Charlie Mackesy - The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse

 

Charlie Mackesy is an amazing artist and I recommend his book The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse to everyone. You can't go wrong with these simple and beautiful illustrations. The little "stories", sayings and jokes are heart-warming. I love the book.

To get an idea, visit the autor's website.

Charlie Mackesy, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse. Ebury Press 2019.

Es ist wieder Zeit...

 

by inbetween, 27/03/2023

#the100daysproject - day 034 

 

"Wer will, dass die Welt so bleibt, wie sie ist, der will nicht, dass sie bleibt."

Erich Fried

 

Art August 04 - all that you have is you soul

mixed media art journal on black gesso, 04/08/2020, lyrics by Tracy Chapman

Erich Fried - Angst vor der Angst

Gedicht auf Aquarell by InBetween, 04/2020

Neuer Blogbeitrag auf meiner Autorenwebsite erichfried.de zur digitalen Aussstellung KEINE | ANGST vor der Angst der Internationalen Erich Fried Gesellschaft. 

Irgendwie passt das Gedicht (das auch die Grundlage für die Ausstellung darstellt) zur Lage der Welt... 

There is always something

postcrossing card sent by Anneke, Canada

lyrics by Tyler Knott Gregson, typewriter series #1124

Stars seem to lose their place

lyrics by Sting - Why should I cry for you? (Soul Cages, 1991)

O Come O Come Emmanuel

Beautiful version by Matthew Perryman Jones.


O come, O come, Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear
Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel...

Heavy

I don't like my mind right now
Stacking up problems that are so unnecessary
Wish that I could slow things down
I wanna let go, but there's comfort in the panic

And I drive myself crazy
Thinking everything's about me
Yeah, I drive myself crazy
'Cause I can't escape the gravity

I'm holding on - Why is everything so heavy?
Holding on - To so much more than I can carry

I keep dragging around what's bringing me down
If I just let go, I'd be set free
Holding on - Why is everything so heavy?

You say that I'm paranoid
But I'm pretty sure the world is out to get me
It's not like I make the choice
To let my mind stay so fucking messy

I know I'm not the center of the universe
But you keep spinning 'round me just the same
I know I'm not the center of the universe
But you keep spinning 'round me just the same

I'm holding on - Why is everything so heavy?
Holding on - To so much more than I can carry

I keep dragging around what's bringing me down
If I just let go, I'd be set free
Holding on - Why is everything so heavy?

I know I'm not the center of the universe
But you keep spinning 'round me just the same
I know I'm not the center of the universe
But you keep spinning 'round me just the same

[...] Why is everything so heavy?

Sol Heilo - Killing Karma

Great new song and video by Sol Heilo!


Well I was going out to find another me
Cause there was not a thing a hollow Sol could be
Cause I tried to hurt me, and I tried to hate me
And I tried to heal me, but there was nothing working anymore

Well I was going out to build a better life
Cause that was all I could do, when you gotta do or die
Cause I tried to face you, and I tried to filter you
And I tried to fight you, but there was nothing working anymore

But now I see who you are, your cloak and dagger heart
You’re crafty like a shark, you’re killing karma
Now I sense your attack, the gun behind your back
Yeah, I can smell a rat, you’re killing karma
You’re killing karma

Well I was sick and tired of all your hidden lies.
So bitter you demonized whenever you whispered my name
Yeah were kamikaze, lethal like an army
Always out to harm me, but there was nothing working anymore

But now I see who you are, your cloak and dagger heart
You’re crafty like a shark, you’re killing karma
Now I sense your attack, the gun behind your back
Yeah, I can smell a rat, you’re killing karma
Now I see who you really are, a desolated star
You fester in the dark, you’re killing karma
Now I sense your attack, the gun behind your back
Yeah, I can smell a rat, you’re killing karma Y
ou’re killing karma, you’re killing karma

Katie Herzig - Walk Through Walls

 
[...] But before you walk through walls
You will leave all this behind
Before you walk through walls
You will look it in the eye
Before you walk through walls
You will learn to say goodbye
If you let your guard down long enough to try

How do you know a flame is real
Out of all the fires this is one I feel
They happen so fast
The moments pass
And we're all waiting for the moments that will last
When I saw your eyes they stole my heart

by Katie Herzig

Erich Fried - Schwarz auf weiß

Beim Papier
an dem mein zerknittertes Leben
ersticken wird
suche ich Schutz
vor deinem Schweigen

Im langsamen
Korrigieren
suche ich
ein Gegengewicht
gegen meine voreiligen Worte

Tusche, Sylt 2016, by In Between

Trennung
meiner Trauer von Bitterkeit
Trennung
meiner Ungeduld
von meiner Liebe

Ich suche
geduldig
aber Papier
hat wenig
Geduld

aus: Lebensschatten. Wagenbach-Verlag, Berlin 1981.

