TOM CLARK: To The Infinity (Stop Everyday) / Robert Herrick: Infinite Finitude: Fourteen Poems

Kentucky Derby [Churchill Downs]: photo by Joey Harrison, 6 May 2017

Deep Thought [Kraków, Poland]: photo by DonStevie, 7 November 2017

Dhaka | 2017: photo by Sohail Bin Mohammad, 27 October 2017

izmir noire [Turkey]: photo by anilaydn, 19 February 2016

untitled [Krakow]: photo by pawel repetowski, 10 April 2008

Untitled [manatee, Paris zoo]: photo by Gavin Bragdon, 3 May 2015

Stop. Chicago - 2017.: photo by Drake Toulouse, 3 August 2017

kahkaha II / the laughter II | by mosuner

kahkaha II / the laughter II (Pala Ahmet) [Turkey]: photo by mosuner, 16 January 2016

Tullerias, 2017 | by feleco (analog ph.)

Tuileries, 2017: photo by feleco, 22 October 2017

"Baby Driver" [Riddleston, Yorkshire]: photo by Des Byrne, 22 October 2017

Untitled: photo by yiannis f., 13 August 2017

Untitled [Indonesia]: photo by Aliioss 00, 14 May 2017

Untitled [Milano]: photo by STUART PATON, 22 September 2017

Glasgow, Scotland 2017 | by Monserrat Orallo

Glasgow, Scotland 2017: photo by Monserrat Orallo, 18 November 2017

To The Infinity | by Tawanwad | ตะวันวาด

To The Infinity [Thailand]: photo by tananwad wanavit, 5 November 2017

Untitled [London]: photo by Stubwoi, 26 June 2017

Underground Passengers. | by tetyanabunyak

Underground Passengers [Les Halles, Paris]: photo by Tetyana Bunyak, 14 August 2014

Eye [Istanbul]: photo by noppadol maitreechit, 24 October 2017

@: photo by Ania Klosek, 21 June 2017

reflections... [fashion week, Moscow]: photo by Alex Naanou, 23 October 2017

_DSC2795-2 [Chumphon, Thailand]: photo by noppadol maitreechit, 24 October 2015

Untitled [Hamburg]: photo by Nikos Tsitsel, 1 August 2016

Werder(Havel). Landkreis Potsdam-Mittelmark.: photo by epha, 26 August 2016

Untitled [Oktoberfest, Munich]: photo by Dimitris Politis, September 2017

DSC_6686-2: photo by Pavel Skaev, 17 November 2017

Pasar Kemis, Tangerang, Indonesia | by w4w4h_st

Pasar Kemis, Tangerang, Indonesia: photo by Wahyu Listiono, 7 October 2017

                             Though Clock,
To tell how night drawes hence, I've none,
                             A cock
I have, to sing how day drawes on:
                             I have
A maid (my Prew) by good luck sent,
                            To save
That little, Fates me gave or lent.
                            A Hen
I keep, which, creeking day by day,
                            Tells when
She goes her long white egg to lay:

                            A goose
I have, which, with a jealous eare,
                            Lets loose
Her tongue, to tell what danger's neare.
                            A Lamb
I keep (tame) with my morsells fed,
                            Whose Dam
An Orphan left him (lately dead.)
                            A Cat
I keep, that playes about my House,
                            Grown fat
With eating many a miching Mouse.
                            To these
A *Trasy I do keep, whereby
                            I please
The more my rurall privacie:
                            Which are
But toyes, to give my heart some ease:
                            Where care
None is, slight things do lightly please.

*His Spaniel

Robert Herrick (1591-1674): His Grange, or private wealth, from Hesperides: or, The Works Both Humane & Divine of Robert Herrick Esq, London (1648)

S & R #17: photo by Dimitris Politis, 14 October 2017

Robert Herrick: Upon Time

          Time was upon
The wing, to flie away;
          And I cal'd on
Him but a while to stay;
          But he'd be gone,
For aught that I could say.

