Monday, May 29, 2023

Captured!

I'm captured by your spell. CAPTURED!
~Tina Turner


For Music Monday, the Queen of Rock and Roll (and more): Tina Turner.



From Love Within: Beyond



Thursday, May 25, 2023

Dame la mano

You cut off the capacity for grief in your life, and you cut off the joy at the same time. They both come up through the same tunnel. You don't have one without the other.
~William Hurt



For Poetry Friday, a poem from a touching WaPo article: Poems offered me an anchor as I lost my son, so I shared them. Heidi's ghazal goes very well with this poem. "Ask for what you need."

Moses
by Luis Alberto de Cuenca
translated from the Spanish by Gustavo Pérez Firmat

Give me your hand. We have to cross

the river and my strength fails me.

Hold me as if I were an abandoned package

in a wicker basket, a lump that moves

and cries in the twilight. Cross the river

with me. Even if this time the waters

don't part before us. Even if this time God

doesn't come to our aid and a flurry of arrows

riddles our backs. Even if there is no river.

***************

Another recent article about poetry: Paul Kelly says poetry is 'thrilling' and, from hip hop to Instagram, there are many ways to embrace it.

Reverie has the Poetry Friday round-up. Thanks, Patricia!

Dans le jardin

All gardeners know better than other gardeners.
~Chinese proverb


Running late today! For Art Thursday, gardens:

Jardin à Sainte-Adresse, 1867
Claude Monet

Garden in Shoreham, 1825-50
Samuel Palmer

The Drying Place
Adolph von Menzel (1815–1905)

Park von Schloß Belvedere bei Weimar
Curt Herrmann

In the Garden
Władysław Podkowiński

Pleasure garden with a maze, c. 1579-84
Lodewijk Toeput

Peonies
Matilda Browne (1869 – 1947)


Monday, May 22, 2023

Multitude of mercies

I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.
~Abraham Lincoln


The last time I shared a performance of this composition was in 2015, so it's been long enough to share it again, right? For Music Monday, Allegri's Miserere mei, Deus (Have mercy on me, O God). The acoustics are amazing and the performances are spot-on. Tenebrae:



If you want to hear different versions of people hitting that top C, someone compiled them here.

Thursday, May 18, 2023

Blue footprints

The sight of the deep-blue sky and the clustering stars above seems to impart a quiet to the mind.
~Jonathan Edwards


Happy Poetry Friday! I am happily making celebration preparations. We have four days of celebrations coming up in a row: birthday (Dash's), college graduation (Elena's), anniversary (Ben's and mine). (In case you were wondering how those three make four days, Elena has two ceremonies: one for her department and one for the entire class.)

I picked today's poem by Katherine West for its exuberance and perseverance. "I carry infinity/inside me/a multitude of blue doors // that I open/one by one/day by day."

THE SILENCED MAJORITY
by Katherine West

The silenced majority
that some day
will decide
which small piece of the sky
belongs to them
—Rigoberta Menchú quoted in Poetry Like Bread.

70% of Americans don’t trust politicians to make abortion policy.
—19thNews

Today it is cloudy
I can’t see the sky at all
I have to imagine it

the way it was
when I was young
when life was a blue door

opening
on an even bluer
even bigger sky

Some days
the sky was so blue
it was almost purple

and I could see
all the way
to Mexico

The birds seemed to fly higher
farther
taking me with them...

read the rest here

**************

Janice Scully has the Poetry Friday round-up. Thanks, Janice!

Harps

I have been in Sorrow's kitchen and licked out all the pots. Then I have stood on the peaky mountain wrapped in rainbows, with a harp and sword in my hands.
~Zora Neale Hurston


Isn't that a great quote? So vivid. For Art Thursday, harps:



Two seated angels making music
Gherardo Starnina (fl. 1398–1409)

Concert
by Edward Okuń (1872–1945)

A Song of the Sea
by Amalie Bauerlë

An Egyptian man is playing a large harp adorned with the figurehead of a woman

The Concert of the Angels, ca 1608-1614
by El Greco

The War Between the Frogs and the Mice
by Theodor Kittelsen


Monday, May 15, 2023

Person-centered care

Those with dementia are still people and they still have stories and they still have character and they're all individuals and they're all unique. And they just need to be interacted with on a human level.
~Carey Mulligan


Hi folks! I found this video very moving.



And here's a song by Rodrigo y Gabriela: