Fleurs du Mal Magazine
Judas
By the just vengeance of incensed skies,
Poor Bishop Judas late repenting dies.
The Jews engaged him with a paltry bribe,
Amounting hardly to a crown a-tribe;
Which though his conscience forced him to restore,
(And parsons tell us, no man can do more,)
Yet, through despair, of God and man accurst,
He lost his bishopric, and hang’d or burst.
Those former ages differ’d much from this;
Judas betray’d his master with a kiss:
But some have kiss’d the gospel fifty times,
Whose perjury’s the least of all their crimes;
Some who can perjure through a two inch-board,
Yet keep their bishoprics, and ‘scape the cord:
Like hemp, which, by a skilful spinster drawn
To slender threads, may sometimes pass for lawn.
As ancient Judas by transgression fell,
And burst asunder ere he went to hell;
So could we see a set of new Iscariots
Come headlong tumbling from their mitred chariots;
Each modern Judas perish like the first,
Drop from the tree with all his bowels burst;
Who could forbear, that view’d each guilty face,
To cry, “Lo! Judas gone to his own place,
His habitation let all men forsake,
And let his bishopric another take!”
Jonathan Swift
(1667 – 1745)
Judas
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More in: Archive S-T, Archive S-T, Swift, Jonathan
Legend of Old California
High on the summit,
Over the waters,
Fronting the sunset
Lingered the maid;
Below, through the flashing
Of blue billows dashing,
Glided the shallop
Storms had delayed I
Ere the white pebbles
On the keel grated,
Leaped the young boatman
Shoreward amain,
And in the blessing
Of love’s quick caressing,
Soon were forgotten
Peril and pain.
Bayard Taylor
(1825 – 1878)
Legend of Old California
fleursdumal.nl magazine
More in: Archive S-T, Archive S-T, Western Fiction
Following a run of New Year’s concerts at San Francisco’s legendary Fillmore, Patti Smith finds herself tramping the coast of Santa Cruz, about to embark on a year of solitary wandering.
Unfettered by logic or time, she draws us into her private wonderland, with no design yet heeding signs, including a talking sign that looms above her, prodding and sparring like the Cheshire Cat.
In February, a surreal lunar year begins, bringing with it unexpected turns, heightened mischief, and inescapable sorrow. In a stranger’s words, “Anything is possible: after all, it’s the year of the monkey.” For Patti Smith – inveterately curious, always exploring, tracking thoughts, writing the year evolves as one of reckoning with the changes in life’s gyre: with loss, aging, and a dramatic shift in the political landscape of America.
Smith melds the Western landscape with her own dreamscape. Taking us from Southern California to the Arizona desert; to a Kentucky farm as the amanuensis of a friend in crisis; to the hospital room of a valued mentor; and by turns to remembered and imagined places – this haunting memoir blends fact and fiction with poetic mastery.
The unexpected happens; grief and disillusionment. But as Patti Smith heads toward a new decade in her own life, she offers this balm to the reader: her wisdom, wit, gimlet eye, and above all, a rugged hope of a better world.
Riveting, elegant, often humorous, illustrated by Smith’s signature Polaroids, Year of the Monkey is a moving and original work, a touchstone for our turbulent times.
Patti Smith, Author of : Year of the Monkey, Just Kids illustrated, M Train, Patti Smith Collected Lyrics, 1970–2015, Woolgathering, Just Kids. A writer, performer, and visual artist, Patti Smith has exhibited her drawings and photographs internationally, most recently Camera Solo at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum in Hartford. She has recorded thirteen albums, launched by the seminal Horses in 1975. Her many books include Witt, Babel, The Coral Sea, Auguries of Innocence and Just Kids, which won the National Book Award in 2010. Patti Smith lives in New York City.
Year of the Monkey
by: Patti Smith
The New York Times bestseller
Published: 01-09-2020
Format: Paperback
Edition: 1st
Extent: 224 p.
ISBN: 9781526614766
Imprint: Bloomsbury Publishing
Dimensions: 198 x 129 mm
RRP: £9.99
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More in: Archive S-T, Archive S-T, Smith, Patti
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