          He held out then
A Writing, as he went;

          And askt me, when
False man would be content
          To pay again
What God and Nature lent.

          An houre-glasse,
In which were sands but few;
          As he did passe,
He shew'd, and told me too,
          Mine end near was,
And so away he flew.

Robert Herrick (1591-1674): Upon Time, from Noble Numbers, in Hesperides: or, The Works Both Humane & Divine of Robert Herrick Esq, London (1648)

S & R #17 b-side: photo by Dimitris Politis, 14 October 2017

Robert Herrick: Crosse and Pile

Faire and foule dayes trip Crosse and Pile; The faire

Far less in number, then our foule dayes are.

Robert Herrick (1591-1674): Crosse and Pile, from Hesperides: or, The Works Both Humane & Divine of Robert Herrick Esq, London (1648)

Cross and Pile.

Money; pitch and toss. Hilaire le Gai tells us that some of the ancient French coins had a cross, and others a column, on the reverse; the column was called a pile, from which comes our word “pillar,” and the phrase “pile-driving.” Scaliger says that some of the old French coins had a ship on the reverse, the arms of Paris, and that pile means “a ship,” whence our word “pilot.”

“A man may now justifiably throw up cross and pile for his opinions.”
-- Locke: Human Understanding.

Cross or pile. Heads or tails. The French say pile ou face. The “face” or cross was the obverse of the coin, the “pile” was the reverse; but at a later period the cross was transferred to the reverse, as in our florins, and the obverse bore a “head” or “poll.”

“Marriage is worse than cross I win, pile you lose.”

-- Shadwell: Epsom Wells.

Cross nor pile. I have neither cross nor pile. Not a penny in the world. The French phrase is, “N’avoir ni croix ni pile” (to have neither one sort of coin nor another).

“Whacum had neither cross nor pile.”

--	Butler: Hudibras, part ii. 3.

Untitled | by massimilianolandi.tumblr.com

Untitled: photo by Massimiliano Landi, 17 September 2017

Robert Herrick: The comming of good luck

Ocean Beach, San Francisco, sunrise: photo by Mila Zinkova, 2009

So Good-luck came, and on my roofe did light,
Like noyse-lesse Snow; or as the dew of night:
Not all at once, but gently, as the trees
Are, by the Sun-beams, tickel'd by degrees.

Ocean Beach, early morning: photo by Mike DelGaudio, 2004

The comming of good luck: Robert Herrick (1591-1674), from Hesperides: or, The Works Both Humane & Divine of Robert Herrick Esq, London (1648)

Robert Herrick: To his saviour. The New yeers gift

Bit of a traffic jam while out on the bike today #Cumbria #sheep: image via Oliver Turvey @OliverTurvey, 29 December 2014

That little prettie bleeding part

..Of Foreskin send to me:

And Ile return a bleeding Heart,

..For New-yeers gift to thee.

Rich is the Jemme that thou did'st send,

..Mine's faulty too, and small:

And yet this Gift thou will commend

..Because I send Thee all.

Robert Herrick (1591-1674): To his saviour. The New yeers gift, from Noble Numbers, in Hesperides: or, The Works Both Humane & Divine of Robert Herrick Esq, London, 1648

#sheep waiting for hay tonight! That's the start of the feeding #winter: image via andrew prentice @floorsblackies, 29 December 2014

"@hendyshepherd1: Ewes going for their holidays to some winter grass " Gorgeous group of females! #sheep: image via Marlene M Bell @ewephoric, 27 December 2014 Texas, US

Two more B.C. farms affected by #avianflu outbreak: image via Canoe @Canoe, 10 December 2014

Robert Herrick: Upon one Lillie, who marryed with a maid call'd Rose

Aronskelk / Arum lily (Zantedeschia aethiopica): photo by Calllie-Pop, 31 August 2005

What times of sweetnesse this faire day fore-shows, 
When as the Lilly marries with the Rose! 
What next is lookt for? but we all sho'd see 
To spring from these a sweet Posterity.

