The Light Ivorian Sonnet 25 – aa bcb dede bacde Theme: Love Subject: Pills
Time for healing getting stronger each day Sewing up the edges where emotions fray
While looking for the ways out of this pit When her love meant she walked away from this Leaving me alone to get on with it
The world she wants is decked out in pure gold For her love is the glamour and a ring On her finger she can flash to the world In pretentious grandeur that she sees in bling
In sickness and health; well that didn’t fit She couldn’t care so simply walked away It’s one more dagger from her lover’s kiss Bitter pill to take; a light to behold In such darkness where her love means nothing
Photographer Gavin Rene Libotte is the Edge of Humanity Magazine contributor of this photo essay. From the series ‘NEW WAVE’. To see Gavin’s body of work, click on any image. We are swimming in the ocean of Prana, a field of Energy. There is nothing but the One, non-dual…
View PORTFOLIO Artist Statement & Bio . . The NO MIDDLEMAN ART GALLERY is a Edge of Humanity Magazine project. ABOUT The NO MIDDLEMAN ART GALLERY is designed to connect art seekers and collectors with artists DIRECTLY. The gallery is not a mall, but instead a collection of remarkable works of art that bring together artists and potential buyers. Following Edge […]
Hail! Branwen, lady of love and beauty Gracious sister of Bran, sweet enchantress Is this wonder of love a blessing or curse Dear lady torture me Oh blessed Branwen, may this soul speak Mighty mistress, granting the gift of love Pray tell why the path is so arduous When the heart loves pure
So many give up in this modern day Denying rewards of eternal joy For though the path is an arduous one It is a worthy walk When love is the sacred gift of the soul Surely it can belong to only one Once the heart and soul has been given In a hallowed vow
For my understanding the gift of love The sweetest blessing with such a price And with all my being I gladly pay it That price is my grief Pray Branwen, I seek in this way Your wisdom and loving counsel My destiny now placed in your hands Is this how it is?
Originally an Italian pastoral song the Madrigal is written in lines of either seven or eleven syllables and is composed of two or three tercets followed by one or two rhyming couplets. With the variable number of lines and line lengths is an equally variable rhyme scheme.
For the English Madrigal, developed by Geoffrey Chaucer, the rules are a lot more defined.
The lines are written in iambic pentameter or 10-syllables. The poem consists of three stanzas: a tercet, a quatrain, and a sestet. The three lines of the opening tercet are all refrain lines and the rhyme scheme is as follows:
AB1B2 abAB1 abbAB1B2
Example
Moon Shine Madrigal by JezzieG
As darkness falls, I see my Lady rise to bathe the world in silver blue moon shine and while I pray, I know this love is Thine.
To full moon’s magic light, I lift my eyes to see the joyful peace, you bring is mine as darkness falls, I see my Lady rise to bathe the world in silver blue moon shine
In open fields beneath the urban skies in meditative thought of pure divine where no living barriers can confine as darkness falls, I see my Lady rise to bathe the world in silver blue moon shine and while I pray, I know this love is Thine
There were only cadavers of cockroaches lying scattered on the floor. Nothing more the house was empty and devoid of mortal life. Nothing with a pulse entered, and if it did it had only one way out and would add to the pile of dead bodies.
Charlie peered through the window. Staring at the bodies he wondered why he had been so dumb as to accept the dare, and would it be cowardly to back out now. Charlie being a naïve kind of cockroach was lost for what to do.
He peered into the dark room again and then he saw it, or he thought he saw it. He thought he must be going mad. Not that taking a dare to enter the house of death for the night wasn’t mad at all. Had he seen something or was his imagination playing games?
Charlie looked again, focusing on the old fireplace. Sure enough, he could just make out the figure of a ghostly cockroach. It was staring at him. Then it spoke in a booming but deathly voice:
“Swallow your bravado, kid, you are too young to die.”
Well, Charlie jumped out of his shell but didn’t need telling a second time as he legged it.
