Ernst Fuchs... Vision... 1953

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previous Fuchs

A vision

I lost the love of heaven above,
I spurned the lust of earth below,
I felt the sweets of fancied love
And hell itself my only foe.

I lost earth's joys but felt the glow
Of heaven's flame abound in me
Till loveliness and I did grow
The bard of immortality.

I loved but woman fell away
I hid me from her faded fame,
I snatched the sun's eternal ray
And wrote till earth was but a name

In every language upon earth,
On every shore, o'er every sea,
I give my name immortal birth
And kept my spirit with the free.

John Clare

(1793 - 1864)

Edgar Allan Poe poem... Dolorosa pen & ink sketch...

pen and ink sketch Dolorosa

A Dream Within A Dream by Edgar Allan Poe

Take this kiss upon the brow!

And, in parting from you now,

Thus much let me avow--

You are not wrong, who deem

That my days have been a dream;

Yet if hope has flown away

In a night, or in a day,

In a vision, or in none,

Is it therefore the less gone?

All that we see or seem

Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar

Of a surf-tormented shore,

And I hold within my hand

Grains of the golden sand--

How few! yet how they creep

Through my fingers to the deep,

While I weep--while I weep!

O God! can I not grasp

Them with a tighter clasp?

O God! can I not save

One from the pitiless wave?

Is all that we see or seem

But a dream within a dream?

Austin Osman Spare ... Illustration...1909

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Cujus est solum ejus est usque ad coelum 1909

from

On the Oxford circuit, and other verses  by Mr Justice Darling 1909

CUJUS EST SOLUM EJUS EST USQUE 
AD COELUM 

'ELUSIVE maxim! Hardly Heaven 
they hold 
Whose lands in fee to central Hell 

descend. 
Though from the soil its lords the 
stars behold, 
With the thick air extremest titles end. 

Wladd Muta.... Graphic Works... Golden Scarab 2011

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Maman Brigitte ... Jessica Grote, poem & Claude Saintilius, art.

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Maman Brigitte by Claude Saintilius

~~ Our Lady of the Cemetery: Maman Brigitte ~~

The Face of Death

Ruby-red drops of blood mix with the white flour. The strong

alcohol is still burning in her throat. Passion overcomes her,a

yearning, a desperate physical hunger, spreading her legs wide

open, shivering through her body. She wants to embrace...the

Dead. 

Fixing her gaze on the purple candle, raising it high

above her head, she whispers... Maman... Ma mere... An irresistable

urge has her pouring the purple wax over her body

while calling out to HER...

You are walking down the long and sparely lit hallway.

Following a noise, a whisper, the distant echo of MY voice.

It is cold, you are alone and yet you know we are all around -

waiting for you.

Treading on the path of the unknown, you feel fear, my child,

I know.

Be brave, go ahead, follow MY call, open that door.

I am over here, standing below the willow on that old cemetery

Yes, it is music coming out of this crypt. Have a look, go inside,

you will see strange rites but also merry dancing and laughter.

Dance with the Dead, my child! Dance with my children!

Do not take yourself too serious!

I am the Mother of the Dead and we are everywhere. In fact

everyone is a walking Dead.

So why not laugh in the face of Death?

by Jessica Grote ~October 2010 excerpt from Atua

Eric Drooker... Crucified Woman...

more at Drooker.com

God's man... Lynd Ward... woodcut ...1929

Gods' Man is a novel in five parts, published in 1929

previous Lynd Ward

Ex Libris... L'Horla ...1922

Aztec Idol ... Vitzilipuztli ... bookplates 1700s

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A. Aveline  - 1720

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1725

Hokeah, Jack (1902-1969) ... paintings

Buffalo Dance 1929

War Dancer 1929

Greeting of Thee Moon God 1929

Chasing  Evil Spirits 1929

more Jack Hokeah at Kiowa Indian Art  in the C Szwedzicki Collection

Gio Colucci... book illustration... The Torture Garden..

illustration from Octave Mirbeaus Torture Garden 1925

from The Torture Garden, written by Octave Mirbeau in 1899

Works of Art.... Skull and Devil... Japan

Ivory okimono of a scull (tokotsu) entwined with a serpent, Meiji period (1868 - 1912)

worn by members of the underground dokudo (later yakuza), because they believed it brought good luck to gamblers. In the Meiji period the best-known carver of this subject was Gjokuzan.

Carved ivory netsuke signed Chiyuki 之, Japan, Meiji period, turn of the 19th century

 

This  netsuke depicts a typical stylized devil Oni

They come from the Buddhist pantheon and appear in many folk stories. In this comical stylization the umbrella is used instead of the kanabo steel club. The eyes of the devil are made of mother-of-pearl and were inserted by the technique ji ita hamekomi.