John Rechy, Hilde Van Cauteren, Joseph von Eichendorff, Jakob Wassermann, Karel van de Woestijne, Chloé Delaume, Friedrich Schlegel

De Amerikaanse schrijver John Rechy werd geboren op 10 maart 1934 in El Paso, Texas. Zie ook alle tags voor John Rechy op dit blog.

Uit: Bodies and Souls

“His eyes were just slightly too large for his lean face, but the square jaw compensated for that disparity. Often when he smiled, his whole face was radiant with life. Other times only his lips smiled. He smiled fully now. “Thank you,” Lisa said. She lowered the white-embroidered blouse at the shoulders. Her young breasts vied favorably with those of the sculpted women on the lawn of the rich mansion. Jesse felt a smarting resentment. They had been together two days and one night since Orin had stopped the old, beautiful Cadillac—one of the first of the finned models—to pick him up in the Texas-New Mexico desert. He’d jumped in next to Lisa, delighted by her prettiness. Jesse learned Orin had stopped for Lisa—her brand-new suitcase beside her—just outside Chicago only a few days before that. In their time together, Lisa had never asked Jesse for an opinion. But she asked Orin for permission sometimes. What would Cagney—Cody, Cody Jarrett—what would he do in such a situation? Jesse had discovered Cagney, Cody, and White Heat on television; he saw the movie once again, in a theater, and would have gone back again and again but it played only that day, once. A nervous breeze was becoming warmer. Jesse felt moisture grow under his arms. He opened another button. He wasn’t sure what Orin’s reaction would be if he took off his shirt. There was not a trace of perspiration on Orin, although he wore a light, gray jacket over his white shirt—one button open. His eyes seemed to bore into the mansion, as if to perceive its essence within the scorched gaudy grandeur, the meaning in its disorder. The original house was white. Then a few years ago an Arabian sheik bought it for his pretty teenage bride. He paid two and a half million dollars for it and spent several million more to convert it into the assaulting palace. It was painted the color of ripe limes. The nude-colored statues were mounted on the sweeping balustrade. Intrusive trees were cleared so that the house was brazenly open in a section of Los Angeles where other luxurious mansions hide behind walls of dark tall trees. The sheik’s name was engraved on ebony slabs under round mirrors like clashing shields at the gates. Intricate paths and the outlining walls were embedded with brown, amber, ecru stones, smooth and swarthy as the sheik’s skin; iron gray stones, the sheen of burnished silver; and green and purple tiles, dazzling as a peacock’s tail. Under a gleaming copper dome which blazed at sunset, the thirty-eight rooms of the mansion curved in two wings facing iron posts holding lanterns which glowed like haloes of green fire at night.”

 

 
John Rechy (El Paso, 10 maart 1934)

 

De Vlaamse dichteres Hilde Van Cauteren werd geboren 10 maart 1967 in Hamme. Zie ook alle tags voor Hilde Van Cauteren op dit blog.

 

ik giet de nacht (sms-gedicht)

ik giet de nacht Oost-Indisch uit een fles
als zwart papier dat wacht op stof van sterren,
van fonkelend gemis, van hier dat zonder ons
geen hier meer is

 

Tem mij

Tem mij, bind mijn zuchten in,
geef mij een hoepelrok – of neen,
een strak korset – en demp mijn lach.
Leg alles vast vanuit centraal gezag
en tem mij, tem mij als ge kunt.

Probeer het. Er zijn zoveel manieren:
bind mijn voeten in of ring mij, ring
mijn hals met steeds meer ringen.
Verberg mijn haren, snoer mijn middel
stevig aan en sla mijn ogen neer.

Zeg me dat dat mooier is. Bepaal
mijn hele lot, mijn god, hoe kan ik
u bedanken? Want ongetemd bind ik
mijn borsten op tot bolle appels, ring
mijn vingers en leg golven in mijn haar,

laat grote stukken van mijn huid naakt
Het licht opvangen. En ongetemd kijk ik
argeloos in het rond met grote ogen.
Zelfs naar u, terwijl ik vraag: tem mij!

 

 
Hilde Van Cauteren (Hamme, 10 maart 1967)

 

De Duitse dichter en schrijver Joseph von Eichendorff werd op 10 maart 1788 op het slot Lubowitz in Ratibor geboren. Zie ook alle tags voor Joseph von Eichendorff op dit blog.

