my life had stood - a loaded gun -

754.

My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun -
In Corners - till a Day
The Owner passed - identified -
And carried Me away -
And now We roam in Sovereign Woods -
And now We hunt the Doe -
And every time I speak for Him -
The Mountains straight reply -

And do I smile, such cordial light
Upon the Valley glow -
It is as a Vesuvian face
Had let its pleasure through -

And when at Night - Our good Day done -
I guard My Master's Head -
'Tis better than the Eider-Duck's
Deep Pillow - to have shared -

To foe of His - I'm deadly foe -
None stir the second time -
On whom I lay a Yellow Eye -
Or an emphatic Thumb -

Though I than He - may longer live
He longer must - than I -
For I have but the power to kill,
Without--the power to die--

***

... I think it is a poem about possession by the daemon, about the dangers and risks of such possession if you are a woman, about the knowledge that power in a woman can seem destructive, and that you cannot live without the daemon once it has possessed you ...

Adrienne Rich

***
Photo: a mugshot of Emma Goldman.

a scarlet gown

Gary Graham pleated georgette dress.

always now slowly I understand it

There are many that I know and I know it. They are many that I know and they know it. They are all of them themselves and they repeat it and I hear it. Always I listen to it. Slowly I come to understand it. Many years I listened and did not know it. I heard it, I understood it some, I did not know I heard it. They repeat themselves now and I listen to it. Every way that they do it now I hear it. Now each time very slowly I come to understand it. Always it comes very slowly the completed understanding of it, the repeating each one does to tell it the whole history of the being in each one, always now I hear it. Always now slowly I understand it.

Gertrude Stein, The Making of Americans
***
As strange as this is, this is how I feel when I read. I think it's because I read so voraciously as a kid - I was constantly bumping across things I didn't always understand, and when I didn't understand, I read it again. Even now, I'll read the hardest books over and over, then step away to allow the things I don't realize I am absorbing to percolate up. It can take a while. It's a process of circling, of approach and retreat. If I am lucky, there is a bright flash, and I see something wonderful, something hidden.
Painting: Joseph Alleman: The Companion.

gertrude

Clarity is of no importance because nobody listens and nobody knows what you mean no matter what you mean, nor how clearly you mean what you mean. But if you have vitality enough of knowing enough of what you mean, somebody and sometime and sometimes a great many will have to realize that you know what you mean and so they will agree that you mean what you know, what you know you mean, which is as near as anybody can come to understanding any one.

Gertrude Stein, Four in America

Sidenote: All of my posts today are riffs on titles & quotes from the formidable Ms. Stein.

I am aiming, as always, for the vitality enough of knowing enough what I mean. I hope you will agree that I mean what I know and what I know I mean.

Painting: Gertrude Stein, 1906. Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881–1973).

in anticipation of october strolls

I think Rachel Comey's Mr. Warms needs to come home with me. I decided once I saw that detachable vest.

I can just see me strolling about Tremont in this beauty, with scruffy corduroys and natty wingtips, a well-worn volume in hand and a pipe between my teeth. Of course, Mrs. Warms is pretty fetching too.

Available at Bird.

seeing rightly

From here.

one i want for my wall

An Effect of the Sun, Normandy, Gustave Le Gray (French, 1820 - 1882) c. 1856.

I've never been to the place where this was taken, and maybe time has changed it beyond recognition, but for whatever reason, I feel it belongs to me.

sunday tune: magnolia electric co. - hard to love a man