Brought to you by the letter D

[smokingboot]

I hurt. Can't sleep, feel sick. This is such a pretty place, pity it's a plague pit...I really do not feel good. So here's a lovely meme, courtesy of illuminating_dragon

Comment on this entry and I will give you a letter. Write ten words beginning with that letter in your journal, including an explanation of what the word means to you and why, and then pass out letters to those who want to play along.

illuminating_dragon gave me the letter 'D'



1.Daisies: Love them. Beautiful and simple, I love the way they never seem to fail - cut them down, they return in their millions, like little earth stars. To me they are symbols of life irrepressible. If I was going to have a tattoo on my scar, it should be of daisies or the sun.

2.Daybreak/Dawn:Daybreak and twilight are my favourite times. On one occasion, when a kid, my mum caught me sleepwalking. She asked me where I was going and I said, 'I will see the dawn.' And so I will. Daybreak is also the name of my favourite Maxfield Parrish painting.

3.Derceto: I just like the way the word sounds, Derceto was a sea-goddess, some kind of uber-mermaid or queen of the whales, worshipped in Syria, and look! Here she is in my icon! She is credited as the mother of the truly hot and heroic Queen Semiramis of Babylon.

4.Doughnuts: Well you know, some days they are a very good thing, some days a very bad thing, depending on the filling. Now churros, which is formed from a kind of doughnut batter, is always a very good thing, needing no filling and best dunked in thick chocolate such as you get served in Spanish chocolaterias.

5. Depeche Mode: I liked them and I don't care what anyone else says. Especially 'Violator.' So ner.

6. Dadd, Richard: Whose life and works fascinate me. Richard was a promising artist, specialising in fairy work. He went to Egypt, where he suffered some kind of breakdown, came back convinced that he was Osiris' champion on earth against Set, and killed his father in 1843. He spent many years in Broadmoor where he produced some extraordinary work. His most famous piece is 'The Fairy Feller's Master Stroke,' which he never finished. This thing is so cluttered but so still and so intense, it has an incredible power of its own. On screen it is hard to appreciate it. I think it lives in the Tate now.

7. Directions. I'm really seriously bad at these. There's left and then there's the other left. Don't shout at me, I didn't get us lost!

8. Donne, John: Out of favour now, even with me and I used to love him. This metaphysical poet was at his best when he was being physical ('Come Madam come*, all rest my powers defy. Until I labour I in labour lie...Oh my America! My new found land!' - Elegy 19) He became a mighty star of the church and got terribly sour about love and women. But he did write his famous Meditation 17:

'No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were. Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.'

9.Darwin, Charles: Who apparently set forth in a beagle and found the first iguanas, or so one of my very earliest essays informs me. What a knowledgeable creature I was!

10. Debbie. It's my name!

* You there at the back! Stop sniggering!

Comments

[semyaza.livejournal.com]

Would you like a daisy icon?

I have a poster of a detail from 'The Fairy Feller's Master Stroke'.

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

Yes please, I would like that very much:-)

[semyaza.livejournal.com]

Then it's all yours. :)

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

A poster of a detail? Which bit of the picture? Usually it's the two ladies of the burgeoning calves, or the hat...

[semyaza.livejournal.com]

Hm. That's a very good question. Perhaps I'm hallucinating. It's put away with all my other posters (except for Max Ernst's 'The Robing of the Bride', which I can't do without), so I can't check to see if it is from that painting. If it's not, I don't know where it's from, as I undoubtedly bought it at the Tate. It's a sly looking face peering sidelong through some branches and it was an exhibition poster from the 70s.

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

I've just googled the Robing of the Bride, as I've never seen it before - it cooked my brain completely. What a strange incredible thing!

[semyaza.livejournal.com]

I found it on a sale table at Athena in 1979, pinned it to the wall of my room at uni, and haven't been able to get rid of it. It hangs by my bed.

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

I love paintings like this; things that make you feel you have walked in on a story. Beside your bed? Must make for interesting dreams.

[semyaza.livejournal.com]

I had a friend at university who couldn't sit across from it; it really bothered him. Perhaps there were too many breasts.... I find it comforting because the colours are so lush and there are so many feathers.

Comforting?

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't describe it as such though the feathers and the colours are so warm, the texture, especially of the bride's robe is so sensual it looks as though you could curl up in it...

But the eyes in the head-dress are what grab my attention.

Re: Comforting?

[semyaza.livejournal.com]

It's been with me in several homes and in two countries for 27 years. At this point it's like an old slipper. :D

[coz100.livejournal.com]

Wow what an amazing painting. Do you know the story behind it at all?

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

I didn't even know it existed until illuminating_dragon pointed me at it. I have no idea of any story behind it, and am even now making one up in my head!

Re: Comforting?

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

I used to feel like that about my poster of Mucha's 'Star of the Moon.' After something like 15 years, all the rips and crinkles finally got the better of it...travel and blutack has wreaked havoc on most of my beloved bits and pieces from Athena.

[coz100.livejournal.com]

One of my favorites is Hieronymus Bosch- Garden of earthly Delights. All 3 parts of it. It has so much going on. It is very decadent and sumptous. I could search it for hours.

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

Palaces of flesh and baubles you ride around in! Now there's a place I'd love to visit!

Re: Comforting?

[semyaza.livejournal.com]

This is a print, so the paper was blutack-proof. :D

[semyaza.livejournal.com]

No, I don't, but I found this, for what it's worth. I like Leonora Carrington, so it pleases me to think that I might have her hanging by my bed. :D

[squeezypaws.livejournal.com]

How interesting. I love Donne. My mum read The Good Morrow at my wedding. I am crap with directions too. So go on then, please can I have a letter please nicely?

What a lovely idea!

[ravenrigan.livejournal.com]

I'm really enjoying your journal, Debs, except it reminds me how little I see your whimsical self, and how much I miss you.

Big hugs, and lots of love!

Su

PS Can I have a letter?

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

Of course! I'll try to give you one that I haven't seen around...here's an 'O' for you:-)

Re: What a lovely idea!

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

*Big hug* Thanks for saying such nice things. I miss you too - but the job starts soon, and I hope to be in London lots more, so meeting up will be very doable:-)

And here, have a soft and luscious Mmmm to set you off!

[bottomlescup.livejournal.com]

I loved readin that. :) But then again, you make it all very interesting...Can I have a letter too?

thank!

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

Glad you liked reading it:-) Here's a letter not seen much of on this meme; have an 'i'!