 

Sehnsucht

Es schienen so golden die Sterne,
Am Fenster ich einsam stand
Und hörte aus weiter Ferne
Ein Posthorn im stillen Land.
Das Herz mir im Leib entbrennte,
Da hab’ ich mir heimlich gedacht:
Ach wer da mitreisen könnte
In der prächtigen Sommernacht!

Zwei junge Gesellen gingen
Vorüber am Bergeshang,
Ich hörte im Wandern sie singen
Die stille Gegend entlang:
Von schwindelnden Felsenschlüften,
Wo die Wälder rauschen so sacht,
Von Quellen, die von den Klüften
Sich stürzen in die Waldesnacht.

Sie sangen von Marmorbildern,
Von Gärten, die über’m Gestein
In dämmernden Lauben verwildern,
Palästen im Mondenschein,
Wo die Mädchen am Fenster lauschen,
Wann der Lauten Klang erwacht,
Und die Brunnen verschlafen rauschen
In der prächtigen Sommernacht. –

 

Die Nachtblume

Nacht ist wie ein stilles Meer,
Lust und Leid und Liebesklagen
Kommen so verworren her
In dem linden Wellenschlagen.

Wünsche wie die Wolken sind,
Schiffen durch die stillen Räume,
Wer erkennt im lauen Wind,
Ob’s Gedanken oder Träume? –

Schließ ich nun auch Herz und Mund,
Die so gern den Sternen klagen:
Leise doch im Herzensgrund
Bleibt das linde Wellenschlagen.

 

Heimweh

Wer in die Fremde will wandern,
Der muß mit der Liebsten gehn,
Es jubeln und lassen die andern
Den Fremden alleine stehn.

Was wisset ihr, dunkele Wipfel,
Von der alten, schönen Zeit?
Ach, die Heimat hinter den Gipfeln,
Wie liegt sie von hier so weit!

Am liebsten betracht ich die Sterne,
Die schienen, wie ich ging zu ihr,
Die Nachtigall hör ich so gerne,
Sie sang vor der Liebsten Tür.

Der Morgen, das ist meine Freude!
Da steig ich in stiller Stund
Auf den höchsten Berg in die Weite,
Grüß dich, Deutschland, aus Herzensgrund!

 

 
Joseph von Eichendorff (10 maart 1788 – 26 november 1857)
De ruine van Schloss Lubowitz in Ratibor

 

De Duitse schrijver Jakob Wassermann werd geboren op 10 maart 1873 in Fürth. Zie ook alle tags voor Jakob Wassermann op dit blog.

Uit: Alexander in Babylon

„Charmides, einer der jüngsten Edelknaben, saß eingesunken auf seiner nysäischen Stute, die Knie wie im Krampf emporgezogen, die Augen geschlossen. Bisweilen tastete er wie ein Schlafender über den Hals des Tieres hinaus, als suche er seine Gefährten. Doch viele waren schon dahin: der blondgelockte Philippides, den eine indische Sklavin so verzaubert hatte, daß er ihretwegen die fremden Götter anbetete; Medon, von Alexander besonders geliebt wegen seiner Tapferkeit; Himeneus, der schönste Jüngling aus Pella, Amphinomos, der Liebling des Leibwächters Ptolemäos. Die Sonne hatte sie getötet, der Sand begraben.
Wie still war es geworden, daß selbst kein Stöhnen mehr zum Ohr drang. In dumpfem Schmerz die Augen öffnend, sah sich Charmides plötzlich allein. Das ganze Heer schien vom Erdboden eingesogen zu sein. Rötlichschwarze Luft zitterte um ihn, sein Kopf war weit in den Nacken gebeugt, wie nach rückwärts abgebrochen. Schon stockte ihm das Herz. Die Haut des ganzen Körpers war aufgequollen. Da ertönte eine Stimme, schauerlicher als die des Hierophanten bei den Mysterien. War es die eines Gottes, die eines Sterbenden? Das gänzlich erschöpfte Pferd wankte noch einmal nach vorwärts, dann blieb es, als seien die Sehnen seiner Knie zerschnitten, jäh an einen spitzen Felsen gelehnt stehen. Der blutige Schaum tropfte hörbar aus seinem Maul auf den Boden. Seine Haut erzitterte, dann rührte es sich nicht mehr. Im Stehen verendete es, erstarrte es.
Charmides ließ sich herabgleiten. Er wollte rufen. Indem er den Mund öffnete, bemerkte er mit namenlosem Entsetzen, daß die Luft auf seinen Lippen keinen Klang gab. Er warf seine Arme über den Rücken des Pferdes und legte die Stirn auf die noch dampfende Weiche. Ein letztes Bild sah sein innerlich brechendes Auge: die rosig goldenen Hügel am Strand von Ambrakia, dort wo die Heimat war.“

 

 
Jakob Wassermann (10 maart 1873 – 1 januari 1934)
Cover

 

De Vlaamse dichter en schrijver Karel van de Woestijne werd geboren te Gent op 10 maart 1878. Zie ook alle tags voor Karel van de Woestijne op dit blog.