In autumns that there were

by Milan Pitlach, Straznice 22.6.1975, sent via postcrossing from Czech Republic

I sit beside the fire and think
Of all that I have seen
Of meadow flowers and butterflies
In summers that have been

Of yellow leaves and gossamer
In autumns that there were
With morning mist and silver sun
And wind upon my hair

I sit beside the fire and think
Of how the world will be
When winter comes without a spring
That I shall ever see

For still there are so many things
That I have never seen
In every wood in every spring
There is a different green

I sit beside the fire and think
Of people long ago
And people that will see a world
That I shall never know

But all the while I sit and think
Of times there were before
I listen for returning feet
And voices at the door

J.R.R. Tolkien

Wave succeeding wave

And see the rivers how they run
Through woods and meads, in shade and sun,
Sometimes swift, sometimes slow,—
Wave succeeding wave, they go
A various journey to the deep,
Like human life to endless sleep!

John Dyer (1699-1757, Welsh poet) , Grongar Hill.

Krtek postcard sent by Lucy, Czech Republic

Das Mondlicht fangen

Obwohl im Meer keine Fische mehr leben,
fährt der Fischer bei Vollmond hinaus.
Ich darf ihn manchmal begleiten.
Früher war er Kapitän bei der Marine,
"vier Sterne auf jeder Schulter,
wenn du weißt, was das heißt".
Er kennt jede Welle zwischen Afrika
und hier, jede Schaumkrone, jeden Seestern.
Wir fahren an die Stelle, wo wir
am besten das Mondlicht fangen können
mit unserem Käscher. Einen Eimer voll,
das langt, gegen sieben sind wir dann
wieder zurück mit unserer Beute
und können erzählen.

 Quint Buchholz/Michael Krüger, Keiner weiß es besser als der Mond. Hanser, München 2001.

Der Himmel dichtet

Manche Dichter sitzen am Schreibtisch
und suchen Reime für die Nacht,
finden sie einen, ist es vollbracht.
Wir fahren nachts im Boot über den See
und lassen den Himmel dichten. 

Quint Buchholz/Michael Krüger, Keiner weiß es besser als der Mond. Hanser, München 2001.

Hilde Domin: Nicht müde werden

Nicht müde werden
sondern dem Wunder
leise
wie einem Vogel
die Hand hinhalten.

Hilde Domin (1909-2006)

Goethe: Glückliche Fahrt

Die Nebel zerreißen,
Der Himmel ist helle,
Und Äolus löset
Das ängstliche Band.
Es säuseln die Winde,
Es rührt sich der Schiffer.
Geschwinde! Geschwinde!
Es teilt sich die Welle,
Es naht sich die Ferne;
Schon seh' ich das Land!

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1796


Postkarte von Marta aus Polen

Edward Hirsch: Ocean of Grass

The ground was holy, but the wind was harsh
and unbroken prairie stretched for hundreds of miles
so that all she could see was an ocean of grass.

Some days she got so lonely she went outside
and nestled among the sheep, for company.
The ground was holy, but the wind was harsh

and prairie fires swept across the plains,
lighting up the country like a vast tinderbox
until all she could see was an ocean of flames.

She went three years without viewing a tree.
When her husband finally took her on a timber run
she called the ground holy and the wind harsh

and got down on her knees and wept inconsolably,
and lived in a sod hut for thirty more years
until the world dissolved in an ocean of grass.

Think of her sometimes when you pace the earth,
our mother, where she was laid to rest.
The ground was holy, but the wind was harsh
for those who drowned in an ocean of grass.

poem by Edward Hirsch (*1950)

ilustris postcardby K. Majewska / A. Tylkowski,
sent by Aleksandra from Poland

Piet Hein

This is the picture I used to see printed on a tile in our Danish holiday home. It's an illustration for a poem written by famous Danish poet and scientist Piet Hein. Here is the Danish version:

Husk
de tre T.T.T.
Slid,
Men vid ...
Ting Ta'r Tid.

I don't speak Danish for real and translating these few words has proven quite difficult.
I now know why.
Piet Hein called his poems "gruks" (translated into English "grooks") and they are short, aphoristic pieces and he wrote more than 7,000 of them. He started them during German Nazi Occupation which began in April 1940. He hid his criticism in his "gruks" and stupid as they were the Nazis didn't realize what he was doing. They passed censorship and he was able to publish them. Taking into consideration that these were meant to have different layers of meaning it is not so surprising anymore that they are hard to translate. There aren't any official German translations, some of them have English versions (by Piet Hein) although the books are long out of print apparently. I found a nice page with some information on Piet Hein and a collection of some English grooks - including my T.T.T. poem:

Put up in a place
where it's easy to see
the cryptic admonishment
T. T. T.

When you feel how depressingly
slowly you climb,
it's well to remember that
Things Take Time!

And here's another one I liked, it works a little bit better than the complicated translation (more like a re-write) of T.T.T.:

The Road to Wisdom

The road to wisdom?
-- Well, it's plain
and simple to express:
Err
and err
and err again
but less
and less
and less.

Important to mention that Piet Hein was also a great inventor of games and a designer.

Find out more: www.piethein.com

There are some grooks on wikiquote, too. 

Das weiße Meer

Das weiße Meer ist eingeschlafen,
es schläft mir jedes Weh und Ach.
Vergessen hab ich Ziel und Hafen,
vergessen Furcht und Lob und Strafen:
Jetzt flieg ich jedem Vogel nach.

Friedrich Nietsche
2. Strophe von Prinz Vogelfrei aus: Idyllen aus Messina, 1882