Poetry, stories, art, and music from the desk of Jezzie G, a writer without a label
My Lady, the Owl
Form: Awdl Gywydd
Theme: Welsh Mythology
On feather wings of an owl
As she prowls on the night skies
No mortal woman is she
My lady of flowers flies
He chased her beauty to flight
Blodeuwedd light on the wing
Into the night her flower face
The owl in flight welcomes spring
©JGFarmer2022
Saint Francis Contemplating a Skull
1633-35
Religious Art
Oil on canvas
Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis, Missouri
Saint Francis Contemplating a Skull demonstrates Zubarán’s ability to capture spirituality in his subjects. Dressed in the brown habit of the Franciscan Order the saint looks down at the human skull in his hands. Zubarán’s contrast of light and dark surround the figure in a wash of light drawing the viewer’s eye up from the skull to St Francis’ meditative face in a figurative memento mori.
Francisco de Zurbarán
Baroque
Born: 17 November 1598, Fuente de Cantos, Spain
Nationality: Spanish
Died: 27 August 1664, Madrid, Spain
Zubarán was a painter, best known for his religious paintings of monks, nuns, and martyrs, and for his still-lifes. He earned the nickname the ‘Spanish Caravaggio’ with his forceful use of chiaroscuro. Zubarán is the father of the painter Juan de Zurbarán
The Human League
An English synth-pop band, The Human League formed in Sheffield in 1977. The group signed to Virgin Records in 1979 and gained widespread commercial success with their 1981 album ‘Dare’. The album included the UK/US number one hit ‘Don’t You Want Me’. Further hits followed throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s.
Hard Times
Album: Dare
Date: 1981
Genre: Rock
Form: Haiku
pause for a moment
listen as the wild wind sings
there lies the answers
©JGFarmer2022
Sparks Fly
Form: Sicilian Quintain
Can science explain love, feelings and that?
A mass of theory and odd conjecture,
Of nuclear fusion and milk low in fat,
Should love become just another lecture?
More scientific facts students learn off pat.
Romantic chemistry in a test tube,
Reactions noted of two things in one,
With physics is it mass squared or force cubed,
Can passion be measured by metric ton?
All I know is sparks fly when touching boob!
©JGFarmer2009
Form: Haiku
tides turn in moonlight
rapid silver reflections
seas mimicking skies
©JGFarmer2022
La courbe de tes yeux
1924
La courbe de tes yeux fait le tour de mon coeur,
Un rond de danse et de douceur,
Auréole du temps, berceau nocturne et sûr,
Et si je ne sais plus tout ce que j’ai vécu
C’est que tes yeux ne m’ont pas toujours vu.
Feuilles de jour et mousse de rosée,
Roseaux du vent, sourires parfumés,
Ailes couvrant le monde de lumière,
Bateaux chargés du ciel et de la mer,
Chasseurs des bruits et sources de couleurs,
Parfums éclos d’une couvée d’aurores
Qui gît toujours sur la paille des astres,
Comme le jour dépend de l’innocence
Le monde entier dépend de tes yeux purs
Et tout mon sang coule dans leurs regards
English Translation
The curve of your eyes encircles my heart,
a circle of dance and gentleness,
halo of time, safe nocturnal cradle,
and if I can’t remember all that I lived,
it’s because your eyes didn’t always see me.
Leaves of day and foam of dew,
reeds of wind, perfumed smiles,
wings covering the world in light,
ships loaded with sky and sea,
hunters of sounds and source of colours,
Scents hatched from a clutch of dawns
still lying on the straw of stars,
just as the day depends on innocence,
the whole world depends on your pure eyes,
and all my blood flows in their gazes
Paul Eluard
Born: 14 December, 1895, Saint-Denis, France
Nationality: French
Died: 18 November 1952, Charenton-le-Pont, France
Eluard was a poet and a founder of the Surrealist movement. During the Second World War, he authored several anti-Nazi poems that were clandestinely circulated. Eluard is known globally as the Poet of Freedom and is considered one of the most talented French Surrealist poets
It’s Lilac if you Please
Form: Quatrains
I've never seen a human bean
I worry why they don't see;
They assure you, I'm never seen,
Even glasses can't find me.
