Unfinished Angel and Alhambra

Constantine P. Cavafy, 29 April 1863 - 29 April 1933

Today, while they embed the new French drain in the patio,
send 145 life and death greetings to Constantine P. Cavafy:

Whose student, closer to Shanghai than Istanbul,
dreams past the porcelain Hospice of Sta. Caterina
and walks into the field where his mother,
who to him has become the Duchesse d’Guermantes,
sits on the hood of an antique Rolls-Royce smoking cigarettes.

And look how he promises her a portrait of each border crossed resident:
That she might know each family and send each a
Welcome Wagon.

Fleur-du-mal

L'invitation au voyage

Mon enfant, ma soeur,

Songe à la douceur

D'aller là-bas vivre ensemble!

Aimer à loisir,

Aimer et mourir

Au pays qui te ressemble!

Les soleils mouillés

De ces ciels brouillés

Pour mon esprit ont les charmes

Si mystérieux

De tes traîtres yeux,Brillant à travers leurs larmes.
Là, tout n'est qu'ordre et beauté,

Luxe, calme et volupté.

Des meubles luisants,

Polis par les ans,

Décoreraient notre chambre;Les plus rares fleurs

Mêlant leurs odeursAux vagues senteurs de l'ambre,

Les riches plafonds,

Les miroirs profonds,

La splendeur orientale,

Tout y parlerait

À l'âme en secret

Sa douce langue natale.
Là, tout n'est qu'ordre et beauté,

Luxe, calme et volupté.

Vois sur ces canaux

Dormir ces vaisseaux

Dont l'humeur est vagabonde;

C'est pour assouvirTon moindre désir

Qu'ils viennent du bout du monde.

— Les soleils couchantsRevêtent les champs,

Les canaux, la ville entière,

D'hyacinthe et d'or;

Le monde s'endort

Dans une chaude lumière.
Là, tout n'est qu'ordre et beauté,

Luxe, calme et volupté.

~ Charles Baudelaire, 9 Avril 1821 - 31 August 1867.

The image above Baudelaire's poem is a camfone photo detailed in MSPaint of a 1992 Polaroid of a 5 x 6 foot canvas originally called 'The Secret Garden'; which was painted over in 1992 with another painting called 'The Confluence', below. It hangs in France, and was first posted here.

From a notebook: 30 June 1997

FLORENCE.

Of all the fairest cities of the Earth

None is so fair as FLORENCE. Tis' a gem

Of the purest ray; and what light broke forth,

When it emerged from darkness! Search within,

Without; all is enchantment! 'Tis the past

Contending with the Present; and in turn

Each has the mastery...

~Samuel Rogers, Italy, A Poem, 1830.

DH: Bigger Trees at Warter

Three boats on Santa Monica Bay, 2008.

Acrylic on canvas, 36 x36 inches.

Poems from Dry Creek: New and Selected Work by John Dofflemyer

Miss Bingo, 1992, acrylic on masonite, 12 x11 inches. Photo by S. Chopper Martinez

~ Io ~

On the horns of an infant moon,

the creek shrinks and pools
between sycamores and live oaks

as babies come to first-time mothers
bringing the bear tracks downcanyon
on the scent of spent placentas.

Black progeny of the river nymph –
White heifer driven madly by Hera’s
Gadfly Oestrus to cross continents

And populate Asia – find maternity
perplexing at first. Yet, lick and nuzzle
the stumbling wet struggle to stand,

suckle and rest that enflames instinct
in all flesh. Worthy timeless worship,
no better mother ever than a cow.

~John Dofflemyer, Poems from Deer Creek , 2008.

Fifty-four new and selected poems are published by Starhaven in London.

The note at the start of the book says this:

"John Dofflemyer is a cattle-rancher and poet. His work has been widely published in journals and chapbooks. He lives at the edge of the Sierra Nevadas on a piece of land his family has worked since shortly after the California goldrush.

The cover of this book incorprates a drawing by Cloyd J. Sweigert, an early settler of the Santa Clara Valley who took an agricultural degree at the University of California at Berkeley before going on to become a cartoonist for The San Francisco Chronicle. "

I met John and his wife Robin at another ranch in the Sierras several years ago. John could as easily be writing from or about any country. He recently gave a reading of his poems in West Los Angeles.

Reading "Io" I saw my own 'Miss Bingo' standing in 'worthy timeless worship' on her platform in the hills. She was inspired by a cow bingo game at a street fair in Lindsay, California, 15 or so years ago and looks a little old to be a heifer, but her bovinity is clear.

The Willamette at The Canby Ferry, 18 July 1998

Watercolor on paper, 4 x6 inches.

Miss Bingo

Crossing the Channel, 10 July 1976

Dover, 1AM

Dover to Calais, 2:30AM.
Calais, 3:30AM.

~The Night Boat~
Looking back from the aft deck
keep England in sight across the ferry’s wake.
Let France come on from behind, slowly,
through a passage of dreams and clouds lit with great expectation,
then turn around, drawing the waves as if they were letters home
telling your mother everything's fine, still asking for money.

Coco