 

O God, ik heb de geur der vlieren om me henen

O God, ik heb de geur der vlieren om me henen,
en mijn hart – God, gij kent zijn lijden, en Ge weet
hoe vaak het, schoon gelate’, in pijn zijn dagen leed -,
is als een appel-boom, met pralend licht omschenen,
die blij zijn branken breidt, waar roze en blank verenen
hun perel-kleuren in ’t teer weemlend bloemen-kleed…
Zo is mijn vrucht-zwaar hart een vreugde-boom, en breed
is om zijn kruin de vlieren-geur’ge dag verschenen.

O God, die glanzend thans van aangezichte zijt
bij deze zomer-dag vol rechte honig-geuren;

Gij, die Uw rijke hand ter zegeninge breidt
en mij naar ’t hel gelaat des zomers ’t hoofd liet beuren,

– o God, maak mijne dage’ éen dag als dezen, wijd
gelijk een groot paleis met zonnig-open deuren…

 

Ik ben de hazel-noot

Ik ben de hazel-noot. – Een bleke, weke made
bewoont mijn kamer, en die blind is, en die knaagt.
Ik ben die van mijn zaad een duisternis verzade.
En ‘k word een leêgt’, die klaagt noch vraagt.

‘k Verlaat me-zelf; ‘k lijd aan me-zelven ijle schade.
Ik ben ’t aanhoudend maal, in een gesloten kring,
van ene domme, duldeloze, ondankb’re made.
Maar raak’ de vinger van een kind me, dat me rade:
hij hoort mijn holte; ik luid; ik zing.

 

De stille zonne daar ik zit

De stille zonne daar ik zit, voor mijne woning,
in de oude lijste van een groene en rode veil;
van al de bloemen op mijn mond de milde honing,
en in mijn hart van al de dagen ’t vrome heil;

een witte roze aan mijne krage, en voor mijne ogen
de weiden en de Leië in lage zonne-brand;
van mijne vrouwe in mij het zorgend mededogen,
en van mijn zoontje op mijne wang de koele hand;

– ik voel een rijpe traan diep uit mijn binnenst rijzen
van verre heimwee en gevréesd geluk, misschien;
‘k laat op mijn moede oog de lange wimpers dijzen;
– maar als ik ze open, zult ge er zonnen stralen zien…

 

 
Karel van de Woestijne (10 maart 1878 – 24 augustus 1929)
Portret door Henri van Straten, 1937

 

De Franse schrijfster en performance artieste Chloé Delaume werd geboren als Nathalie Dalain op 10 maart 1973 in Parijs. Zie ook alle tags voor Cloé Delaume op dit blog

Uit: Des jeunes modernes (Orphan Twist)

« Je suis Yves Adrien qui apprend la mort de Sid Vicious. Je suis la place de la Concorde envahie par un million de spectateurs pour le concert de Jean-Michel Jarre. Je suis donc un record mondial mais je n’aime pas trop m’en venter. Je suis l’inauguration du Forum des Halles par le maire de Paris, Jacques Chirac. Je suis l’ouverture à Strasbourg du premier de Mac Donald’s en France. Je suis le suicide du sociologue marxiste Nikos Poulantzas. Je suis l’assassinat de Pierre Goldman revendiqué par Honneur de la Police. Je suis l’affaire des diamants de Bokassa et les chargeurs vidés dans le corps de Mesrine. Je suis la renaissance du magazine Actuel. Je suis 1979, la voix de Jean-François Bizot : les années 80 seront actives, technologiques et gaies. Je suis l’avènement au pouvoir de Margaret Thatcher, et je suis le dollar qui tombe à quatre francs.
Wänx n’était qu’une machine, mais je la regardais comme aucun homme ne regarda jamais une femme. Je suis Anne qui cherchait l’amour dans les riffs sombres de Donatien. Je suis la première édition des Rencontres Transmusicales de Rennes. Je suis encore avant octobre, je ne suis pas encore mythomane, je suis déjà un artefact, je suis un amour de dessert. Wänx n’était qu’une machine, mais je la regardais comme aucun homme ne regarda jamais une femme. Je suis la môme kaléidoscope, je suis Mannequin dans la vitrine, je porte en mon sein l’Ombre jaune, mon âme est un palace, mon cœur est rose bonbon. Ce qui s’irradie du jukebox pendant que Pia et Arja meurent, à l’infini, au creux de moi, c’est un séisme acidulé qui s’achèvera longtemps après, doux comme un naufrage en hiver. Je suis l’orée d’une nouvelle ère et toute une époque mise en scène. Je suis Neü, New, Novö : 250 mg de modernité.
Pia et Arja posent en confiance. Elles savent combien les flashs sont aussi beaux qu’une balle. Elles sont déjà prêtresses des médiatisations. Le démon et l’ange chapeauté, hôtesses de nuit ou d’un drôle d’air qui déjà était corrodé. Je n’ai eu le temps de t’aimer. Elles sont toutes les deux gantées. Il n’y a rien à faire oublier. Les gants ornementaux datent en Europe du XIIIe siècle.”