Robert Herrick (1591-1674): Upon one Lillie, who marryed with a maid call'd Rose, from Hesperides: or, The Works Both Humane & Divine of Robert Herrick Esq, London (1648)

Aronskelk / Arum lily (Zantedeschia aethiopica): photo by Calllie-Pop, 31 August 2005

Amber Flush Rose, Bagatelle Rose Garden, Paris: photo by Georges Seguin, 1 June 2007

Robert Herrick: Silks

Women working on new silk (detail): Master Chang Hsüan, beginning of 12th century (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)

When as in silks my Julia goes,
Then, then (me thinks) how sweetly flowes
That liquefaction of her clothes.

Next, when I cast mine eyes and see
That brave Vibration each way free;
O how that glittering taketh me!

Robert Herrick: Upon Julia's Clothes, from Hesperides: or, The Works Both Humane & Divine of Robert Herrick Esq, London (1648)

Robert Herrick: Her Legs

Joe Brainard: cover for Slice, from TC's Once mimeo series, 1966

Fain would I kiss my Julia's dainty Leg,
Which is as white and hair-less as an egge.

Robert Herrick (1591-1674): Her Legs, from Hesperides: or, The Works Both Humane & Divine of Robert Herrick Esq, London (1648)

Robert Herrick: Life is the Bodies Light

Odd-eyed cat: photo by Keith Kissel, 2007

Life is the Bodies light; which once declining,
Those crimson clouds i'th'cheeks & lips leave shining.
Those counter-changed Tabbies in the ayre,
(The Sun once set) all of one colour are.

So, when Death comes, fresh tinctures lose their place,

And dismall Darknesse doth then smutch the face.

Tabbies: from the French tabis "striped silk taffeta", "a rich, watered silk," from Middle French atabis (14c.), from Arabic 'attabiya, from 'Attabiy, a neighborhood of Baghdad where such cloth was first made, named for prince 'Attab of the Omayyad dynasty.

Cf. The New-yeeres Gift:
Let others look for Pearle and Gold,
Tissues, or tabbies manifold...

Ribbon Eel (Rhinomuraena quaesita), close-up: photo by Chris Watanabe, 2005

Blue Primula (Primula acaulis), Germany: photo by 4028mdk09, 2010

Blue and yellow grapes, Tbilisi, Georgia: photo by Giga Paitchadze, 2007

File:Schläfrige Gelbbrustaras (sleepy Blue-and-yellow Macaws) Weltvogelpark Walsrode 2010.jpg

Sleepy Blue-and-yellow Macaws (Ara ararauna),Weltvogelpark Walsrode, Germany: photo by Olaf Oliver Riemer, 2010

Robert Herrick (1591-1674): Life is the Bodies Light, from Hesperides: or, The Works Both Humane & Divine of Robert Herrick Esq, London (1648)

Robert Herrick: To Groves

Paper Bark tree (Melaleuca quinquenervia), Australian native, Sao Paulo, Brazil: photo by mauroguarandi, 29 November 2009

Yee silent shades, whose each tree here
Some Relique of a Saint doth weare:
Who for some sweet-hearts sake, did prove
The fire, and martyrdome of love.
Here is the Legend of those Saints
That di'd for love; and their complaints:
Their wounded hearts; and names we find
Encarv'd upon the Leaves and Rind.
Give way, give way to me, who come
Scorch't with the selfe-same martyrdome:
And have deserv'd as much (Love knowes)
As to be canoniz'd 'mongst those,
Whose deeds, and deaths here written are
Within your Greenie-Kalendar:
By all those Virgins Fillets hung
Upon your Boughs, and Requiems sung
For Saints and Soules departed hence,
(Here honour'd still with Frankincense)
By all those teares that have been shed,
As a Drink-offering, to the dead:
By all those True-love-knots, that be
With Motto's carv'd on every tree,
By sweet S. Phillis; pity me:
By deare S. Iphis; and the rest,
Of all those other Saints now blest;
Me, me, forsaken, here admit
Among your Mirtles to be writ:
That my poore name may have the glory
To live remembred in your story.

