Roots of Understanding: Stephen Crane's Poetry and Truth

"When the prophet, a complacent fat man,
Arrived at the mountain-top,
He cried: "Woe to my knowledge!
I intended to see good white lands
And bad black lands,
But the scene is grey."

I read through all the poetry books in my high school library-- all two or three shelves of them. I found here Catullus, modern American poets, Langston Hughes, and the children's poetry of Lillian Morrison. But it was Stephen Crane's poems that most impacted me.

They are not poems of feeling. They have no lush beautiful words. They are direct and sparse with an intellectual punch. They are poems that comment on human frailty, both institutional and personal.

A learned man came to me once.

He said, "I know the way, -- come."
And I was overjoyed at this.
Together we hastened.
Soon, too soon, we were
Where my eyes were useless,
And I knew not the ways of my feet.
I clung to the hand of my friend;
But at last he cried, "I am lost."

I learned that we should question those who claim to be on the inside track, who claim to know the truth. Don't just follow the crowd. Mom used to ask me, "If all the girls were jumping off the roof, would you want to do it too?" 

"Think as I think," said a man,

"Or you are abominably wicked;
You are a toad."

And after I had thought of it,
I said, "I will, then, be a toad."

Thinking for oneself is not popular. Some governments and churches don't even allow it. Galileo, Copernicus, and Darwin each suffered for promoting scientific evidence that conflicted with prevailing thought.

There was crimson clash of war.

Lands turned black and bare;
Women wept;
Babes ran, wondering.
There came one who understood not these things.
He said, "Why is this?"
Whereupon a million strove to answer him.
There was such intricate clamour of tongues,
That still the reason was not.

After all, what is TRUTH? Who knows the truth? Is it not subjective, changed by one's culture, one's faith, one's experience? Can we ever really know The Truth?

"Truth," said a traveler,
"Is a rock, a mighty fortress;
Often have I been to it,
Even to its highest tower,
From whence the world looks black."

"Truth," said a traveller,
"Is a breath, a wind,
A shadow, a phantom;
Long have I pursued it,
But never have I touched
The hem of its garment."

And I believed the second traveller;
For truth was to me
A breath, a wind,
A shadow, a phantom,
And never had I touched
The hem of its garment.

And yet we humans relentless pursue the elusive butterfly of truth, sure we will demonstrate the only, the one, the ultimate certainty.

I saw a man pursuing the horizon;
Round and round they sped.
I was disturbed at this;
I accosted the man.
"It is futile," I said,
"You can never -- "

"You lie," he cried,
And ran on.

Ever notice how people do not change their views no matter what? We hold on our opinions to the bitter end.

In the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
Who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.
I said: "Is it good, friend?"
"It is bitter-bitter," he answered;
"But I like it
Because it is bitter,
And because it is my heart." 

Well, that is one way of looking at the human experience.

Crane's poems taught to think for oneself,  but at the same time warns not to cling unthinkingly to one's own opinions. We live in a complicated world.

The Royal Oak Flea Market

I returned to the Royal Oak Flea Market today. I did not buy any fleas but I did buy from vendors who are also here on Saturday for the Royal Oak Farmer's Market.

I bought some local honey. I have been buying local honey for years, but with the news about the problems and concerns with commercial honey I am more committed to buying local. I bought some loose tea with coconut in it! I am drinking it now having used the floating tea bell I bought at The Rust Belt some weeks ago.

And I brought home a loaf of Cinnamon bread and two spinach pies ($3.00!) from Vic the Breadman.

Vic has been at the market for more than a dozen years, both on Saturday and Sunday. He offers great breads of all kinds, including frosted breakfast breads, whole grain breads, rolls, Brioche, spinach pies, cornmeal pizza crust, and foccacia.

Today Vic and I chatted. He grew up in Detroit where in the mid 1950s his school had over 9,000 students so they had to attend school in shifts. School started at 7:30 am and ended at 5:30 pm.

I saw some sweetheart pillows, souvenirs that soldiers sent home to their mothers, sisters, and sweethearts during WWI and WWII. You can learn more about them in Pat Cumming's book Sweetheart and Mother Pillows.

Last year ago I bought some great barkcloth here. Today there were several offerings of vintage barkcloth and chintz drapes.

More Mid-Century Modern items are showing up at flea markets now.

Handmade soaps, lotions and other items are offered at Dirty Girl Farm. Other booths have spices, teas, honey, and baked goods.

Although today it was not even 20 degrees out, the market's outdoor booths were occupied again. In a few weeks they will offer flowers and plants at the Saturday Farmer's market.

Rescuing the Unlovable

Yesterday I went to Berkley, Michigan to visit Guildcrafters Quilt Shop and the Oddfellows Antique Mall.