Handphone Table 1978 Sculpture MASS Moca, North Adams MA, USA
One of Anderson’s earliest sculptural works “Handphone Table” consists of a table incorporating a concealed sound system that omits low-range vocal tones through one end of the structure and music at the other. These sounds are also hidden inside the work and to access them the audience must actively engage with the sculpture by positioning their elbows onto depressions on the table and using their hands, to cover their ears, The bones of the listener act as conductors allowing the sound to travel through their arms to their ears.
Laurie Anderson Performance Art, Installation Art, Video Art Born: 5 June 1947, Illinois, USA Nationality: American
Laurie Anderson is an avant-garde artist, composer, musician, and film director. Her work spans performance art, pop music, and multimedia projects. Initially trained as a violinist and in sculpting, Anderson pursued a variety of performance art projects in 1970s New York, particularly focusing on language, visual imagery, and technology. Anderson became widely known in 1981 when her single “O Superman” became a hit
Getting a Chest Form: Epistle Sonnet 24 – aba aedcb cdcd ee Theme: Love Subject: Table
As I close my eyes into the rewind Anaesthetics take me to my dreams Reality of self soon redefined
And a surgeon’s knife to bring peace of mind As I close my eyes the past slips away And the lights fade out while I float on time As he performs his craft on the table I’m away with fairies or so it seems
Bright lights, eyes still hazy and unstable Out of my head drifting in the sublime The morphine drips slowly; I’m unable To feel the pain, that’s a matter of time
Time: I feel like a bus hit me this way Time for healing getting stronger each day
Claes Oldenburg Pop Art, Conceptual Art Born: 29 January 1929, Stockholm, Sweden Nationality: American Died: 18 July 2022, New York, USA
Oldenburg is a sculptor, known for his public installations featuring large replicas of everyday objects. Many of his works were created in collaboration with his wife, Coosie van Bruggen, who died in 2009. Oldenburg’s soggy hamburgers, giant three-way plugs, and enormous clothes pegs made him the king of Pop sculpture during the 1960s.
Oldenburg has been the king of Pop sculpture since the 1960s with his colossal clothespins, giant three-way plugs, and saggy hamburgers. He rented a storefront, The Store, in 1961 and stocked it with crudely painted, stuffed forms resembling diner foods, cheap clothing, and other product of mass-manufacturing that stunned an audience that had become used to the austere, non-representational forms of Abstract Expressionism. Oldenburg’s soft sculptures are the first Pop Art sculptural expressions. His focus remained on everyday objects presented on a magnified scale with his work growing in scale and ambition. Oldenburg reduces the viewer to a morsel that could be eaten along with a giant slice of cake.
Pop artists had imitated the flat languages of billboards, television, magazines, etc, in two-dimensional mediums, Oldenburg, however, brought Pop Art into the realms of sculpture with his three-dimensional paper maches, soft fabric forms, and plaster models, an important innovation at the time.
Oldenburg’s objects, no matter how insignificant in themselves, become entities like characters in a play due to their outsized scale and the soft form he chooses. this distances Olden burg from the detachment of Andy Warhol or Lichtenstein, making his sculptures portrait-like highlights of the absurdity of American culture with a gentler cynicism than his peers in Pop Art.
The concept of enlarging a small everyday object and placing it in a landscape was integral to Oldenburg’s monumental public art and was influenced by the Surrealists such as Magritte, Dali, and Ernst. The most Surreal of the Pop Artists Oldenburg’s sculptures are like Surrealist dreams made real. With his unconventional squishy and rearrangeable sculpture Oldenburg challenged the hard, vertical orientation of Abstract Expressionism. His work was a groundbreaker in the history of sculpture.
No matter how ordinary his subject, Oldenburg never saw them as just an object. His process of adjustment and fine-tuning reflects his unwavering interest in the impact of form and aligns him with the traditions of sculpture held by earlier masters from Michelangelo to Brancust.
Oldenburg was born in Stockholm, Sweden in 1929. His father was a diplomat and the family settled in Chicago, USA in 1936. Oldenburg was educated at Yale and graduated in 1950. He took a job with the City News Bureau of Chicago and intermittently attended the Arts Institute of Chicago.