 

 
Chloé Delaume (Parijs, 10 maart 1973)

 

De Duitse dichter, vertaler en filosoof Karl Wilhelm Friedrich von Schlegel werd geboren op 10 maart 1772 in Hannover. Zie ook alle tags voor Friedrich Schlegel op dit blog.

 

Calderon

Ein Zaubergarten liegt im Meeresgrunde;
Kein Garten, nein, aus künstlichen Krystallen
Ein Wunderschloß, wo blitzend von Metallen,
Die Bäumchen sprossen aus dem lichten Grunde;

Kein Meer, wo oben, seitwärts, in die Runde,
Farbige Flammenwogen uns umwallen,
Doch kühlend, duftend alle Sinne allen
Entrauben, süß umspielend jede Wunde.

Nicht Zaub′rer bloß von diesen Seligkeiten,
Bezaubert selbst wohnet, zum schönsten Lohne,
Im eignen Garten selig selbst der Meister;

Drum sollen alle Feen auch bereiten
Des Dichterhimmels diamantne Krone,
Dir, Calderon! du Sonnenstrahl der Geister.

 

Der welke Kranz

Es war noch Mai, da hast du sie gebrochen,
In Blumen ausgesprochen, selber Blüte,
Was blühend im Gemüte schon sich regte,
Und heilig sich bewegte,
Was kindlich ach! der Freund so gerne hegte,
Wenn sie ihr Herzchen legte an das seine,
Wo ich nun ewig weine.
Die Veilchen sandte mir das Kind zum Zeichen,
Die so mein Herz erweichen, daß die Augen
Den Schmerz, den sie nun saugen, nie vollenden,
Sich oft noch zu ihr wenden,
Und finden welk den Kranz dann in den Händen.
Wie der, hat sie zu enden früh erkoren,
Sich unbewußt verloren.
Nimm hin die hohe köstlich liebe Gabe,
Das einz’ge, was ich habe von der Teuern,
Ihr Bild mir zu erneuern, wenn in Tränen,
Dem Tode zu das Sehnen
So gern entflieht der Erde eitlem Wähnen.
Doch erst laß mich in Tränen ganz versenken
Das süße Angedenken!
Uns, die in Lust des Todes Leben fanden,
Kühn die Natur verstanden in den Flammen,
Wo Lieb’ und Schmerz zusammen uns verbunden;
Uns sei die Stirn umwunden,
Vom Zeichen, dessen Sinn wir längst gefunden.
Denn sproßten aus den Wunden oft nicht Rosen,
Uns schmerzlich liebzukosen?
Laß denn des Mädchens Schatten uns umschweben,
Der Wehmut hingegeben,
Bis wir im Tode Eins noch inn’ger leben,
Und dann dies tiefe Streben ganz vereinet,
Das lächelnd sich beweinet.

 

 
Friedrich von Schlegel (10 maart 1772 – 11 januari 1829)
Hannover, centrum

 

Zie voor nog meer schrijvers van de 10e maart ook mijn vorige blog van vandaag.

Zie voor bovenstaande schrijvers ook mijn blog van 10 maart 2007 en ook mijn blog van 10 maart 2008 en eveneens mijn blog van 10 maart 2009.

John Rechy, Hilde Van Cauteren, Joseph von Eichendorff, Jakob Wassermann, Karel van de Woestijne, Chloé Delaume, Friedrich Schlegel

De Amerikaanse schrijver John Rechy werd geboren op 10 maart 1934 in El Paso, Texas. Zie ook alle tags voor John Rechy op dit blog.