Robert Herrick (1591-1674): To Groves, from Hesperides: or, The Works Both Humane & Divine of Robert Herrick Esq, London (1648)

Paper Bark Birch: photo by Aubrey Guymn, 16 December 2005

Paperbark Maple, Mendocino Botanical Gardens: photo by jidarius, 13 May 2010

Paperbark Tree: photo by Joel Bramley, 5 April 2013

Paper Bark Tree, Point Loma, California: photo by Lee Edwin Coursey, 13 April 2008

Paperbark wetland, Mungo Brush, Hawks Nest, New South Wales: photo by my_elbow, 22 July 2009

Paperbarks (Melaleuca quinguenervia) in wetland, Broadwater National Park, New South Wales: photo by dustaway, 19 July 2012

Paperbark Maple (Acer griseum), Brookside Gardens, Maryland: photo by John Winder, 18 November 2012

Robert Herrick: In the West (His Lachrimae or Mirth, turn'd to mourning)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/71/GGB_reflection_in_raindrops.jpg

Golden Gate Bridge refracted in rain drops acting as lenses: photo by Mila Zinkova, 2007

1.

      Call me no more, 
.....As heretofore, 
The musick of a Feast; 
.....Since now (alas) 
.....The mirth, that was 
In me, is dead or ceast. 

2. 

.....Before I went 
.....To banishment 
Into the loathed West; 
.....I co'd rehearse 
.....A Lyrick verse, 
And speak it with the best. 

3. 

.....But time (Ai me) 
.....Has laid, I see, 
My Organ fast asleep; 
.....And turn'd my voice 
.....Into the noise 
Of those that sit and weep.

....Magnifying and light collecting effect of a drop of oil on a glass plate held a short distance above a text: photo by Roger McLassus, 2005

Robert Herrick (1591-1674): His Lachrimae or Mirth, turn'd to mourning, from Hesperides: or, The Works Both Humane & Divine of Robert Herrick Esq, London (1648)

Robert Herrick: Memorials of the Obscure

Image, Source: digital file from original

Grave on the high plains, Dawson County, Texas: photo by Russell Lee, March 1940

Upon a Child. An Epitaph

But borne, and like a short Delight,
I glided by my Parents sight.
That done, the harder Fates deny'd
My longer stay, and so I dy'd.

Upon a child

Here a pretty Baby lies
Sung asleep with Lullabies:
Pray be silent, and not stirre
Th'easie earth that covers her.

Upon Prew his Maid

In this little urne is laid
Prewdence Baldwin (once my maid)
From whose happy spark here let
Spring the purple Violet.

Image, Source: digital file from intermediary roll film

Grave and headstone in mountain cemetery. Pie Town, New Mexico: photo by Russell Lee, June 1940

Grave and headstone in mountain cemetery. Pie Town, New Mexico: photo by Russell Lee, June 1940

Image, Source: digital file from original

Newly-dug grave, Rochester, Pennsylvania: photo by John Vachon, January 1941

Image, Source: digital file from original

Grave, Kempton, West Virginia. The cemetery is on the top of a hill behind the town photo by John Vachon, May 1939

Old grave near Cruger, Mississippi: photo by Russell Lee, September 1938

Decoration of grave in Spanish-American cemetery, Penasco, Texas: photo by Russell Lee, July 1940

Mexican grave, near Santon, Texas: photo by Russell Lee, February 1939

Spanish-American grave in rural section of Bernalillo County, New Mexico: photo by Russell Lee, April 1940

Grave in the cemetery at Santa Rita, New Mexico. Santa Rita is a copper mining town, inhabitants mostly Mexican.: photo by Russell Lee, April 1940

Mexican grave, Raymondville, Texas: photo by Russell Lee, February 1939

Image, Source: intermediary roll film of original neg.