Oldenburg became and naturalized American citizen in 1953 and moved to New York to pursue his career in art. In New York, the artist was influenced by the environment of the Lower East Side where Fluxus, the Beats, and Pop Art groups converged on performance and gallery spaces at Judson Memorial Church. Oldenburg met and got to know the regulars such as Yoko Ono, Allan Kaprow, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Jim Dine, and Andy Warhol. The circle agreed that Abstract Expressionism was over, but what came next no one knew. Another resource was the library at Cooper Union where Oldenburg worked for several years and held his first solo exhibition in 1959.
In 1962 Oldenburg displayed “Floor Cake,” “Floor Cone,” and “Floor Burger,” three colossal sculptures, at the high-profile Green Gallery on 57th Street. These sculptures consisted of stuffed, painted, and sewn canvas. From this point on his work received critical acclaim, and for the next few years, his production of soft sculpture convenience foods, as well as everyday domestic objects, was prolific. Characterized by a fluid hand, Oldenburg’s works on paper remained an ongoing, important aspect of his work. Through the second half of the 1960s, he produced an extensive series of drawings of fantasy architecture. Also in the late 1960s he established a long-term association with the eminent art dealer Leo Castelli.
In 1967 to realize some of his larger projects Oldenburg participated in an art and technology program by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, leading to a residency at a branch of Walt Disney Enterprises facilitating the development of his cartoon mouse into which he incorporated a movie camera. This became Oldenburg’s personal symbol and inspired the painted steel mouse sculptures of diverse colours and sizes in 1972.
1976 was another breakthrough year for Oldenburg as he executed his first monumental outdoor sculpture, “Lipstick (Ascending” on Caterpillar Tracks,” and his first corporate commission “Clothespin.” From then on Oldenburg focused on large-scale public sculpture.
Oldenburg married the art historian, Coosie Van Broogen in 1977, and the couple collaborated on his colossal, polychrome outdoor sculptures from 1976 until her death in 2009. Their most popular works include “Spoonbridge and Cherry” (1985) and “Shuttlecock” (1994). Oldenburg died from a fall in his New York home at the age of 93
Created by John Berryman the Mistress Bradstreet is an eight-line stanza form. Lines 1,2, 5, and 6 have 10 syllables, lines 3 and 7 have 6 syllables, line 4 has 8 syllables and line 8 has 12, giving a beat count of 10 10 6 8 10 10 6 12.
The rhyme scheme is as follows:
abcbddba
There is no limit on poem length
Example
Tarocchini by JezzieG
In ancient ways of magic, I can see The guiding light I need to find my way The future mine to take While dealing cards but not in play Acarnas major and minor please tell What things will serve me wise and serve me well Blessed spirits speak today Let my eyes gaze upon what is that is to be
Fourth Family, Hexagon 2013 Minimalism Mirror and reverse-glass painting on plaster and plastic. James Cohan Gallery, New York, USA
Farmanfarmaian continued her experimentations with increasingly complex forms and compositions up until her death, however, the geometric underpinnings of her work remained constant from the beginning to the end of her career. A three-dimensional form, “Fourth Family, Hexagon” is composed of a tessellating and interlocking series of geometric forms in a hexagonal shape. Farmanfarmaian referenced her pieces as “geometric families, emphasizing the importance of family in her personal life.
Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian Minimalism, Feminist Art Born: 16 December 1922, Qazvin, Persia Nationality: Iranian Died: 20 April 2019, Tehran, Iran
Farmanfarmaian was an artist and collector of traditional folk art. She is one of the most prominent Iranian artists of her time, and the first to achieve an artistic practice that unites the Iranian geometric patterns and cur-glass mosaic techniques with the rhythms of Western modern geometric abstraction. In 2017 the Monir Museum in Tehran, Iran was opened in her honour
I sit beside the fire and think of all that I have seen, of meadow-flowers and butterflies in summers that have been;
Of yellow leaves and gossamer in autumns that there were, with morning mist and silver sun and wind upon my hair.
I sit beside the fire and think of how the world will be when winter comes without a spring that I shall never see.
