I present here a second poem from the collection Waterside Memories by the famous British artist. Filled with nostalgia, it tells about a young girl seen on a beach, who swam naked; she held the promise of the growth of her girlhood, but the poet did not see her any more. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
Category: English
Absinthe: The Green Goddess, by Aleister Crowley
Absinthe: The Green Goddess is an essay in 8 parts by the famous occultist Aleister Crowley, first published in The International, Vol XII No.2, February 1918. It seems to have been composed in the legendary Old Absinthe House in New Orleans. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
Clair, by Gilbert O’Sullivan
The Irish singer-songwriter Gilbert O’Sullivan was popular in the early 1970’s. One of his greatest hits has been the song Clair, which ranked top in the UK Singles Chart for two weeks in November 1972. It tells his affectionate love for a little girl aged 3 or 4 whom he babysat, the daughter of his producer-manager Gordon Mills. He expresses his feelings straightforwardly, with a spontaneity that would be difficult to find in our epoch of moral panic about intergenerational relations: “Each time I leave you I feel I could die / Nothing means more to me than hearing you say / ‘I’m going to marry you / Will you marry me, Uncle Ray ?’” (O’Sullivan’s real forename was Raymond.) CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
We saw a mermaid, by Graham Ovenden
Today I give a poetic composition by a contemporary British artist. Mostly known as a photographer and painter, Ovenden is also a connoisseur of poetry: for the 7th anniversary post in Pigtails in Paint, he proposed the poem “The Seven Ages of Girlhood” by Ashby-Sterry, which is how I learned about that 19th century poet. Moreover, he also writes some poetry himself, for instance he contributed the poem “A Father to his Seven Year Old Daughter” to that anniversary post. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…