They ponder over purple cows
a variant of nature
whose beauty smiles, as she allows
my lilac hide a future
©JGFarmer2009
Big Cat
Media: Graphite on paper
©JG Farmer 2021
A New Romance
Form: Sicilian Quintain
A tune of sorrow played on fiddle strings,
Unanswered questions haunting midnight's hour,
The voice of melancholy softly sings,
Beneath the stars that light the lunar bow'r,
All waiting here for warmth that sunrise brings.
With dawn, the fluffy clouds begin their dance,
While chasing rainbows across the blue sky,
The breeze of early spring now takes its chance,
Just flirting with the budding twigs on high,
The coming of life that sings a new romance
©JGFarmer2009
Just Three Words
Form: Sestina
Three little words I found too hard to say,
I was wrong and withheld a simple truth,
Afraid to see rejection in your eyes,
Without poetics and eloquent words,
I saw your pain and bitterly regret,
I failed to say 'I love you'; I'm sorry.
For all the times I made you cry; sorry,
'I don't want to hurt you,' I hear me say,
Yet now I live with remorse and regret,
My rage hurt the one I love, that's the truth,
Engaged in battles of burning cruel words,
I'd die when your heart broke within your eyes.
The love once mine shone from those moonlight eyes,
All lost to time and I'm left with sorry,
To memories of my own poison words,
The things a girl should never hear or say,
If only you could see what is still truth,
Instead I face never ending regret.
From bitter envy to seas of regret,
Fed by tears that wept from your dying eyes,
I killed the love you gave me for my truth,
I never grasped the strength to be sorry,
Nor spoke the love you wanted me to say,
If only I could have found precious words.
'I love you' three beautiful little words,
I never told you, my only regret,
Too scared of things you might want me to say,
Afraid of the passion beneath your eyes,
Oh god baby do you know I'm sorry,
I was not able to face my heart's truth.
My fear to embrace love and not its truth,
I held back on sharing those heartfelt words,
My life too long to keep saying sorry,
I live drowning slowly in my regret,
I should have looked deep into your blue eyes,
'I love you, Babe’ is all I had to say.
My love came with truth consoling regret,
So precious can words be when said with eyes,
I remain sorry I just couldn't say
©JGFarmer2009
Form: Haiku
all energy spent
wisely or not it has gone
and nothing is left
©JGFarmer2022
Simple Minds
Formed in Glasgow in 1977, Simple Minds are a Scottish rock band, best known internationally for the 1985 hit ‘Don’t You (Forget About Me)’. The bad has a achieved five number one albums in the UK and have sold more than 60 million albums worldwide, making Simple Minds the most commercially successful Scottish band of the 1980s
Kick It In
Album: Street Fighting Years
Date: 1989
Genre: Rock
Lyrics by Charles Burchill, James Kerr, and Michael Joseph Macneil
Love gives me poetry
Stays up all night and puts a curse on me
Oh anything you want
Turn around and I’ll take you there
I know it’s going to be
Take your shackles off o’ me
This city’s gone, I’m gone over there
Kick it in, kick it in
Build it up and burn it down again
Kick it in, kick it in
Burn down to the ground
Kick it in, kick it in
Tell me about this place you’ve been
I don’t want it there’s a fever going around
Take a walk down town
See what’s going on
If you want to find a hidden key
There’s nothing here on me
Any city, anywhere
Any colour I don’t care
You belong to me
And that’s the way it’s gonna be
Kick it in, kick it in
Yeah kick it in, kick it in
Raise it up and let it live again
Feel your body shake and take off
You can lie but keep it in
Keep me down here wondering
So what’s it going to be
Come on in
I like the shape you’re in
You keep me wondering, wondering, wondering
Eyes upon you black and brown
Spread your love all over town
Give me fire, body heat
Say hello to me
I want to go anywhere
Any colour, I don’t care
Don’t believe in all you see
And don’t get caught
Kick it in, kick it in
Tell me about this love you’ve been
Kick it in, kick it in
Turn this life around
Kick it in, kick it in
Shake the ghosts from deep within
Close the door down
Don’t let the demons in
Kick it in, kick it in
I only want to be your friend
Put your hands in my hand
And take off with me
Listen baby, I’m going home
I’m going home
I’m going home
Come on walk with me
Cause I know what I see
Kick it in
Kick it in, kick it in
Tell me ’bout the place you’re in
I’ve got a new gold dream
I’m moving on, I’m moving on
You’re moving on, you’re moving on
You’re moving on, yeah
Kick it in, kick it in
I’m moving on
Farm Boy After Summer
A seated statue of himself he seems.