For still there are so many things that I have never seen: in every wood in every spring there is a different green.
I sit beside the fire and think of people long ago, and people who will see a world that I shall never know.
But all the while I sit and think of times there were before, I listen for returning feet and voices at the door.
JRR Tolkien Born: 3 January 1892, Bloemfontein, South Africa Nationality: English Died: 2 September 1973, Bournemouth, England
Tolkien was a writer and philologist, best known as the author of “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings.” He was also the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon and a Fellow of Pembroke College at the University of Oxford. He and his close friend CS Lewis founded the informal literary group “The Inklings.” Many authors published works of fantasy before Tolkien, however, the great success of both “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings” directly led to a resurgence in the genre and Tolkien is often referred to as the father of modern fantasy literature
Artist Gary Cataldo AKA MU6X5BOL is the Edge of Humanity Magazine contributor of these images. To see Gary’s body of work, click on any photograph. It was only at the age of 19 that I took up photography, 50 years ago. At first, I tried to copy the masters…
Cleopatra: His legs bestrid the ocean; his rear’d arm Crested the world. His voice was propertied As all the tuned spheres, and that to friends; But when he meant to quail and shake the orb, He was as rattling thunder. For his bounty, There was no winter in’t, an autumn t’was That grew the more from reaping. His delights Were dolphin-like: they show’d his back above The element they liv’d in. In his livery Walk’d crowns and crownet, realms and islands were As plates dropp’d from his pocket
Haunted Mind Form: Raven’s Rovi Sonnet 23 – aba cdcd aedbc ee Theme: Love Subject: Pencil
On canvas, her pleasure my brush can flaunt From pencil sketches and photos I took And that smile, her smile, feeling my want
With brushstrokes and knives, watercolours and oil She’s always smiling within my mind’s eye My heart isn’t racing from artist’s toil Ye painting captures the unbidden sigh
Yet don’t stop that smile on its gentle haunt Through the wandering thoughts inside my mind I love the feelings of her floating by And sensing her wherever I dare look When lines of a pencil begin to coil
Like hair in my fingers in art defined As I close my eyes into the rewind
At length their long kiss severed, with sweet smart; And as the last slow sudden drops are shed From sparkling eaves when all the storm has fled, So singly flagged the pulses of each heart. Their bosoms sundered, with the opening start Of married flowers to either side outspread From the knit stem; yet still their mouths, burnt red, Fawned on each other where they lay apart. Sleep sank them lower than the tide of dreams, And their dreams watched them sink and slid away. Slowly their souls swam up again, through gleams Of watered light and dull drowned waifs of day; Till from some wonder of new woods and streams He woke and wondered more; for there she lay
Head Over Heels Album: Songs from the Big Chair Date: 1985 Genre: Alternative/Indie Artist: Tears for Fears
Tears for Fears were formed in Bath, England, in 1981 by Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith after the dissolution of their first band, Graduate. Tears for Fears were associated with new-wave electronic bands of the early 1980s and achieved international success. Their debut album “The Hurting” reached the top of the UK Album Chart. In 2021, Orzabal and Smith received the Ivor Novello Award for “Outstanding Song Collection” in recognition of era-defining albums and innovative hit singles
In finding heartbreak in the wrong places A man learns to understand the graces As his mind questions everything that is And understands love is already his And in its wonder, he can only sigh The way love came in and gently unfurled Their destiny is not meant for this world For their love, so strong there’s no goodbye
United even when hard tears he cried Look again she said, and so he had tried To do the impossible; love again Until that promise must now be denied He’ll bide his time until he gets her call For the love she claimed as he gave his all
J.F.W Herschel; John Frederick William Herschel 1867 Photography Albumen print from wet Collodion glass negative Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
This portrait is a depiction of the scientist and photo-chemist John Herschel. He and Cameron became acquainted in 1835 and their friendship matured into a life-long photographic mentorship. Herschel is portrayed in a three-quarter view gazing into the distance. Swathed in a dark cloak and wearing a cap the image created highlights Herschel’s intellect and plays on the idioms of the genius figure.