Uit: Bodies and Souls

« Jesse James grasped the iron bars of the main gate, as if looking into an opulent prison, A guard approached, and he let go. In substitute defiance, he pushed his cowboy hat forward, squinting up. His brown eyes fixed on the crotch of one of the female statues; he felt a stirring between his long, lean legs. “I didn’t say it looks like the house in Gone with the Wind, I said it reminds me,” Lisa upheld. She took another delicious lick, close to the last, of a Baskin-Robbins ice-cream cone, flavor of the week, vanilla-pistachio. Some of it dripped onto her chest; she captured the melting sweetness with a finger and poked it into her mouth. Her breasts were becoming roundly full; because she was slender, and shorter than the five-foot-six she claimed, they appeared lush. She was blessed with truly violet eyes—and thick dark eyelashes, although her hair, worn loose and to her shoulders, was brown, auburn in spring, streaked blond by summer. In Mundelein, Illinois, she had wanted to be a movie star; she no longer cared about that, or about anything else. “Doesn’t it remind you of Gone with the Wind?’ she asked Orin. Orin stood very straight glaring at the gutted mansion—as close as he could come to it from the sidewalk. There were times when he looked like a grown Huckleberry Finn—reddish blond hair, mischievous blue eyes, lanky angular body neither short nor tall, just slightly too thin, a fair, almost translucent complexion unmarred by freckles. Then unexpectedly a somber look might push away the boyish smile, extend the tilt of his eyes—suddenly haunted eyes—and dark semicircles would deepen under them; a moody beauty would emerge, along with the impression of darkness—despite the glowing hair, the clear eyes so moistly blue at times they seemed to weep without tears. Approaching twenty-five, he aged or grew younger in alternating moods. Now he stared intensely at the naked statues on the aging lawn. His fair eyebrows knotted. In answer to Lisa’s question, he shrugged and shook his head. “My God, you didn’t see it?” Lisa said. “I thought everybody had.” She took the last bite of her cone, not swallowing it, letting the cream thaw slowly in her mouth, preserving the wonderful flavor. What it was gone, she said, “I’d like to go through all thirty-one Baskin-Robbins flavors.” She tasted her lips for any lingering sweetness. “Wouldn’t it be something to change names, like the ice-cream flavor of the week? Could I change my name each day, Orin?” she asked. “Sure,” Orin said. »

 

 
John Rechy (El Paso, 10 maart 1934)

Lees verder “John Rechy, Hilde Van Cauteren, Joseph von Eichendorff, Jakob Wassermann, Karel van de Woestijne, Chloé Delaume, Friedrich Schlegel”

John Rechy, Joseph von Eichendorff, Hilde Van Cauteren, Jakob Wassermann, Karel van de Woestijne, Chloé Delaume, Friedrich Schlegel, Boris Vian, Manolis Anagnostakis

De Amerikaanse schrijver John Rechy werd geboren op 10 maart 1934 in El Paso, Texas. Zie ook alle tags voor John Rechy op dit blog.

Uit: Bodies and Souls

“Ten days before the slaughter on the freeways, and on an afternoon in late spring, early summer, Orin, Lisa, and Jesse James stood before the gates of an abandoned mansion on Sunset Boulevard in Beverly Hills. Many tourists milled about the notorious house. From behind the elaborate gates, burly guards stares at the game sweaters.
Although unpredictable, June is often murky, even cool; but a Southern California day can go through a mild version of the four seasons-the blue coolness of morning moving to sweaty warmth. Today in that seasonless month, a breeze containing a hint of heat kept the smog against the watery horizon of an azure sky.
“It reminds me of Tara in Gone with the Wind,” Lisa said. She had just turned eighteen. She had a prettiness saved from cuteness and nudged toward beauty by a full, sensual mouth.
She had cultivated a crooked half-smile like Lauren Bacall’s in To Have and Have Not.
You’re crazy,” Jesse James laughed. The jagged angles of his twenty-one-year-old face gave him a composite handsomeness his individual features did not possess. Under his cowboy hat, darkish hair licked his forehead. He opened another button of his shirt, exposing his chest to more sun. “Gone with the Wind had tall columns, and it sure didn’t have those statues.”
Beyond the iron-grill fencing of intricate fleurs-de-lis looping over stone-embossed walls, the mansion is painted green, smeared now by buried smoke. A large tree, killed by fire, lies over a long veranda. Statues of naked bodies line the cracked balustrade. muscular figures of men, curved bodies of women, almost life-size, once painted in flesh tones, with rosy lips and cheeks and eyelashed tinted eyes, and pubic hair, drawn black and realistic. Now the colored bodies are faded; only the painted hair over exposed genitals remains bold and dark. Defiantly the mansion faces the strip of coiffed grass that divides the wide boulevard as it curves and swerves along miles of green, flowered wealth and stops far away in Malibu at the frothing edge of the Pacific Ocean.”