At the mall I found a sweet appliqued coverlet for $28. It featured a center medallion and a border.

 

 It had two stains which I decided I would be able to remove. I was told that people had passed it up many times because of the stains. The price had been reduced over time.

 

The applique in pink on a white ground has remarkable small stitches.

 

 

 

 

Over the years I have brought home numerous unlovable quilts. Last month I found the Double Wedding Ring on a blue ground that I am repairing by appliqueing vintage fabrics over the fabrics that have decayed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many years ago I was given a quilt which needed a new binding, and I used vintage fabric for the binding and to repair decayed fabrics.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I found a quilt made of matching fabrics in three color ways, repaired with a house dress so the button holes show. It was badly stained, as if it had been used as a mattress pan. Three washings and the stains were out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I finished a quilt top circa 1900 by repairing the decayed fabrics and layering and quilting it.

This wonderful one patch quilt also needed a few squares replaced. I used reproduction fabric, appliqued over the original square. The fabrics seem to date to the early 1900s.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I know that today finding beauty in decay is quite mainstream. Upcycling, repurposeing, and Shabby Chic in decorating is very prevalent. At The Rust Belt in Ferndale, Michigan you can find industrial repurposing in furnishings and décor, such as Hudson Industrial's reclaimed wood and metal furnishings. I wrote a few months ago about a book on Detroit's abandoned buildings. Urban decay is another contemporary fascination.

 

One of my brother's creations; his cabin chandelier

I think in my case it is genetic. I cried when I saw good things in the trash when I walked to elementary school.

 

My brother hauls things from the canal behind his house and turns them into décor. He has repurposed for years before it had a name.

 

Our grandmother worked at the Goodwill store, and I think she wanted first crack at the good stuff coming in! She once found and gave me a winking eyeball ring! She had a sense of humor!

Best of all, rescuing unwanted animals is now mainstream! Our Suki was in a puppy mill for seven years, and so unsocialized that even after a year in foster care her first 'forever' family returned her! It took several years, but she is a Real Dog now. It just took a lot of loving.

And I am really glad there are many of us ready to take on the unlovable.

Happy Birthday, Barbie

I remember when I first met Barbie.

I was visiting my grandparents in Michigan. I always played with the girl next door. It was 1959, and she had a marvelous new doll, a Barbie doll. I wanted, I needed a Barbie. She had all those great clothes!


I had no love for my Tiny Tears, baby dolls left me uninterested, and the Madame Alexander dolls were not to be played with. I liked the cheap dolls Mom got at the supermarket, but they were brittle plastic and broke, and you could not change their dresses.

Some months passed, but Mom did buy me that first Barbie, a dark ponytailed gal with heavy eye makeup. I always thought she looked snobbish. Why not, when she had all those wonderful CLOTHES!

I loved those dresses. I amassed enough to fill a large wardrobe case. Then Mom bought me a Bubble Cut Barbie. Mom and I had Bubble Cuts. (and those cat-eyed glasses that looked so silly later). Then came Ken, and my beloved Midge (who became a boy from Mars, lol), Allen and Skipper.

And then I decided I was too old to play with dolls. Rather, the girls in seventh grade said we were way over dolls. Mom put them away in the attic, and several years later I came home to find she had given them away to the girls down the street.

I was horrified, offended, outraged. But who could break those little girl's hearts? I dealt with change.

Over the years I missed my Barbies. I missed the 60s and the elegant clothes, the sophistication. Mini skirts, polyester, jeans and Ts took the place of New Look frocks and picture hats and pearls.

When I was forty years old I decided I was old enough to play with dolls. I bought some reproduction Barbies that looked like mine. And I made some quilts to celebrate her.

I also was given a Tyler Wentworth doll by Robert Tonner, and for some years my hubby and son gave me a doll for special gifts.

And sometimes I let little girls play with my dolls, just so the dolls know the joy of a girl's imagination and the power of make-believe.

Barbie Portraits by Nancy A Bekofske

Venice scenes by Alberto DiVIty, 20th Century Impressionism

Two small paintings of Venice by DiVity hang in my bedroom. Alberto DiVity was born in 1900 in Italy and painted impressionistic scenes from Venice, Paris, and rainy city scenes. He was quite prolific.

The paintings came to me through strange circumstances.

My grandfather Lynne O. Ramer passed in 1971. Grandma was only 52 when my grandfather died. In 1972 I was married and my grandmother was cajoled into joining in to try to catch my bouquet. She caught it! Before a year had passed she had met Milo, who had been a widower for 25 years, and they married a few days before my first anniversary.

Milo had built a home for his wife and daughter, both who died young. Afterwards he kept his home well decorated, calling upon interior decorators from the finest stores.