Julia Margaret Cameron The Pre-Raphaelites, Pictorialism Born: 11 June 1815, Calcutta, British India Nationality: British Died: 26 January 1879, Kalutara, British Ceylon
Cameron was a photographer is one of the most important portraitists of the 19th century. She is best known for her use of soft-focus close-ups of famous Victorian men and women, illustrative pictures depicting characters from mythology, Christianity, and literature, and sensitive portraits of both adults and children.
You may enlarge any image in this blog by clicking on it. Click again for a detailed view. With the possible exception of south Texas, I know of no other place in the United States that is visited by as many flycatcher species as is southern Arizona. In spring and summer our winter regulars — […]
Hear me out: that which you call death I remember.
Overhead noises, branches of the pine shifting. Then nothing. The weak sun flickered over the dry surface.
It is terrible to survive as consciousness buried in the dark earth.
Then it was over; that which you fear, being a soul and unable to speak, ending abruptly, the stiff earth bending a little. And what I took to be birds darting in low shrubs.
You who do not remember passage from the other world I tell you I could speak again: whatever returns from oblivion returns to find a voice:
from the corner of my life came a great fountain, deep blue shadows on azure seawater
Art is Erotica Form: Ivorian Sonnet 22 – aa bcb dede aecbd Theme: Love Subject: Paint
For in this love, I can let myself be Where imagination has things to see
Silent certainty that life is all right As fantasy takes a hold of my hand Where the lady, my muse takes me tonight
I’ll not resist her, the charms of her want In vibrant colours she begins to tease Now as the brush moves, I feel the détente I see senses she desires me to please
In shaded strokes the emotions are free And once again feel her inviting breeze For I am now taken in her command Caught within her intoxicating light On canvas, her pleasure my brush can flaunt
There is a photograph of two ladies with high-button boots walking along the beach where the sea sooths over the pebbles; their scarves unfurled like the flags outside the old library and the wind was blowing in an easterly direction; towards the prom. The younger one, the one with flowing blonde hair, looks over at the older, as if listening to what she is about to say.
And I smile, remembering the story
and I can imagine I am there, present.
How they suddenly hoisted their skirts
above the foaming waters, dashing
back towards the prom
scattering resting gulls to the heavens
above the glistening sea.
My Edwardian ladies with their delicate
lace parasols and straw boater hats
on the exact same beach
where Nana and I spend the summers
dressed in 70’s casual
beach wear –
- what would the ladies so think
and I look at Nana, pictured with
flowing blonde hair as she tells me how
so decadently she’d loosen the buttons
and her dress would fall
unceremoniously in a heap
while her mother tutted and fussed
before finishing whatever it was
she happened to be saying
as Nana ran into the sea
for a dip
Happy the lab’rer in his Sunday clothes! In light-drab coat, smart waistcoat, well-darn’d hose, Andhat upon his head, to church he goes; As oft, with conscious pride, he downward throws A glance upon the ample cabbage rose That, stuck in button-hole, regales his nose, He envies not the gayest London beaux. In church he takes his seat among the rows, Pays to the place the reverence he owes, Likes best the prayers whose meaning least he knows, Lists to the sermon in a softening doze, And rouses joyous at the welcome close
Jane Austen Born: 16 December 1775, Hampshire, England Nationality: English Died: 18 July 1817, Hampshire, England
Austen was a novelist and poet best known for her six major novels, which interpret, comment upon, and critique the English landed gentry of the late 18th century. Austen’s plots explored the dependence of women on making a good marriage in the pursuit of social standing, respectability, and economic security. Austen’s use of irony, realism, and social commentary has earned acclaim among critics and scholars alike. Her books were published anonymously in her lifetime and Austen gained greater status after her death. Her novels have rarely been out of print
Poet: Charles Bukowski Born: 16 August 1920, Andernach, Germany Nationality: German-American Died: 9 March 1994, California, USA
Bukowski was a poet, novelist, and short story writer. The influences on his writing were the social, cultural, and economic ambiance of Los Angeles, his hometown. In his work, he addressed the lives of poor Americans, the act of writing, relationships with women, the drudgery of work, and alcohol. Bukowski wrote thousands of poems, hundreds of short stories, and six novels, eventually publishing over 60 books. The FBI kept a file on him, a result of his column Notes of a Dirty Old Man.