A bronze slowness becomes him. Patently
The page he contemplates he doesn’t see.
The lesson, the long lesson, has been summer.
His mind holds summer, as his skin holds sun.
For once the homework, all of it, was done.
What were the crops, where were the fiery fields
Where for so many days so many hours
The sun assaulted him with glittering showers.
Expect a certain absence in his presence.
Expect all winter long a summer scholar,
For scarcely all its snows can cool that color
Robert Francis
Born: 12 August 1901, Pennsylvania, USA
Nationality: American
Died: 13 July 1987, Massachusetts, USA
Francis was a poet best known for his classic work ‘The Pitcher’ that demonstrates how physical activity is not only acting on the environment but is an interactive communication with all the elements of it. Francis lived most of his life in Amherst, Massachusetts, USA
Integral Identity
Form: Abstract Poetry
I am found in all the worst places,
where angels fear to tread,
I'm denied for the saving of faces,
yet without me, love lies dead.
Find me interred by conspiracy,
covered with fading patchwork lies,
disguised by laughing codes of piracy,
so often found in tortured lethargic cries.
Beguiled by confusion and ken,
I am the solution to deception,
the path to consolation and Zen,
a new born hope at conception.
I am basic and upstanding,
a strong integrity in entity,
I am open and commanding,
I have only honesty as identity.
I am truth.
©JGFarmer2009
Each stick should be made as you contact the tree. Do not use old wood that is lying around at the bottom of the tree; however, a recently cut or broken branch is good. The stick needs to have the vibrational energy of the tree with in it, so if there is no recently cut branches it is better to ask the tree if you can take a stick. Listen closely to the tree’s response, if it is a strong sense of ‘no’, try again another time. If it is ‘yes’ always thank the tree after, and treat it with love and respect
With secateurs cut a piece of wood about a centimetre in diameter and 8-10 centimetres long. It will shrink considerably, but with twenty sticks in total, it’s better to keep them small. If you want to strip some or all of the bark from the twig then it should be done as soon as possible so the bark doesn’t shrink onto the wood. Leave the twig in a dry place to dry out for a week or two before carving, shaping, or sanding, whatever you want to do with it. The Ogham symbol can be carved, painted, or inked onto the stick.
While working with the stick re-establish the conscious link between you and the tress you received it from. This will help in understanding and knowledge of your sticks. Ogham sticks should be stored in a bag made of natural fabric.
In love and light
Raven
©JGFarmer2022
Simple Minds
Formed in Glasgow in 1977, Simple Minds are a Scottish rock band, best known internationally for the 1985 hit ‘Don’t You (Forget About Me)’. The bad has achieved five number one albums in the UK and has sold more than 60 million albums worldwide, making Simple Minds the most commercially successful Scottish band of the 1980s.
