R.L. Swihart's Blog, page 58
June 4, 2022
Young Black-crowned Night Heron
Black-crowned Night Heron (young) @ Naples Island (Long Beach CA).
#rlswihart13 #longbeachca #naplesisland #naples #nightherons #heronsofinstagram #blackcrownednightherons #youth #immature #nature #beauty #poetry #readmorepoetry2022 #ukraine 🇺🇦
Chateaubriand
The death of Madame de Coislin:
At the moment when she was ready for death, someone at her bedside maintained that one only succumbed because one allowed oneself to; that if one was truly attentive and never lost sight of the enemy, one would not die: ‘I believe it,’ she said, ‘but I am afraid I am becoming distracted.’ She expired.
June 2, 2022
Kipling's American Notebook
Just started reading. Let's see how far I get.:)
Oliver Wendell Holmes says that the Yankee school-marm, the cider and the salt codfish of the Eastern States, are responsible for what he calls a nasal accent. I know better. They stole books from across the water without paying for 'em, and the snort of delight was fixed in their nostrils forever by a just Providence. That is why they talk a foreign tongue to-day.
May 28, 2022
From Nerval's Sylvie
Aurélie had accepted the principal role in the drama I had brought back from Germany. I shall never forget the day she allowed me to read her the play. The love scenes had been written with her in mind. I believe I recited them with spirit, and above all with rapture. In the conversation that ensued, I revealed I was the Stranger of the two letters. She said to me: ‘You’re mad, but come and see me again … I have yet to find a man who knows how to love me.’
From de Nerval's Sylvie
Aurélie had accepted the principal role in the drama I had brought back from Germany. I shall never forget the day she allowed me to read her the play. The love scenes had been written with her in mind. I believe I recited them with spirit, and above all with rapture. In the conversation that ensued, I revealed I was the Stranger of the two letters. She said to me: ‘You’re mad, but come and see me again … I have yet to find a man who knows how to love me.’
May 27, 2022
From Nerval's Sylvie
Worldly ambitions, however, meant little to our generation; the greedy scramble for honours and positions in which everybody was then engaged only served to distance us from all possible spheres of activity. The sole refuge left to us was the poets’ ivory tower – which we climbed, higher and higher, in order to isolate ourselves from the crowd. Having been guided to these heights by our masters, we at last breathed the pure air of solitude, drinking ourselves into oblivion from the golden cup of fable, drunk with poetry and love – love, alas, of vague shapes, of blue and rosy hues, of metaphysical phantoms. Seen close, any real woman seemed too gross to our starry-eyed sensibilities. She had to appear a queen or goddess: above all, she had to lie beyond reach.
From de Nerval's Sylvie
Worldly ambitions, however, meant little to our generation; the greedy scramble for honours and positions in which everybody was then engaged only served to distance us from all possible spheres of activity. The sole refuge left to us was the poets’ ivory tower – which we climbed, higher and higher, in order to isolate ourselves from the crowd. Having been guided to these heights by our masters, we at last breathed the pure air of solitude, drinking ourselves into oblivion from the golden cup of fable, drunk with poetry and love – love, alas, of vague shapes, of blue and rosy hues, of metaphysical phantoms. Seen close, any real woman seemed too gross to our starry-eyed sensibilities. She had to appear a queen or goddess: above all, she had to lie beyond reach.
May 25, 2022
Red-throated Loon in Naples
Red-throated Loon @ Naples Island. Was checking on the Night Heron Colony and found this sleeping beauty floating (without a care in the world) in the marina. A nice surprise. Lifer.
#rlswihart13 #southernca #naplesisland #loonsofinstagram #redthroatedloon #loons #nature #beauty #poetry #readmorepoetry2022 #lastresort #thebookendsreview #ukraine
Red-throated Loon in in Naples
Red-throated Loon @ Naples Island. Was checking on the Night Heron Colony and found this sleeping beauty floating (without a care in the world) in the marina. A nice surprise. Lifer.
#rlswihart13 #southernca #naplesisland #loonsofinstagram #redthroatedloon #loons #nature #beauty #poetry #readmorepoetry2022 #lastresort #thebookendsreview #ukraine
May 23, 2022
R L Swihart's Last Resort
I have a new poem up at The Bookends Review: Last Resort. I hope you check it out.