 

 
John Rechy (El Paso, 10 maart 1934)
In 1963

Lees verder “John Rechy, Joseph von Eichendorff, Hilde Van Cauteren, Jakob Wassermann, Karel van de Woestijne, Chloé Delaume, Friedrich Schlegel, Boris Vian, Manolis Anagnostakis”

John Rechy, Joseph von Eichendorff, Friedrich Schlegel, Jakob Wassermann, Hilde Van Cauteren, Karel van de Woestijne

De Amerikaanse schrijver John Rechy werd geboren op 10 maart 1934 in El Paso, Texas. Zie ook alle tags voor John Rechy op dit blog.

Uit: City of Night

“And so Main Street is an anarchy where the only rule is Make It!
And the only reminders of the world beyond its boundaries are thepolicewagons that cruise the streets-the cops that pick you at random out of Hooper’s all-night coffee shop after 2:00 in the morning . The free jammed ride to the glasshouse for fingerprints…
Rock-n-roll sounds fill the rancid air.
This was the world I joined.
A couple of blocks away from Main Street, on Spring-squashed on either side by gray apartment buildings (walls greasy from days of cheap cooking, cobwebbed lightbulbs feebly hiding in opaque darkness, windowscreens if any smooth as velvet with grime-where queens and hustlers and other exiles hibernate)-just beyond the hobo cafeteria where panhandlers hang dismally outside in the cruel neonlight (fugitives from the owlfaces of the Salvation Army fighting Evil with no help from God or the cops; fugitives from Uplifting mission-words and lambstew) -is the 1-2-3.
Outside, a cluster of pushers gather like nervous caged monkeys, openly offering pills and maryjane thrills, and you see them scurrying antlike to consult with Dad-o, the Negro king of downtown smalltime pushers-and Dad-o, sitting royally at the bar like a heap of very black shiny dough, says yes or no arbitrarily.
And that is the way it is.
I saw Miss Destiny again one Saturday night at the 1-2-3. And that is when it swings.
“Oooee …” she squealed. “I wondered where you were, baby, and I have thought about you-and thought, why hes gone already-Escaped! -and oh Im so glad youre not, and come here, I want you to meet my dear sistuhs and their boyfriends-” being, naturally, the downtown queens and hustlers who are Miss Destiny’s friends.”

 

 
John Rechy (El Paso, 10 maart 1934)
Cover

Lees verder “John Rechy, Joseph von Eichendorff, Friedrich Schlegel, Jakob Wassermann, Hilde Van Cauteren, Karel van de Woestijne”

John Rechy, Joseph von Eichendorff, Friedrich Schlegel, Jakob Wassermann, Hilde Van Cauteren, Karel van de Woestijne

De Amerikaanse schrijver John Rechy werd geboren op 10 maart 1934 in El Paso, Texas. Zie ook alle tags voor John Rechy op dit blog.

Uit: The Life and Adventures of Lyle Clemens

“A grand hotel, aptly named the Texas Grand Hotel, continued to assert a stubborn pride in its Spanish terra cotta architecture and its ornate dining room. Bonnie and Clyde stayed there one night-“before their bloodiest raid.” So did Judy Garland and Clark Gable-“separately”-on their way to the mineral springs in the nearby City of Mineral Wells. The hotel remained almost guestless now, new travelers choosing to stay in one of several motels that border the main highway with sizzling electric signs.
During two occasions, the Texas Grand sprang to full life-when its chandeliered dining room was taken over for “big weddings” and when its rooms were occupied by evangelical preachers here for the twice-a-year Gathering of Souls, a loud, quivery orgy of sermons and healings held at the local Pentecostal Hall and later televised through a mega-network of stations headquartered at the Lord’s Headquarters in Anaheim, California.
(…)