Ghost Dancing
Album: Once Upon a Time
1985
Rock
Lyrics by Charles Burchill, James Kerr, and Michael Joseph MacNeil
Cities, buildings falling down
Satellites come crashing down
I see them falling out the skies like eagles
All mirrored glass and shattered egos
But in a corner of the world we’d meet to laugh and drink and plan our sequels
‘Cause in the alleyways and bars downtown
They’re singing up from here to there can we go
This city comes alive at night, see these city walls are heaving
And if these old city walls should crash, amid the rubble you’d find us
breathing
Come say what you see in me
‘Cause boy, I believe in you
Come say what you’re seeing
All gone just ghost dancing, going all the way through
You talk about the Lebanon
You tell me ’bout the Dawn in Eden
You talk about South Africa
I tell you about the Irish children
You say one more Polish Knight could come and blow away the doors to Freedom
And if Mother Ethiopia could blow away the tears that we see run
O blow them away,
Blow, blow away
We will blow them away
O blow, blow away
Blow, blow away
Blow, blow away
Come say what you see in me
‘Cause boy, I believe in you
Come say what you’re seeing
They’re all gone just ghost dancing, going all the way through
You know I believe in you
Oh yes I believe, you know I believe in you
You say you believe
I believe, I believe, going all the way through, yeah
Come take me back home, come on and take me away
Ghost Dancing
The car pulled up, the girl she jumped in
The boy he wore a medal that was shining from his skin
With the windows pulled up, their radio tuned in
She’s hitting from the stars, he’s hitting for the moon
She said, one last kiss while you look across the Land
Move it into overdrive and take me by my hand
When the car broke, the rebels saw smoke
And they all went to heaven in a stupid fantasy, go
Take me away
Form: Haiku
in fullness, she wakes
spreading love in silver light
Hail the Mother Moon
©JGFarmer2022
Death’s Blow
Form: Raven’s Rovi Sonnet 35
Theme: Love
Again, landscapes of love can know no bound
For love is free and comes without a fee
And it is silent yet echoes with sound
Yet in the graveyard, the price of love; grief
The pain and anguish of mourning sorrow
That sense of loss that can never be brief
For time is something the heart must borrow
Yet in this debt love is given for free
As like a bud it bursts into a leaf
Its vibrant green must fade to autumn hue
Before drifting so gently to the ground
Yet the beauty remains despite death’s blow
For love does not die but sees the heart through
It holds the soul and no payment is due
©JGFarmer2022
Storm
Form: Abstract Poetry
Theme: Winter
Subject: A tree
Winds scowling and howling whisking and frisking through the trees cracking and stacking twigs on the path as a thunderous snap raps through the air and a tree crashes to the ground no longer to dance in this cacophony of sound and after the storm it lies still in the silence
©JGFarmer2022
Baboon
Media: Graphite on paper
©JG Farmer 2021
Juniper Tree
1976
Installation
Installation and Performance
Collection of the Tate, UK
The Juniper Tree was first created in 1976 and has been recreated in both 1994 and 2018. The installation explored the artist’s love of folklore and of fairy tales and is Jonas’ interpretation of the Brothers Grim fairy tale of the same name.