Mexican graves, Raymondville, Texas: photo by Russell Lee, February 1939

Mexican grave, Raymondville, Texas: photo by Russell Lee, February 1939

New Mexican graves in cemetery, Raymondville, Texas: photo by Russell Lee, February 1939

Decoration of graves at New Roads, Louisiana on All Saints' Day: photo by Russell Lee, November 1938

Decorated graves in cemetery at New Roads, Louisiana on All Saints' Day, with chickens eating the flowers: photo by Russell Lee, November 1938

Robert Herrick (1591-1674): Upon a Child. An Epitaph; Upon a Child; Upon Prew his Maid, from Hesperides: or, The Works Both Humane & Divine of Robert Herrick Esq, London (1648)
Photos from Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress

3 comments:

kent said...: TC,

How'd you manage to slip the odd-eyed NL Cy Young winner in amongst Bob's Big 14? Please bring Herr Herrick to this space as often as you please, cause well, he's the bees' knees.

Must swab the deck and wax the floor,
In hopes of Vikings fallen
And Lions roar.

Happy Tom Day,

k; 23 November 2017 at 07:16
TC said...: Thank you Kent. Popular acclaim beats Tryptopan every time I always say. The remaining 1086 Robin Herrick immortal ditties shall be up here awaiting you bright and early on Bagel Friday.

Peeked at your Kitties being overrun by unkind viking horde as L Train Murray, who has never in his life bent over, stood tall and proud and vulnerable, running straight-up and stiff as a tin soldier in a purple suit right through them as though they had not had their morning bagel and dish of warm milk, ultimately sustaining a brutal and entirely uncalled-for goal line hit that will have made thousands of brain cells short out, suggesting the depths of unkindness to which Kitties will stoop may be literally fathomless.

Still did that hit derail (detain) the L-Train? No. Such a festive holiday if you are a viking horde.

Old Hrothgar meanwhile just belched on contentedly from over there in his corner, where his oar is kept. He keeps it by his side at all times in consideration of the possibility of a sneak attack against Nova Scotia, or whatever that place is, glimmering so tantalizingly, there through the glowing frozen fog. He has pretty bad manners and frankly is happy enough just sitting there drooling on his bib and thinking the dunce cap we make him wear at holidays is a party hat.

"I like the stuffing best," he sometimes seems to be saying. Other times we suspect our interpretations to be nothing more than desperate attempts to convince ourselves that it is, after all, the most intelligible ergo least objectionable of the holidays, if only because it still leaves the door open to the possibility that the planet will be destroyed in a massive nuclear exchange before Bagel Friday ever gets a chance to happen.

Oy such a year it has been. And which of us is still here to even say that much.

My Old Friend (Steve Satten), ft Gregory Hines, Jimmy Cobb, Freddie Hubbard, from Jimmy Cobb: So Nobody Else Can Hear(2000)

Nick Lowe: What's So Funny 'Bout Peace, Love and Understanding? (solo performance in Japanese hotel room, 2014)

Joy Division: Shadowplay (live, Granada TV, 20 September 1978)

Joy Division: She's Lost Control (live, BBC Channel 4: Something Else, September 1978)

Joy Division: Ceremony (live at Birmingham University, 2 May 1980)

Joy Division: Atmosphere (music video); 23 November 2017 at 12:42
kent said...: That which is you, and I
declare Bagel Fridays
beat nuke exchange every time
ergo every day Tom Day
evermore, evermore.

k; 23 November 2017 at 18:48

TOM CLARK

Wednesday, 22 November 2017

To The Infinity (Stop Everyday) / Robert Herrick: Infinite Finitude: Fourteen Poems

3 comments:

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