When my grandparents felt the need to move into a condominium, these paintings left Milo's walls for my family's wall.

I always loved the texture of the thickly applied paint, likely with a palette knife, the deft brush strokes, and the impressionistic style. The colors are wonderful, those hazy blue grays with a hint of green, the warm yellows and reds of the buildings, and the splash of bright red    on the gondolas. The dark buildings on the right side have a nice architectural detail and frame the water 'street' scene nicely. DiVity used pure white paint to highlight the water and ropes and boat outlines.

 

Five years ago my father passed and I inherited my family home. The original frames were dated and ugly: a yellowed cream frame with gold flecks. I did not think they set off the art well. I had them reframed in dark wood with copper highlights, with a scalloped effect that mirrors the building's silhouettes.

 

After reading about Venice in Vivaldi's Virgins, I am noticing these paintings all over again.

Vivaldi's Virgins by Barbara Quick

When I was high school my choir performed Vivaldi's “Gloria.” It was my introduction to a composer I knew little of until I was in my twenties. Gary and I were living in Philadelphia, which held an Avenue of the Arts celebration each year. Our first attendance of the event I heard an orchestra playing outdoors. They were playing Vivaldi's “The Four Seasons” and I fell in love with the piece.

Vivaldi's Virgins, a novel by Barbara Quick, is based on current research into Vivaldi's role as a music teacher and composer for the girls orchestra and choir associated with an orphanage in Venice.  For a link to the author go to:
http://vivaldisvirgins.com

The Ospedale della Pieta, or Hospital of Mercy, was one of four hospitals in Venice that provided care for the indigent, elderly, ill and orphaned. The Pieta was founded in 1346 as a way to provide for the multitude of unwanted infants who were discarded in the canals and streets of the city. Venice was a city with an active 'sex industry', and the resultant babies were often born with syphilis which caused deformities. Ringworm and smallpox were other common diseases that left children deformed.

The Pieta was founded in a tiny house starting with ten children. It grew to accommodate 800 orphans. By the 18^th c. babies could be left int a small opening in the wall of the Pieta. The orphans were branded and documented. If they came with tokens for identification, so parents could later claim them, they were noted and preserved. The children were taught trades and crafts. Some children were sent out for adoption. Well off parents also left girls for 'safe keeping' until they reached marriageable age.

Those girls identified with musical skill became musicians and singers for the church choir and orchestra. People would flock to hear the music, especially during Lent when the opera houses were closed.

The girls performed from a gallery, hidden behind openwork metal screens. Although many were not lovely, the music they created transported their audience, who imagined the girls to be beautiful angels. Once grown, the girls taught for two years to repay their keep while growing up. Then some entered the convent. Some were married off. And some remained at the Pieta for life, often playing into their 70s.

Vivaldi was one of a series of musicians employed by the Pieta to teach the students and to write music for performance. Vivaldi was called The Red Priest because of his fiery red hair. He seems to have had little calling for the priesthood, expending his energies in teaching music and writing, including over 500 concertos, many for specific girl musicians. Vivaldi was associated with the Pieta, which was not far from his birth place in Venice, from 1703 until his death in 1741.

The Pieta created mega stars of their time. “Anyone hearing her is transported to Paradise” was written about one of the star violinists, Anna Maria della Violin.  Anna Maria was born in 1696 and died at the Pieta in 1697. Vivaldi bought her violin, costing three month's salary, and wrote 37 concertos specifically for Anna Maria. Research by Mickey White shows that Anna Maria played many instruments over her 86 years at the Pieta, including oboe, violin, tiorba, harpsichord, viola d amore, cello and mandolin.

Anna Maria was described as beautiful, with blonde hair, rosy cheeks, fiery eyes and noble features. Barbara Quick's book makes this fiery girl come to life. She does a wonderful job of recreating Venice in 1709 to 1711, incorporating many 'facts' into her narrative in a seamless way. Like the real girls of the Pieta, Anna and her friends rebel, sneak out of the Pieta, and get into trouble. Quick's Anna is flesh and blood.

“Everything was so overheated for me then,” Anna writes looking back to her pre-pubescent years. “I saw signs and portends in the simplest events of every day life, imagining that they all referred to me. I felt barbs where none was meant, and I heard criticism ten times louder than any praise. I felt a sense of closeness to my friends so intense that I couldn't imagine that life would ever have the temerity to part me from them. I understood nothing then.”

I loved the scene where the girls have performed for the King of Denmark and he invites four to attend a ball with him. The girls are dressed in finery and Carnival masks. At the ball Anna sees Scarlatti and Handel, the mega stars of their day. The two musicians face off in a musical duel. Scarlatti is declared King of the harpsichord, and Handel as King of the organ. The women in the audience go wild. Think “Frankie.” Think Elvis. Think Beatlemania. I had never considered Baroque musicians had inspired the same kind of mania as we have in our modern world.