Joan Jonas
Performance Art, Video Art, Feminist Art
Born: 13 July 1936, New York, USA
Nationality: Joan Jonas
Joan Jonas (born July 13, 1936) is an American visual artist and a pioneer of video and performance art, and one of the most important artists to emerge in the late 1960s and early 1970s.[1] Jonas’ projects and experiments were influential in the creation of video performance art as a medium. Her influences also extended to conceptual art, theatre, performance art and other visual media. She lives and works in New York and Nova Scotia, Canada
Magic
1992
Classical
Kiri Te Kanawa
Opera
Born: 6 March 1944, Gisborne, New Zealand
Nationality: New Zealander
Te Kanawa is a retired opera singer best known for her full lyric soprano voice. She has received accolades from across the world, particularly for her performances of Mozart, Strauss, Handel, Puccini, and Verdi. In her later career, Te Kanawa performed concerts and recitals. Her final performance was in Ballarat, Australia in 2016
Wineglasses
Form: Abecedarium
Theme: An evening conversation
Subject Wineglasses by John Singer Sargent
In the arbour
jostling dappled shades and sunlight
kiss against waiting glasses
lingering
mutations of light
nestle a glimmer of anticipation
on red wine
presage of an evening to come
quiet
reflections
sipping wine and
talking memories into twilight
©JGFarmer2022
Depeche Mode
Depeche Mode are an electronic music band formed in 1980 in Basildon, Essex, England. The lineup consists of Dave Gahan (lead vocals and songwriter), Martin Gore (keyboards, guitar, vocals, and songwriter), and Andy Fletcher (keyboards). Depeche Mode have had 54 songs in the UK Singles Chart and 17 Top 10 albums in the UK. They were nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017 and 2018 and were inducted as part of the Class of 2020
Halo
Album: Violator
Date: 1990
Genre: Electro-Dance
Lyrics by M. L. Gore
You wear guilt
Like shackles on your feet
Like a halo in reverse
I can feel
The discomfort in your seat
And in your head, it’s worse
There’s a pain
A famine in your heart
An aching to be free
Can’t you see?
All love’s luxuries
Are here for you and me
And when our worlds they fall apart
When the walls come tumbling in
Though we may deserve it
It will be worth it
Bring your chains
Your lips of tragedy
And fall into my arms
And when our worlds they fall apart
When the walls come tumbling in
Though we may deserve it
It will be worth it
And when our worlds they fall apart
When the walls come tumbling in
Though we may deserve it
It will be worth it
And when our worlds they fall apart
When the walls come tumbling in
Though we may deserve it
It will be worth it
And when our worlds they fall apart
When the walls come tumbling in
Though we may deserve it
It will be worth it
Form: Haiku
fantasy falling
in the lost scented petals
the roses have gone
©JGFarmer2022
O Mare E Tu (w. Dulce Pontes)
1997
Classical
Andrea Bocelli
Opera
Born: 22 September 1958, Lajatico, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Bocelli is an operatic tenor and multi-instrumentalist. Diagnosed with congenital glaucoma at 5 months old he became blind at 12 years old after a soccer accident. Bocelli rose to fame in 1994 winning the preliminary round of the 44th Sanremo Music festival with the highest marks recorded in the newcomers’ section
You may enlarge any image in this blog by clicking on it. Click again for a detailed view. Recently, I encountered a Great Blue Heron perching adjacent to an irrigation canal in southern Arizona’s farmlands. As I photographed it, it lifted off, giving me the opportunity to capture its image at the moment that it […]
Great Blue Heron — Takeoff — Sonoran Images
Dry season
Begins
Termites
Stop
Eating
Shack
Fire ants
on
Warpath
*
*
See also:
The Hermit Poet’s eBooks on Amazon
The Hermit Poet’s eBooks detail info and downloads
I Could Have Danced All Night
1987
Musicals
Kiri Te Kanawa
Opera
Born: 6 March 1944, Gisborne, New Zealand
Nationality: New Zealander
Te Kanawa is a retired opera singer best known for her full lyric soprano voice. She has received accolades from across the world, particularly for her performances of Mozart, Strauss, Handel, Puccini, and Verdi. In her later career, Te Kanawa performed concerts and recitals. Her final performance was in Ballarat, Australia in 2016
The Ballade as its name suggests is a French form and along with the Rondeau was one of the first forms to be standardised in the 14th century. Written in syllabic prosody of any one-line length, the original French forms were octosyllabic, but now decasyllable is more common, and iambic tetrameter etc; are just as acceptable.
The construction is 28 lines which are divided into three octave stanzas and a four-line envoi.
The rhyme and pattern do not change. It turns around on only three rhymes and as is common with most French forms, the last line of each stanza is a refrain.
