can you be free
I asked the pebble on the beach
‘It’s a journey’ the pebble said
‘It ends with shore on which I’m laid
Before that, I don’t see ahead’
Now it’s here in the tidal reach
Journey done, tomorrow is closed
From the deep it has been exposed
I pick it up to be transposed
To echoes of a seagull’s screech
Here in the cottage at the lane’s end
Round the corner and past the bend
Upon on a shelf, my stoney friend
That dear pebble from on the beach
©JezzieG2024
Dark Lady
Album: Dark Lady
Date: 1974
Genre: Pop
Artist: Cher
Cher is a singer, actress, and television personality. Referred to by the media as the ‘Goddess of Pop’ she has been described as embodying female autonomy in the male-dominated music industry. With her distinctive contralto voice, Cher has adopted a variety of styles and appearances
Rhythmic Delight
1950-56
Abstract
Oil on canvas
Private Collection
‘Rhythmic Delight’ is an example of Rebay’s non-objective approach. A loosely painted orange circle frames the intersecting lines. A musical and harmonic feel is created by the rhythmic squirls emanating from the centre.
Hilla Rebay
Dada, Expressionism, Orphism, Collage
Born: 14 May 1890, Strasbourg, France
Nationality: French
Died: 27 September 1967, Connecticut, USA
Rebay was an artist, co-founder and first director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. She was key to advising Guggenheim to collect abstract art, a collection that would become the basis of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Modernist collection
Vow of Beltane
Form: Constellation Sonnet
On Beltane’s Eve where fairies come to dance
Between willow trees and the river flow
The air shivers with the breeze of romance
For the spring is high and love is on show
Summoning gods so we can take a chance
Beneath the weeping boughs came love’s advance
As your voice so softly whispered its vow
I made mine as dusk fell into its trance
The magic of spring began to endow
Our joining of love and mystic romance
The cascade of leaves carved a holy space
As the night echoed with eternity
And my hands gently lifted up your face
We kissed beneath the sacred willow tree
©JezzieG2024
The Cunning Little Vixen
1923
Opera
Leoš Janáček
Folk, Opera
Born: 3 July 1854, Hukvsldy, Czechia
Nationality: Czech
Died: 12 August 1928, Ostrava, Czechia
Janáček was a composer, folklorist, musical theorist, teacher, and publicist, inspired by Moravian and other Slavic music to create a modern musical style. He devoted himself to folkloristic research until 1895. Janáček’s early musical works were influenced by his contemporaries such as Antonín Dvořák, however, his later works incorporated his research of national folk music in a modern and original synthesis, such as in the opera Jenůfa (1904). Janáček is considered one of the most important of the Czech composers
For The Future
Planting trees early in spring,
we make a place for birds to sing
in time to come. How do we know?
They are singing here now.
There is no other guarantee
that singing will ever be.
Wendell Berry
Born: 5 August 1934, Kentucky, USA
Nationality: American
Berry is a novelist, poet, essayist, cultural critic, environmental activist, and farmer. He is closely identified with rural Kentucky and his attention to the culture and economy of rural communities can be seen in the novels and stories of Port William. An elected member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers, Berry is a recipient of the National Humanities Medal
Shine
2002
Classical Crossover
BOND
Classical Pop
Formed: 2000
Nationality: Australian
BOND is a string quartet formed by music producer Mike Batt and promoter Mel Bush in 2000. The current line-up consists of Tania Davis (first violinist), Eos Counsell (second violin), Elspeth Hanson (viola), and Gay-Yee Westerhoff (cello). Hanson replaced original band member Havlie Ecker who left in 2008 to have a child
Never Goodbye
Form: Free Verse
I miss you
but not to grasp threads
of what used to be
for my past is in my reach
they said it’s happening too fast
but it really happened too slowly
the drips of pain
denied before they could be expressed
like picking currants out of a Chelsea bun
the battle within
only we could fight
sugarcoating my thoughts
until we ran out of sugar
and I lost my grip
had enough
we had enough of it
but I knew you understood
that it wasn’t goodbye
never goodbye
©JezzieG2024
Rich Days
Welcome to you rich Autumn days,
Ere comes the cold, leaf-picking wind;
When golden stocks are seen in fields,
All standing arm-in-arm entwined;
And gallons of sweet cider seen
On trees in apples red and green.
