R.L. Swihart's Blog, page 129
July 7, 2018
July 4, 2018
R L Swihart's Matman & Testudo: Get It Free @ Amazon: July 4 to July 8
Hey, even if you're not a big poetry fan: It's a Freebie @ Amazon (for a limited time only: July 4 to July 8): Matman & Testudo. Way better than those comic books you've been reading, with a bigger and better one-two punch.
July 3, 2018
July 2, 2018
R L Swihart's "Matman & Testudo" (New Release)
Though I've been reading almost all my books on Kindle (these days: via the Kindle App on my phone) for some while, I'd never heard of Amazon KDP. Until recently. A seemingly sage Irish publisher told me he couldn't publish my new poetry book solely because of economic reasons (he went on to explain the exorbitant shipping costs for paper to the EU and the US). Perhaps he was just saying No in a nice, constructive way, but he did go on to give me the idea: Self-Publish via Google or Amazon KDP or Somewhere Else. I thought self-publishing was Only Vanity Publishing (and maybe it is). I thought self-publishing was Pay Big Bucks (and that's not necessarily the case).
Long story short: I took the dive. What do I have to lose? For me, it's never really been about money. The Kindle Version of Matman & Testudo was available at Amazon at the end of June. I hope to get a paper option out soon. These poems are probably the Best 100 of the last 5 years. Enjoy!
Oh, and if everything goes as Amazon says, there's a limited promotion July 4 to July 8: You should be able to download Matman & Testudo for FREE.
Click on the cover pic or release date below, or on the cover pic at the right side of the blog. Fly to Amazon now! or wait till July 4th (and get a bigger bang).
Charmlee Wilderness Park (6.29.18)
One friend suggested the change (we usually do Mugu). Another joined to make three. A beautiful June gloom day -- though I ended up getting a bit of redness (paleface). Easy walk. Felt like we had the park to ourselves. Neptune's Net for the usual after-eats.
That's Point Dume in the distance.
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July 1, 2018
Reading: Dag Solstad's "T Singer"
Finished one new Solstad (i.e., newly translated) and started on another: T Singer.
Good stuff.
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Clip:
Good stuff.
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Clip:
He didn’t know what sort of music she played, even though he could hear it clearly, though faintly, through the closed door, and he didn’t recognize the music, he made no connections to it, which isn’t especially strange since it was music for teenagers. A couple of times he did ask, in an attempt to be friendly, about the tune she was playing, and she always told him, both the name of the singer, whether it was a specific solo act or a group, and the name of the song, and she spoke this solo act or the band’s name, and the title of the song with obvious respect. But Singer had a bad habit of forgetting quite quickly both who was singing and what the title was, so that the next time he happened to ask her about the music he heard playing, it occurred to him as he asked, that this tune sounded exactly like what he’d heard the last time he had asked, not even a week ago, and he would abruptly stop and begin talking about something completely different, a topic pulled out of the blue, such as: oh, now it’s about to rain, and there’ll be thunder because it’s so sultry, pointing to the open veranda door where some heavy, threatening clouds had appeared in the sky, almost black in color, about to splinter the sunlight on that all-too-sultry May day. Because he did not really want to demonstrate in this way, so clearly and directly, his lack of interest in what she, and her girlfriends, found so immeasurably fascinating. When it came right down to it, he didn’t want to have that sort of attitude toward what she found so fascinating, even if, as was now apparent, it was actually true that he felt completely indifferent to what sort of music she and her peers listened to. He couldn’t very well start taking an interest in that type of music just because his fifteen-year-old stepdaughter was so fascinated by it, could he? Even though this might have been opportune, he felt such a strong resistance to the very idea of pretending to take an interest, for her sake, that it upset him greatly, and it continued to upset him for weeks afterward, every time he thought about it, for example as he sat in his metaphorical circumstances in the basement of the Deichman Library.
June 25, 2018
The Black Madonna of Czestochowa
The Black Madonna of Częstochowa (Polish: Czarna Madonna or Matka Boska Częstochowska, Latin: Imago thaumaturga Beatae Virginis Mariae Immaculatae Conceptae, in Claro Monte ), also known as Our Lady of Częstochowa, is a revered icon of the Virgin Mary housed at the Jasna Góra Monastery in Częstochowa, Poland. Several Pontiffs have recognised the venerated icon, beginning with Pope Clement XI who issued a Canonical Coronation to the image on 8 September 1717 via the Vatican Chapter.
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History
Lucan tradition
The icon of Our Lady of Częstochowa has been intimately associated with Poland for the past 600 years. Its history prior to its arrival in Poland is shrouded in numerous legends which trace the icon's origin to St. Luke who painted it on a cedar table top from the house of the Holy Family.[4][5] The same legend holds that the painting was discovered in Jerusalem in 326 by St. Helena, who brought it back to Constantinople and presented it to her son, Constantine the Great.[6]
Arrival in Czestochowa
The oldest documents from Jasna Góra state that the picture travelled from Constantinople via Belz.[5] Eventually it came into the possession of Władysław Opolczyk, Duke of Opole, and adviser to Louis of Anjou, King of Poland and Hungary. Ukrainian sources state that earlier in its history it was brought to Belz with much ceremony and honors by King Lev I of Galicia and later taken by Władysław from the Castle of Belz, when the town was incorporated into the Polish kingdom. A popular story tells that in late August 1384, Ladislaus was passing Częstochowa with the picture when his horses refused to go on. He was advised in a dream to leave the icon at Jasna Gora.Art historians say that the original painting was a Byzantine icon created around the sixth or ninth century. They agree that Prince Władysław brought it to the monastery in the 14th century.
From Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_M...
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History
Lucan tradition
The icon of Our Lady of Częstochowa has been intimately associated with Poland for the past 600 years. Its history prior to its arrival in Poland is shrouded in numerous legends which trace the icon's origin to St. Luke who painted it on a cedar table top from the house of the Holy Family.[4][5] The same legend holds that the painting was discovered in Jerusalem in 326 by St. Helena, who brought it back to Constantinople and presented it to her son, Constantine the Great.[6]
Arrival in Czestochowa
The oldest documents from Jasna Góra state that the picture travelled from Constantinople via Belz.[5] Eventually it came into the possession of Władysław Opolczyk, Duke of Opole, and adviser to Louis of Anjou, King of Poland and Hungary. Ukrainian sources state that earlier in its history it was brought to Belz with much ceremony and honors by King Lev I of Galicia and later taken by Władysław from the Castle of Belz, when the town was incorporated into the Polish kingdom. A popular story tells that in late August 1384, Ladislaus was passing Częstochowa with the picture when his horses refused to go on. He was advised in a dream to leave the icon at Jasna Gora.Art historians say that the original painting was a Byzantine icon created around the sixth or ninth century. They agree that Prince Władysław brought it to the monastery in the 14th century.
From Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_M...
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