The Ballade has a rhyme pattern of:
ababbcbC
ababbcbC
ababbcbC
bcbC
Example
Old Glassy Smears by Jez Farmer
I thought I saw the sun peer through a cloud
A warming breath to say goodbye to tears
I could again stand tall and say I’m proud
To close history on all of my fears
But rays of light are just old glassy smears
And words mean nothing; they leave you alone
With solitude’s pain and now nothing cheers
As mem’ries turn a heart of love to stone
My eyes never shall see that pretty face
That one brief glimpse to set the world alight
For beauty’s smile that radiates with grace
Cannot be mine; I return to the night
I shall not taste her lips honeyed delight
For such a pleasure I’m not worthy to own
I have no will to stand against this plight
As mem’ries turn a heart of love to stone
Rekindling dreams of a different kind
In the distance there burns an older flame
But love I will no longer seek to find
So I can never dare call out her name
My heart, too wild, they have failed to tame
Too many times, I’ve heard ‘I love you’ drone
Those empty words but pain hurts all the same
As mem’ries turn a heart of love to stone
No longer shall I yearn for passion’s kiss
Or yield to wantings of the pleasure zone
In darkness lies no joy or loving bliss
As mem’ries turn a heart of love to stone
The Horse Fair
Form: Abbreviated Haiku II
Theme: Art
Subject: The Horse Fair by Rosa Bonheur
Hooves gallop
With flaring manes
Sinews flex
Equine might
Through kicked-up dust
Shouts power
Heckled bids
A voice calls ‘sold’
Gavel down
©JGFarmer2022
Joy of Life (Le Bonheur de Vivre)
1905-06
Fauvism
Oil on canvas
The Baltimore Museum of Art, Merion, Pennsylvania USA,
Matisse often painted summer landscapes in the south of France during his Fauve period. Her would then work up the ideas he had there into larger compositions, such as Joy of Life, on his return to Paris. Joy of Life is the second of his imaginary compositions, taken from a landscape painted in Collioure combined with ideas drawn from Watteau, Poussin, Persian miniatures, and Japanese woodcuts.
Henri Matisse
Fauvism, Neo-Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Primitivism in Art
Born: 31 December 1869, Le Cateau-Cambrésis, France
Nationality: French
Died: 3 November 1954, Nice, France
Matisse is regarded as the greatest colourist of the 20th century and rivalled Picasso in the importance of his innovations. As a Post-Impressionist and leader of the Fauvism movement he sought to use colour as the foundation for expressive, decorative, and monumental paintings. Throughout his career still life and the nude were his favoured subjects with North Africa as an important inspiration
Casting Out
Form: Abstract Poetry
With a splish-splash
the line sinks with barely a wink
and the orange spike bobbles and wobbles
in the rippled dimple of the lake
where the fish swim swam
the bait waits
©JGFarmer2022
Form: Haiku
them creepy crawlies
that wander about the night
and arachnids dine
©JGFarmer2022
Stretching
Media: Graphite on paper
©JG Farmer 2021
Ratapoil
1851
Sculpture
Patinated bronze
Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France
Ratapoil represents the shady, indefatigable image of the Napoleonic propaganda of the 1850s. Ratapoil translates as ‘skinned rat’ and Daumier, a committed Republican, was attacking the pro Bonaparte agents of the time. Produced in 1851, the exaggerated caricature seems fragile yet powerful. The frenetic lines of the sculpture create movement as if the disreputable character cannot be pinned down.
Honoré Daumier
Romanticism, Realism
Born: 26 February 1808, Marseille, France
Nationality: French
Died: 10 February 1879, Valmondois, France
Daumier was a painter, sculptor, and printmaker whose works offer a commentary on the social and political life in France from between 1830 and the Revolution to 1870 and the fall of the Napoleonic Empire. He is best known for caricatures and cartoons of the political figures of the day
A Cooking Egg
1919
En l’an trentiesme do mon aage
Que toutes mes hontes j’ay beues…
Pipit sat upright in her chair
Some distance from where I was sitting;
Views of the Oxford Colleges
Lay on the table, with the knitting.