Lyle Clemens’s journey to become the Mystery Cowboy who appeared naked on Hollywood Boulevard might be said to have begun years before his birth, perhaps during a certain time of the year when Eulah Love, Sylvia’s mother, prepared to speak in tongues at the Gathering of Souls. An isolated unhappy woman with no friends, often glowering at her daughter as if she did not recognize her but was nevertheless angry at her, Eulah left her small house only to attend religious meetings, and when otherwise necessary. As if to underscore her drab existence, dry vines drooped over her house-a cluster of feeble green here and there struggling out-only in summer-in contrast to the tidiness of other houses nearby.
Why her mother was so hostile to her was a mystery to Sylvia from as far back as she could remember. Even an ordinary child’s question would arouse her ire.
“Why did you name me Sylvia?”
“Because it’s a name.”
“Why is our last name Love?”
“Ha!” Eulah laughed without mirth.
Eulah’s revival meetings terrified Sylvia and had made her wonder, at a very early age, what kind of God would inspire such frightening shrieks and trembling.”

 

 
John Rechy (El Paso, 10 maart 1934)

Lees verder “John Rechy, Joseph von Eichendorff, Friedrich Schlegel, Jakob Wassermann, Hilde Van Cauteren, Karel van de Woestijne”

John Rechy, Joseph von Eichendorff, Friedrich Schlegel, Jakob Wassermann, Hilde Van Cauteren, Karel van de Woestijne

De Amerikaanse schrijver John Rechy werd geboren op 10 maart 1934 in El Paso, Texas. Zie ook alle tags voor John Rechy op dit blog.

Uit: Coming of the Night

“There was also this to account for the sexual demand he welcomed. The day itself—the impression from last night had been confirmed—was ready for celebration, heated with those winds that were supposed to arouse tensions, and—he’d heard this—violence, but who wanted that? Whatever the truth, Jesse knew that the Sant’Anas charged the night with sexual fever.
And sex was everywhere!
There were hunky guys on every corner. You didn’t even have to go home with a guy, if you didn’t want to. There were cruisy places all over where you could make out, right there, all hours—bars, baths, even some streets—and you could move from one person to another, have several at the same time. Not that he wouldn’t ever want to go home with one guy again. Sure, that was fine, having sex several times with one person—or two—but there was a time for that, and a time when you needed more.
Music—that’s what would start this magical day on its way. He riffled among his collection of albums. Van Halen—which song? “Everybody Wants Some.” True, and more than some. “Loss of Control.” Yes!
The agitated strum of a guitar, a howl or a siren, laughter—a bomb or a roaring motorcycle. His sweat-stained briefs pasted to his body, he gyrated to the record’s opening explosion. Who needed control?
Without altering his fast rhythm, he let the next song play out its funky tune, about—what else?—love, love turning tragic.
Tragic? Who needed tragic.
He stopped the record abruptly. He needed something else to set this special day on its way—the song he’d danced to, and shouted out phrases from, when it first came out last year, the beginning of the eighties, the beginning of his life. The song’s words had seemed to announce the vista opening before him—of bars, sex, dancing, sex, great times, sex, partying, sex, great sex, sex— Ugh for straight music, with all those sappy songs. The stuff they played in gay bars said something, really told it, knew what it was all about. He found the album, the song he was looking for, Kool and the Gang and “Celebration.” All right!”

 

 
John Rechy (El Paso, 10 maart 1934)
Eind jaren 1960

Lees verder “John Rechy, Joseph von Eichendorff, Friedrich Schlegel, Jakob Wassermann, Hilde Van Cauteren, Karel van de Woestijne”

John Rechy, Joseph von Eichendorff, Friedrich Schlegel, Jakob Wassermann, Hilde Van Cauteren

De Amerikaanse schrijver John Rechy werd geboren op 10 maart 1934 in El Paso, Texas. Zie ook alle tags voor John Rechy op dit blog.