I was shocked to learn that after his death Vivaldi faded into the background for several hundred years. He was considered 'flashy'. His experimentation was unappreciated. His music is very hard to play, not just because of the quickness required but also because his music requires playing with two voices, chords, retuning the strings, and playing simultaneously two notes on two strings.

“Time has a very poor memory. We each of us do what we can to be remembered—but most of us are forgotten.”

Thankfully, researchers like Micky White and writers like Barbara Quick have resurrected the forgotten girl musicians of the Pieta.

For a very nice documentary about the Pieta see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=153WVp8QJQ0

What Was News in 1966

The August 1966 Good Housekeeping magazine is a glimpse into what was new, what people were thinking about, what they were buying, and what their fears were.

The cover story was part one of two excerpts from  Pierre Salinger's upcoming (in 1966 that is) book "With Kennedy."

"I had been everywhere in the world with the President," Salinger is quoted, "But now, when he needed me most, I was 4000 miles from Dallas."
 
To this very day, the Kennedy family can headline news. And in the early years after Kennedy's tragic death, this was especially true.

Kennedy was a part of the recent past in 1966. But there was a lot new on the horizon. Included in the magazine is an article on Teflon, created by DuPont. "There is no question of safety with Teflon, despite stories you have heard. The best health authority of all, the U. S. Food and Drug Administration, concluded years ago that Teflon was safe for foot and conventional kitchen use. The finish has been long and thoroughly tried. Teflon was discovered in 1938." Two pages on the pro, cons and questions include a note that the coating raises prices $1 and still requires grease. My mom bought Teflon. It peeled off the metal pan over time.

Taking the "danger out of superhighway driving" was a new concern for the modern housewife. The article offers advice for entering and exiting a ramp, the proper space between cars to prevent tailgating and keepin a safe distance, lane changing, and highway hypnosis.

Another article asks "How Safe Is Your Child in Your Car?" Early restraining devices  included strapping in a bassinet which was anchored behind the sear. A harness was available that could be anchored behind the seat, and the Ford Motor Company offered the Astro-Guard Child Car Seat, which they admitted would tear away in a crash, injuring the child.

In the areas of style and fashion, we still used hair rollers and home hair coloring and permanents. The hair blower was still years away. I remember how hard it was to sleep in the big rollers.



Articles and advertisements for fashion sewing offered the latest trends in the Mod style from Britain.

Home décor in gold and olive, blue and green, and yellow was the rage.

We were still in the Wonder Years....Wonder bread that is. I remember rolling a slice into a tight little ball. The bread always stuck behind my front teeth after I had a sandwich.

 

The Coke ad was very simple; no frills, just the Coke please.

Women were encouraged to be active, secure in their use of the right protection. Tampex that is! What were you thinking? The Sexual Revolution had been addressed in the last issue, for the Letters to the Editor on the article "On Premarital Chastity" included many pros and cons. "...In most cases, age 20 is not too early for sexual experience but it is often too early for marriage." "There is only one argument that need be given. "Thou shalt not commit adultery."

 

I remember very well the big eyed children art of this era. Mom sent away for a set of prints similar to those below. She framed them and hung them in my room. One had a go-go dancer. I was 12 and did not like go-go dancers. I did not like dancing. I did not like rock and roll yet either. But I had the prints in my room, likely because Mom liked them and had no place else to put them.

 

 

What were people eating in August of 1966? Cold salads! With lots of meat, like Chicken Array Gourmet with 3 hardboiled eggs, 2 boned whole chicken breasts, 2 globe artichokes, 'Green mayonnaise', watercress, cocktail onions and curry powder. Or Beef Rolls Confetti with frozen lima beans, green beans,and peas cooked, 12 thin slices of roast beef, horseradish, Tabasco and minced onion and watercress. Or Meatball Bowl, made with, of course, meatballs, asparagus, canned white potatoes, and ice berg lettuce.

 

The back cover was an iconic Breck girl.

 

 

How time does fly. Remember when milk was still home delivered? Our 1969 ranch has a milk box built into the wall. Remember times before dishwashers, microwaves, and air conditioning? Remember when having two cars in a family was quite rich? When we had three tv channels and UHF? When girls were not allowed to wear slacks, and never jeans, to school, even in the coldest winter? And high boots were unheard of. We had to carry shoes when we wore boots, or used rubber rain boots over our shoes? Remember wearing scarfs and plastic rain hats that folded up into a little plastic slip case? Remember party lines? When Avon ladies offered little sample lipsticks? Do you miss these things? Or do you think we are better off now?