Daguerreotypes and silhouettes,
Here grandfather and great aunts,
Supported on the mantelpiece
An Invitation to the Dance.
. . . . .
I shall not want Honour in Heaven
For I shall meet Sir Philip Sidney
And have talk with Coriolanus
And other heroes of that kidney.
I shall not want Capital in Heaven
For I shall meet Sir Alfred Mond.
We two shall lie together, lapt
In a five per cent. Exchequer Bond.
I shall not want Society in Heaven,
Lucretia Borgia shall be my Bride;
Her anecdotes will be more amusing
Than Pipit’s experience could provide.
I shall not want Pipit in Heaven:
Madame Blavatsky will instruct me
In the Seven Sacred Trances;
Piccarda de Donati will conduct me.
. . . . .
But where is the penny world I bought
To eat with Pipit behind the screen?
The red-eyed scavengers are creeping
From Kentish Town and Golder’s Green;
Where are the eagles and the trumpets?
Buried beneath some snow-deep Alps.
Over buttered scones and crumpets
Weeping, weeping multitudes
Droop in a hundred A.B.C.’s
TS Eliot
Born: 26 September 1888. Missouri, USA
Nationality: British-American
Died: 4 January 1965, London, England
Eliot was an essayist, publisher, playwright, poet, literary critic, and editor. He is considered to be among the major poets of the 20th century and a central figure in English-language Modernist poetry. Eliot was born in Missouri and moved to England at the age of 25 where he settled, worked and married. In 1927, at aged 39 he renounced his American citizenship and became a British citizen
Gazing at the Sacred Peak
735
For all this, what is the mountain god like?
An unending green of lands north and south:
From ethereal beauty Creation distills
There, yin and yang split dusk and dawn.
Swelling clouds sweep by. Returning birds
Ruin my eyes vanishing. One day soon,
At the summit, the other mountains will be
Small enough to hold, all in a single glance.
Du Fu
Born: 12 February 712, Gongyi, Zhengzhou, China
Nationality: Chinese
Died: 770, Tan Prefecture, China
Du Fu was a poet and politician of the Tang dynasty. Along with his older contemporary Li Po he is considered one of the greatest Chinese poets. Du Fu’s ambition to serve his country as a civil servant proved unsuccessful as he was unable to make the necessary accommodations. Like the whole of China, Du Fu’s life was devastated by the An Lushan Rebellion of 755, and the last decade or so of his life was a time of constant unrest. Initially unknown to other writers, Du Fu’s work became a huge influence in Both Chinese and Japanese literature and literary culture. Referred to as the ‘Poet-Historian’ and the ‘Poet-Sage’ by Chinese critics, his range of work has allowed Du Fu to be introduced to Western readers
In Dreams
Form: Triolet Sonnet
In dreams I wander close to you,
Through life our souls unite as one
In lunar light and morning dew
In dreams I wander close to you,
With wine and song, our love stands true
The boughs of oak give shade from sun
In dreams I wander close to you,
Through life our souls unite as one
Cascades of tender thoughts ensue
In dreams I wander close to you,
As love, that brings life fresh and new
Unions trust never undone
In dreams I wander close to you,
Through life our souls unite as one
©JGFarmer2009
La Donna é Mobile
1997
Opera
Andrea Bocelli
Opera
Born: 22 September 1958, Lajatico, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Bocelli is an operatic tenor and multi-instrumentalist. Diagnosed with congenital glaucoma at 5 months old he became blind at 12 years old after a soccer accident. Bocelli rose to fame in 1994 winning the preliminary round of the 44th Sanremo Music festival with the highest marks recorded in the newcomers’ section.