Bukowski extensively published in small literary magazines and with small presses from the 1940s through to the 1990s. Due to his antics and deliberate clownish performances, he was considered the king of the underground. Since his death, he has been the subject of critical articles and books about his work and life, despite his work receiving little attention from US academia in his lifetime. However, Bukowski enjoyed fame in Europe, especially in his home country of Germany
Bukowski, born Heinrich Karl Bukowski, was born in Andernach, Rhine Province, The Free State of Prussia, Weimar Republic. His father was a German-American in the US Army of Occupation after World War I who remained in Germany after his military service. Bukowski’s grandfather emigrated to the US from the German Empire in the 1880s.
Bukowski’s parents met in Andernach, Germany, after World War I. His father was in the US Army serving in Germany after the war and had an affair with Katharina, a German friend’s sister, resulting in her becoming pregnant. Bukowski repeatedly claimed he was born on the wrong side of the blanket, but records show the couple were married one month before his birth. His father became a building contractor and moved the family to Pfaffendorf. The post-war stagnant German economy and high inflation meant Henry Bukowski could not make a living and the family moved to Baltimore in 1923.
In 1930, the family moved to Los Angeles, the city where Bukowski’s father and grandfather had previously lived. The young Bukowski spoke English with a German accent and was taunted by his peers. During his youth, he was shy and socially withdrawn, and in his teens, this was exacerbated by extreme acne. After graduating from Los Angeles High School, Bukowski attended City College for two years studying art, literature, and journalism. At the start of World War II, he left college and moved to New York to work as a financially squeezed blue-collar worker with his dreams of becoming a writer.
With the Second World War ongoing Bukowski, a suspect of draft evasion was arrested by the FBI in July 1944. The USA was at war with Germany, and many Germans and German-Americans in the USA were suspected of disloyalty, Bukowski’s German birth troubled the US authorities and he was held 17 days in Moyamensing Prison in Philadelphia for seventeen days, He failed a psychological examination that formed part of the mandatory military entrance physical test and was declared unfit for military service just sixteen days later.
At 24 Bukowski’s short story ‘Aftermath of a Lengthy Rejection Slip’ was published in Story magazine. Two years later ’20 Tanks from Kasseldown’ was published by the Black Sun Press. Bukowski grew disillusioned by the publication process and quit writing for nearly a decade. These ‘lost years’ formed the basis for the semibiographical chronicles. During this time Bukowski continued to live in Los Angeles and for a short time worked in a pickle factory. He also spent some time roaming the United States, sporadically working, and staying in cheap rooming houses.
Bukowski took a job as a fill-in letter courier with the USPO, Los Angeles in the early 1950s, however, he resigned before reaching three years of service. In 1955, after suffering from a near-fatal bleeding ulcer, Bukowski began writing poetry and married Barbara Frye a Texas poet. Following their divorce in 1958 resumed drinking and continued writing poetry. Several of Bukowski’s poems were published during the late 1950s in the poetry magazine Gallows published by Jon Griffith. However, it was the small avant-garde magazine Nomad, published by Anthony Linick and Donald Factor, that offered Bukowski’s early work a home, featuring two of his poems in the inaugural issue in 1959. A year later Bukowski’s essay, “Manifesto: A Call for Our Own Critics,” was published in the magazine.
By 1960 Bukowski returned to Los Angeles and the post office where he worked as a letter filing clerk for over a decade. In 1962 the death of his first serious girlfriend, Jane Cooney Baker, left him distraught, a devastation Bukowski turned into a series of poems and stories. In 1964 his live-in girlfriend, Frances Smith, gave birth to their daughter Marina Louise Bukowski.
