Poetry, stories, art, and music from the desk of Jezzie G, a writer without a label
Oh How I Hate to Get up in the Morning
1918
Popular Music
Irving Berlin
Film and Tv
Born: 11 May 1888, Russian Empire
Nationality: American
Died: 22 September 1989, New York, USA
Berlin was a composer and lyricist whose music forms a large part of the Great American Songbook. He received numerous honours including a Grammy Award, an Academy Award, and a Tony Award. In 1977 he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Gerald Ford
You Don’t Bring Me Flowers
Album: Songbird
Date: 1978
Genre: Pop
Artist: Neil Diamond and Barbra Streisand
Neil Diamond is a singer-songwriter. He is one of the best-selling musicians of all time with over 130 million records sold worldwide. He has had over thirty top 10 hits and has also acted in movies such as ‘The Jazz Singer’ (1980)
Justice Defeating Mob Violence
1935-37
American Regionalism
Oil on canvas
Robert F. Kennedy Building, Department of Justice, Washington DC, USA
‘Justice Defeating Mob Violence’ is a mural created for the Justice Department as part of the Federal Arts Project. Curry depicts a stark narrative of a lynching mob and the powerful forces of justice. Primarily allegorical, the painting is a sinister depiction, of a type of American mindset the bucolic and idealized imagery of rural America
John Steuart Curry
American Realism, American Regionalism
Born: 14 November 1897, Kansas, USA
Nationality: American
Died: 19 August 1946, Wisconsin, USA
Curry was a painter noted for his depictions of rural life in his home state of Kansas. Alongside Thomas Hart Benton and Grant Wood, Curry was hailed as one of the three great painters of American Regionalism of the early 20th century
Scent of Distinction
Form: Nine Lines
Dangerous and beautifully dressed —– to impress
Sharp, tailored fabric fitted and made-to-measure —– in old Saville Row
The making of a man —– or his breaking
Impressions of success pretended to play the game —– set apart from the boys
Picking up the headlines —– on the way uptown
Catching the girls’ glances —– with a smile
A man in suit knows he’s cutting it —– marking himself out
But is he a gent or a crook —– behind the Armani label
Disguised by the bottled scent —– of Sauvage cologne
©JezzieG2024
Channing’s Sonnet Notes
Created by: William Ellery Channing
Channing Sonnet 1
Structure: Octave and two tercets
Meter: Decasyllabic or pentameter
Rhyme Scheme: abbaabba cde cde
Example
Cast-off Laughs by Jezzie G
At first, I thought I saw love in your eyes
The promise of truth without deception
A universe in its repetition
The truth of love beyond the mask of lies
But with every look the more my pain cries
Still, I believed in our love’s inception
Denied what I saw in recognition
The promise of love was a cruel disguise
The more pain I felt the more you would smile
Agonies writhing in your cast-off laughs
My protests you so easily shrugged off
Until my heart could not stay in denial
And Fate decreed us our separate paths
Now it is I that gives you the brush-off
Channing Sonnet 2
Structure: Octave and two tercets
Meter: Decasyllabic or pentameter
Rhyme Scheme: abbaacca dee dff
Example
Bardic Slave by JezzieG
I cannot fail whilst I’m blessed from above
And my tasks and my missions have been set
Set within my heart to never forget
To care and protect thee with all my love
Through this, a living world of push and shove
A task that few could ever dare to do
But I know that this love is pure and true
The promise made is mine to keep thereof
A promise that made me thy willing slave
In consecrated vow of man and wife
I will love and protect thee for my life
And prove in many ways I am no knave
As I write these sonnets, I am thy bard
And in thy bidding, I am no sluggard
Day 113
Prompt: What freedom do you most appreciate
Hi Nigel
‘Hiya! I’m not sure it is a freedom or a basic human right’
The two can run very close in hand sometimes
‘Yes, I guessed you would understand that’
They tend to be the ones that remind us not to interfere with other people’s freedoms
‘Given it is the freedom to be myself, you might be right’
That is certainly one of those
‘Is it?’
If I want the freedom to be me then I have no right to stop you from being you
‘True enough. But… what if it Is something you fundamentally disagree with’
That’s when I would take a few steps back as in most cases it is not my circus
‘In most cases?’
Yes. If you are not harming anyone what business have I got interfering
‘Oh, I see. Yes, harming others isn’t acceptable’
However, it is not always completely avoidable
Some of our lifestyle choices, not that they really are choices, could and do upset those close to us
‘And to avoid that means denying our natural self’
Yes.
‘It’s complicated, isn’t it?’
It is when you are living in the pretense of who you are isn’t who you are’
‘Why do we do that?’
Fear of the unknown, fear of being rejected, and not wanting to hurt the ones we love the most
‘Don’t forget social and religious indoctrination’
I’m not as they feed the fear more than anything.
‘Yes, that’s true and it invites discrimination’
Of course, as humans, we are conditioned to fear and dislike what we don’t understand
‘So it is how we are raised’
Yes and no. Yes, we learn it from our parents, but they learned it from their parents who learned it from their parents and so it keeps going. In that sense it is conditioning.
‘So that is what we are up against to be ourselves’
Yes, the brick wall of human conditioning
‘Can that be changed or redirected?
Yes, but it takes some doing emotionally, physically, and mentally
‘Which is why we need those we love behind us’
Or to back off and let us get on with it. See you tomorrow, Nige
©JezzieG2024
Inspired by and written for Weekly Prompts Weekend Challenge – with thanks to Sue and Gerry
Form: Cento
Small, black-hooded lady
A polka-dotted someone
Wanders on the jasmine leaves
In the evening’s twilight sun
Taking her constitutional
After the butterflies have gone
Fluttered away on their lovely wings
Now this little scarlet beetle
Can find her tranquillity
Before she too
Opens her crimson shawl
As she flies into the night
©JezzieG2024
Inspired by and written for Simply 6 Minutes, my thanks to Christine
Form: Indonesian Sonnet
Taking it easy and having some fun
Just good mates looking for a game to play
Each not wanting to seem they are outdone
As the stakes get higher throughout the day
The beer replaced by a shot with no gun
‘And one for the road’ did I hear you say
Who is going home before the night’s done
When there is yet another game to play
Take a seat is all that needs to be done
To see out the night it is the best way
Setting out deckchairs when the sky is dun
It looked so easy in the light of day
Taking it easy and having some fun
It looked so easy in the light of day
Time: 6 minutes 20 seconds
Word Count: 121
©JezzieG2024
Inspired by and written for the Ragtag Daily Prompt, with thanks to Martha Kennedy
Form: Haiku
Golden spring trumpets
Declaring the arrival
A bunch for a pound
©JezzieG2024
Jezzie G 