Headlines
Form: Terza Rima Sonnet
Theme: Three
Subject: The News
They say bad news travels in three Good news does it travel at all It’s never on the BBC ‘Resign’ the political call A celebrity died today A royal has taken a fall But joyful things – nothing to say Is there nothing to make a smile Is misery the only way Fall in love for a little while Reach for the stars and touch the sky Make the effort and do the mile Ignore the news it makes you cry Let joy come lift the soul to sigh
©JGFarmer2022
Created by: Jeff Green
Structure: Three quatrains and a couplet
Meter: Tetrameter or octosyllabic lines (see additional notes)
Rhyme Scheme: abab cdcd efef gg
Additional Notes:
Example
French Cologne by Jez Farmer
As tears replaced the kiss of love
With long nights of sleeping alone
That grasp the lingering scent of
A French cologne.
The study books can’t hold my mind
My heart is lost in time and space
Beyond the glass behind the blind
I see the face.
The face that turns my lips to smile
And holds my eyes within a trance
The love that makes my wait worthwhile
Over distance.
I long for weekends and the kiss
That through the week I sorely miss
Form: Haiku
ancient souls run deep
roots in the belly of Earth
standing tall as trees
©JGFarmer2022
Rabbit
Media: Graphite on paper
©JG Farmer 2021
No it Isn’t
Form: Abbreviated Haiku II
Theme: Love
Subject: Crime
the crime
of loving
is sin
the sin
calling love
a crime
©JGFarmer2022
Doors will open, but you have to be looking forward to see them and be thinking kindly of yourself in order to trust walking through them.– Brittany Burgunder The same view you look at every day, the same life, can become something brand new by focusing on its gifts rather than the negative aspects. Perspective…
Doors Will Open – Stay Positive — Best Life Hayat
Talking to Love
Form: Raven’s Rovi Sonnet 34
Theme: Love
Subject: Glass of wine
Before you I knew life was what it was
A straight road to a fixed destination
I was there on it with reason and cause
Zinfandel was just a glass of red wine
At end of the day with the setting sun
You set that all in flames without a sign
And no place to go when the doing is done
My glass of red wine a hesitation
Consoling my heart so it beats just fine
Protecting my mind from being undone
Now my soul lies lost and without a hope
A worthy sacrifice to just because
There is no road just a slippery slope
And a glass of wine entwined in the rope
©JGFarmer2022
Nel Cuore Lei
1999
Classical
Andrea Bocelli
Opera
Born: 22 September 1958, Lajatico, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Bocelli is an operatic tenor and multi-instrumentalist. Diagnosed with congenital glaucoma at 5 months old he became blind at 12 years old after a soccer accident. Bocelli rose to fame in 1994 winning the preliminary round of the 44th Sanremo Music festival with the highest marks recorded in the newcomers’ section
Savage Garden
Savage Garden were a pop duo consisting of Darren Hayes on vocals and Daniel Jones on instruments. The duo formed in 1993 in Brisbane, Australia and achieved global success in the mid-1990s with hit singles including ‘I Want You’, ‘Truly Madly Deeply’, and ‘The Animal Song’. Savage Garden disbanded in 2001 with Hayes continuing as a solo artist
You Can Still Be Free
Album: Affirmation
1999
Pop
Lyrics by Daniel Jones and Darren Hayes
Cool breeze and autum leaves
Slow motion daylight
A lone pair of watchful eyes
Oversee the living
Feel the presence all around
A tortured soul
A wound unhealing
No regrets or promises
The past is gone
But you can still be free…
If time will set you free…
Time now to spread your wings
To take to flight
The life endeavor
Aim for the burning sun
You’re trapped inside
But you can still be free…
If time will set you free…
But it’s a long way to go
Keep moving way up high
You see the light
It shines forever
Sail through the crimson skies
The purest light
The light that sets you free…
If time will set you free…
Sail through the wind and rain tonight
You’re free to fly tonight
And you can still be free…
If time will set you free…
And go high like the mountain tops
And go high like the wind don’t stop
And go high
Hooo
Free to fly tonight
Free to fly tonight
Jezzie G 