Bukowski’s first printed publication, “His Wife, the Painter,” was published by Kearse Press in June 1960. In October 1960, Hearse Press also published “Flower, Fist, and Bestial Wall,” Bukowski’s first chapbook of poems. “His Wife, the Painter,” “The Paper on the Floor,” “The Old Man on the Corner,” and “Waste Basket” formed the centrepiece of Hearse Press’ “Coffin 1,” a small poetry publication in the form of a pocketed folder containing 42 broadsheets and lithographs, published in 1964. Hearse Press continued to publish Bukowski’s poetry throughout the 1960s to the early 1980s.
In 1963/65 Jon and Louise Webb, publishers of The Outsider literary magazine, featured Bukowski’s poems “It Catches My Heart in Its Hands” and “Crucifix in a Deathhand” In 1967 Bukowski wrote a column “Notes of a Dirty Old Man” for Los Angeles’ Open City, an underground newspaper. When the newspaper was shut down in 1969, the column was picked up by the Los Angeles Free Press and the hippie underground paper NOLA Express in New Orleans. That same year Bukowski and Neelie Cherkovski launched the short-lived literary magazine, “Laugh Literary and Man the Humping Guns.”
Bukowski accepted an offer from Black Sparrow Press publisher John Martin, in 1969 and quit his office job to dedicate his career to full-time writing. less than a month after quitting the postal service he finished his first novel “Post Office.” As a mark of respect to Martin Bukowski published almost all his major works through Black Sparrow Press, which became a highly successful enterprise. However, as a supporter of the small independent presses he submitted poems and short stories to innumerable small publications throughout his career.
Bukowski had a series of love affairs and one-night trysts. One of these relationships was with Linda King, a poet, and sculptor. They were seen performing a stage reading of the first act of King’s play “Only a Tenant” in a one-off performance at the Pasadena Museum of the Artist.
Bukowski met Linda Lee Beighle in 1976. Two years later he moved from the East Hollywood area where he had lived for most of his life to San Pedro, a harbourside community. Beighle followed him and they lived together off and on for the next two years. They eventually married in 1985.
Bukowski collaborated with Robert Crumb on a series of comic books in the 1980s with Bukowski providing the writing and Crumb the artwork. Crumb also illustrated several of Bukowski’s stories during the 1990s including “The Captain Is Out to Lunch” collection.
Bukowski died in March 1994 of leukaemia in San Pedro. His funeral rites were conducted by Buddhist monks and he is buried at Green Hills Memorial Park, Rancho Palos Verdes.
the night I was going to die I was sweating on the bed and I could hear the crickets and there was a cat fight outside and I could feel my soul dropping down through the mattress and just before it hit the floor I jumped up I was almost too weak to walk but I walked around and turned on all the lights and then I went back to bed and dropped it down again and I was up turning on all the lights I had a 7-year-old daughter and I felt sure she wouldn’t want me dead otherwise it wouldn’t have mattered but all that night nobody phoned nobody came by with a beer my girlfriend didn’t phone all I could hear were the crickets and it was hot and I kept working at it getting up and down until the first of the sun came through the window through the bushes and then I got on the bed and the soul stayed inside at last and I slept. now people come by beating on the doors and windows the phone rings the phone rings again and again I get great letters in the mail hate letters and love letters. everything is the same again
Old Bear Form: Epistle Sonnet 21 – aba aecbd cdcd ee Theme: Love Subject: Plush Toy
Who needs a cherry when you got syrup And who needs loving when you got a bear A bear that’s always there, to cheer you up
But a bear can’t make coffee in a cup?
There are limitations as you can see
Yet still my old bear is my bestest friend
For he’s the one that has always been there
In him there is nothing I can’t confide
So when it comes down to it in the end I will keep him just here right by my side A privilege I will always defend He’s never played tricks or even lied
And maybe his loving matters to me For in this love I can let myself be
Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore – And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over – Like a syrupy sweet?
You may enlarge any image in this blog by clicking on it. Click again for a detailed view. The other day I came across a Burrowing Owl perching at roadside. This owl may have been a familiar figure because it was perching very close to the location where I’d photographed a pair of owls just […]
Also known as the dogtooth amethyst, the chevron amethyst is a combination of white quartz and amethyst that forms a V-shaped banded pattern. It is predominantly found in India, Africa, and Brazil.