With mellow pears that cheat our teeth,
Which melt that tongues may suck them in;
With blue-black damsons, yellow plums,
Now sweet and soft from stone to skin;
And woodnuts rich, to make us go
Into the loneliest lanes we know
William Henry Davies
Born: 3 July 1871, Newport, Wales
Nationality: Welsh
Died: 26 September 1940, Gloucestershire, England
Davis was a poet and writer. He spent much of his life as a tramp or hobo in the UK and the USA yet became one of the most popular poets of his time. His themes included his observations on life’s hardships, the human condition reflected in nature his travels as a tramp, and the characters he met. Davis is classified as a Georgian Poet, however much of his writing is not typical of the group in style and theme
Cartouche
Album: Ghost of a Rose
Date: 2003
Genre: Folk-Rock
Artist: Blackmore’s Night
Blackmore’s Night is a neo-medieval folk -rock band formed in 1997. Consisting of mainly Ritchie Blackmore (acoustic guitar, hurdy-gurdy, mandola, mandolin, nyckelharpa, and electric guitar) and Candice Night (lead vocalists, lyricist, and woodwinds). The band has released eleven studio albums.
Pentimento
1973
Photography
Gelatin silver print
‘Pentimento’ brings the satisfying sense of a career coming full circle. The subject is the painter Morris Graves, who frequently sat for Cunnigham. He appears in a part fantasy, part natural setting and is seen only from his unclothed torso upwards. A contemplative gaze tilt in the direction of his extended right arm suggests he is in a silent forest pool
Imogen Cunningham
Pictorialism, Straight Photography, Group f/64
Born: 12 April 1883, Oregon, USA
Nationality: American
Died: 23. June 1976, California, USA
Cunningham was a photographer known for her botanical photography, nudes, and industrial landscapes. She was a member of Group f/64 dedicated to sharp-focus renditions of simple subjects
Basket Case
Album: Dookie
Date: 1994
Genre: Alternative/Indie
Artist: Green Day
Green Day are a rock band formed in California in 1987 by Billie Joe Armstrong (lead vocalist and guitarist) and Mike Dirnt (bassist and backing vocalist), with Tré Cool (drummer) joining in 1990. The bad is credited with bringing punk rock to the mainstream in the USA
Eloquent Dream
Form: Cross Sonnet 2
Thy picture in mute, lifeless art
Reflects my soul in its despair
Yet love declares we’ll never part
I whisper thy name like a prayer
Not with laughter and not with tears
But with love’s air to where thou waits
That eloquent dream holds no fears
As time and distance dissipates
Thine hand my guide through all of time
These times alone I feel it most
In the language of love and rhyme
Just like waves rolling on the coast
I feel thy presence over me
Too real to be a memory
©JezzieG2024
The Oath of the Horatii
1784
Neoclassicism
Oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre, Paris, France
‘The Oath of the Horatii’ is a narrative depiction of early Roman history. The Horatii brothers, seen as young soldiers reach to their father as they pledge to fight for their homeland. Every muscle of their bodies is engaged and described in David’s painting as if confirming their bravery. They are prepared to fight to the death for home and family.
Jacques Louis David
Neoclassicism
Born: 30 August 1748, Paris, France
Nationality: French
Died: 29 December 1825, Brussels, Belgium
David was a Neoclassical painter and was considered the preeminent painter of the era. In the 1780s his brand of historical painting marked a change from Rococo frivolity towards classical austerity, severity, and feeling harmonized with the moral climate of the last years of the Ancien Régime
Deuces Sonnet Notes
Created by: Mary Lou Healy
Structure: Three quatrains and a couplet
Meter: Decasyllabic or Pentameter
Rhyme Scheme: abba abba baab aa
Example
And So It Began by JezzieG
In those days past so very long ago
When magic was shared on gossamer wing
With old stories told by the bards that sing
And fairies danced amid the moonlight’s glow
While sprinkling their magic dust where they go
To refrains plucked out on the bardic string
Soon to the song the fairies learned to bring
Their own voices to the musical flow
Around the world we could hear them all sing
Enchanting songs only magic can know
Mankind heard it too where the spring winds blow
To the choir early man’s voices did ring
Of when the world was young with all to show
In those days past so very long ago
Romanian Rhapsody 1
1901
Classical Fusion
George Enescu
Classical, Opera
Born: 19 August 1881, Romania
Nationality: Romanian
Died: 4 May 1955, Paris, France
Enescu was a composer, violinist, conductor, and teacher. He is regarded as one of the greatest Romanian musicians in history
People Who Live
1973
People who live by the sea
understand eternity.
They copy the curves of the waves,
their hearts beat with the tides,
& the saltiness of their blood
corresponds with the sea.
They know that the house of flesh
is only a sandcastle
built on the shore,
that skin breaks
under the waves
like sand under the soles
of the first walker on the beach
when the tide recedes.
Each of us walks there once,
watching the bubbles
rise up through the sand
like ascending souls,
tracing the line of the foam,
drawing our index fingers
along the horizon
pointing home
Erica Jong
Born: 26 March 1942, New York, USA
Nationality: American
Jong is a novelist, satirist, and poet particularly known for her novel “Fear of Flying” (1973). The book was famously controversial for its attitudes on female sexuality and became prominent in the development of second-wave feminism
Piano Concerto in G
1931
Classical Jazz
Maurice Ravel
Impressionism
Born: 7 March 1875, Ciboure, France
Nationality: French
Died: 28 December 1937, Paris, France
Ravel was a composer, conductor, and pianist. Although he rejected the term he is often associated with Impressionism. During the 1920s and 1930s, Ravel was regarded internationally as France’s greatest living composer
A Whiter Shade of Pale
Album: Procol Harum
Date: 1967
Genre: Rock
Artist: Procol Harum
Procol Harum were a rock band formed in Essex, UK in 1967. Known for the hit single ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’ (1967) that is one of the few singles to have sold over 10 million copies. Procol Harum are noted for their baroque and classical influence, however, they are described as psychedelic rock and proto-prog with touches of R&B, blues, and soul
Brief Moments
Form: 3 Reverse Haiku
Daylight creeps through the window
The moon takes her rest
So that her lover may shine
Golden rays cosset the earth
As life awakens
Born again from its slumber
At dusk, the sun wakes his bride
Briefly, they are one
She rises into the night
©JezzieG2024
Marc (April)
2003
Drawing
Coloured pencil on paper
MoMA
Marc Jacobs, a fashion designer and close friend of the artist, is a subject for many of Peyton’s drawings and paintings. This portrait exemplifies the mutual admiration between Peyton and Jacobs; he is her favourite designer whilst her work features in his art collection.
Elizabeth Peyton
Realism
Born: 1965, Connecticut, USA
Nationality: American
Peyton is a contemporary artist, painter, and printmaker. She is known for her depictions of figures from her life and those beyond it, including friends, historical personae, and contemporary icons such as artists, writers, actors, and musicians
Day 125
Prompt: What is your signature dish?
Hi Nigel,
‘Hiya! And you can take that smirk off your face?’
All I know is you don’t bake cakes, but you love eating them
‘I can make spaghetti’
I hope you don’t mean out of a can on toast
‘No, I do not. I make proper spaghetti, the sauce as well’
Cool.
‘And I don’t use any packets or jars’
I am glad about that; I might just come to yours for dinner
‘I’ll be honest I did use jars then I watched you doing it – and it was just as easy and tastes better. So there are bonuses of hanging around in your head’
I will take that as a compliment
‘Now I just need to time it right for when you are making a curry’
You want to play with spices, huh?
‘I figure, going by your Bolognese, it’s going to taste better than a jar sauce’
So you will be about on a Saturday
‘Why a Saturday?’
Curries take time and really are not a fast fix on a working day
‘Ahh! This could be complicated’
Not really. Just takes prep, and making sure you have all the ingredients
‘Like spices’
Especially the right spices. That will be cool I know my curry spices are there.
‘What curry are we making?’
What curry do you want to make?
‘Chicken’
Chicken what?
‘Does that affect what you need?’
Umm, yeah.
‘I get chicken jalfrezi from the take-out. Can we make that?’
I don’t see why not.
‘Can we make a side too?’
Such as?
‘Onion bhaji’
Not a problem, and some naan if you like
‘Cool, I can’t wait’
Yeah, I can see you drooling. See you tomorrow, Nige
©JezzieG2024
Inspired by and written for the Ragtag Daily Prompt, my thanks to CuriousCat
Form: Zejel
It sways gently on the night breeze
Offering protection and ease
As in its web, the nightmares freeze
To bad dreams a no-entry sign
That are captured in strands of twine
While the good dreams pass through just fine
Closing down the bad memories
Each night as my eyes slowly close
The dark thoughts no longer compose
I am safe in sleeping repose
As I dream where my senses please
©JezzieG2024
Jezzie G 