The chevron amethyst combines the enhancing and strengthening qualities of the quartz with the stress-relieving abilities of the amethyst. It is a highly spiritual stone. Its energies enable the gaining of wisdom and the search for answers as well as giving peace of mind even amid chaos and noise.
Chevron amethyst is the stone of intuition and works closely with the third eye chakra, enhancing both physical vision and intuition. Opening the third eye also strengthens psychic abilities. Its energies cleanse the aura, removing any negativity affecting our overall vibration.
Affirmation: I listen to my inner voice and allow my intuition to grow.
The last of last words spoken is, Good-bye – The last dismantled flower in the weed-grown hedge, The last thin rumour of a feeble bell far ringing, The last blind rat to spurn the mildewed rye.
A hardening darkness glasses the haunted eye, Shines into nothing the watcher’s burnt-out candle, Wreathes into scentless nothing the wasting incense, Faints in the outer silence the hunting-cry.
Love of its muted music breathes no sigh, Thought in her ivory tower gropes in her spinning, Toss on in vain the whispering trees of Eden, Last of all last words spoken is, Good-bye.
Walter de la Mare Born: 25 April 1873, London, England Nationality: English Died: 22 June 1956, Twickenham, England
De la Mare was a poet, short story writer, and novelist, best remembered for his works for children and for his poem “The Listeners.” He also authored a subtle collection of psycho horror stories including “All Hallows” and “Seaton’s Aunt.” In 1921 he was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his novel “Memoirs of a Midget” and in 1947 the Carnegie Medal for British Children’s Books
Sweet love the road to spiritual bliss Led by the beautiful grace of your hand This great desire that Lady Fate has planned Our imperfect souls in perfection kiss
My noble heart holds high hopes to sustain Such love that we found in purity’s fire As now my life only you can inspire Whether days of sunshine or nights of rain
Your presence cleanses me from living stress In you, I’ve entered a new way of life But it’s not always free from living’s strife Love remains to powerfully impress That I was nothing much in days before And it’s in your love I am so much more
Charles Gounod Opera Born: 17 June 1818, Paris, France Nationality: French Died: 18 October 1893, Saint-Cloud, France
Gounod was a composer and wrote twelve operas including “Faust” (1859) and “Romeo and Juliet” (1867), both of which remain in the international repertory. Gounod also composed church music, songs, and other shorter pieces. He was a student at the Conservatoire de Paris and won France’s prestigious musical prize, the Prix de Rome. A deeply religious man, Gounod considered the priesthood after his studies
Cold to Hot Form: Raven’s Rovi Sonnet 20 – aba cdce aebdc ee Theme: Love Subject: Syrup
With that floosy cherry, she has no soul As she sits atop desserts of ice cream No cherry will ever my heart console
But delicious syrup that gently swirls And drips over the frozen creamy ice It is there my tongue savours as it twirls Remembering senses that you’d entice
Intimate embraces making me whole Of those desires only you could stir up Lost in a moment of a sexual dream My tongue seeking all your senses to splice The hunger of love that slowly unfurls
For in going down that means floating up Who needs a cherry when you got syrup
Impressionist Street Photographer Madhur Dhingra is the Edge of Humanity Magazine contributor of this photo essay. From the project ‘The Cosmic Dancer’. To see Madhur’s body of work, click on any image. My Search The images displayed here are a part of a personal journey where I search answers…
Photographer Mildred Salas is the Edge of Humanity Magazine contributor of these images. To see Mildred’s body of work, click on any photograph. Artist statement: “My work is an expression of my emotions. Sometimes my emotions are scattered and sometimes not. I express myself best in…
Edvard Grieg Romantic Born: 15 June 1843, Bergen, Norway Nationality: Norwegian Died: 4 September 1907, Bergen, Norway
Grieg was a composer and pianist. He is considered one of the main composers of the Romantic era and his music remains the standard of the global classical repertoire. Grieg made use of Norwegian folk music in his compositions and brought fame to the music of Norway