Uit: Coming of the Night

“He was usually alone. By choice. Sure he had friends, lots of them, lots of invitations to parties, but that often put him in a bad situation. Guys he was not attracted to were attracted to him. Those he did have sex with wanted to get together again, and he preferred variety.
There was another reason for his choice to be a loner. He didn’t want guys he went with to know more about him than they needed to know, and that was that he was hot. All he required of his sex partners was that they be lusty-he liked that word-and want what he wanted.
Existing only as you appeared to be-that was another great thing possible in the gay world of cruising. You didn’t have to waste time talking, except to make arrangements about getting together. He loved being a terrific fantasy figure. So why mix things up with identities that didn’t matter? Yes, he’d figured life out-gay life, there was no other.
Jesse welcomed the perspiration that had moistened his shorts and outlined his cock-and especially, he knew as he stood, his buttocks, indenting the crack. He touched himself there and closed his eyes-imagining.
He forced himself not to think now about tonight. He didn’t want to ruin his plan by getting too aroused alone. That would be a waste. Ugh.
What had triggered this huge desire?
It wasn’t unusual for him to feel horny, especially on weekends. Had his plan originated last weekend when he met two hunky guys and went home with them? He had been fucked by both, several times. They took turns entering him, assuming a wonderful rhythm, a couple of thrusts, and then it was the other’s turn for a few more thrusts. There had been hardly a moment that he didn’t have a cock in him, and the brief seconds without added even more sensation when they ended. The two guys had lain back, prone, face up, legs spread, butt against butt, cocks pressed together to form one doubled erection, and he’d lowered himself over it, tantalizing the two guys into believing he would attempt to take them both into him-and he thought about it-but he just remained there, two straining cock-heads quivering at his ass, titillating the downy hairs there. He pushed himself into one of the cocks and then immediately into the other and both guys came in him-wow!-but when he left their house, he felt lustier-and went with another guy and kept wishing for two.”

 

John Rechy (El Paso, 10 maart 1934)

Lees verder “John Rechy, Joseph von Eichendorff, Friedrich Schlegel, Jakob Wassermann, Hilde Van Cauteren”

John Rechy, Joseph von Eichendorff, Friedrich Schlegel, Jakob Wassermann, Hilde Van Cauteren

De Amerikaanse schrijver John Rechy werd geboren op 10 maart 1934 in El Paso, Texas. Zie ook alle tags voor John Rechy op dit blog.

 

Uit: Coming of the Night

„Jesse—”the kid”—woke with one thought on his mind. Today he would do something wild to celebrate one glorious year of being gay—and it was great to be gay and young and good-looking and hot. Of course, his designation of “one year” was not exact. He had been gay from the time he became aware of sex—early—and he had turned twenty-two three days ago, but the celebration he planned came from the fact that he had been able to go into gay bars only for that long. Not that he’d been idle before that. He had had his share of sexual encounters. This special day, his strategy formed, he would charge himself up from morning to earlier night. He would not come until deepest night, and then he would be the hottest ever.

Wild!

In his bedroom in his neat apartment in a court of units surrounding a pool in West Hollywood, Jesse became hard thinking about the prospect. He sat on the edge of his bed wearing only white briefs, now being punched by his aroused cock.

Depending on how he dressed, combed his hair, he could look eighteen, if he wanted. Often, in bars, he would be asked for identification. He was very good-looking—and, even better than that, spectacularly “cute,” a description he welcomed, along with being called “Kid Jesse.” That made him sound like a young outlaw, although, someone once pointed out, he must be confusing Billy the Kid with Jesse James.

Still boyish, but not in the least bit “fem,” he was neither tall nor short. His blue eyes were rendered clearer by dark eyelashes, and his streaked blond hair was just long enough to allow an occasional strand to fall over his forehead. Thank God femmish long hair was going out of style among gay guys. Checking himself out in the mirror of a bar, he knew he looked sensational.

An expert gymnast in school, he did not work out with weights, like other gay men were doing. He ran, biked, swam. That kept his body tight, fabulously defined. He ate only good healthful food, didn’t do drugs, and he slept a full eight hours each night, except, of course, when, real late, the cruising just kept getting better. He had a natural glow that courted a perfect tan in summer—now. The tan accentuated glistening hairs that coated his legs, which he showed off by wearing shorts as long as the weather allowed, into the beginning of winter, and even during winter in Southern California.“

 

John Rechy (El Paso, 10 maart 1934)

Lees verder “John Rechy, Joseph von Eichendorff, Friedrich Schlegel, Jakob Wassermann, Hilde Van Cauteren”

Hilde Van Cauteren

De Vlaamse dichteres Hilde Van Cauteren werd geboren 10 maart 1967 Hamme. Van Cauteren studeerde aan Sint-Lucas in Gent en werkte een aantal jaren in lager en middelbaar onderwijs. Zij was jarenlang vrijwillig lesgever bij verschillende verenigingen. Daarnaast is Hilde Van Cauteren (voor Groen!) actief bezig met lokale politiek. Van Cauteren schrijft behalve poëzie ook proza. Zij is lid van de dichtersgroep Pazzi di Parole en behaalde met haar gedichten verschillende nominaties en prijzen. Voor de jeugd schreef zij „Het Naveltheater“, een roman over theater, vrijheid en gelijke rechten.

Verbeter mij

want men zei me dat ik een meisje was
en vroeg me of ik daar blij mee was
en of ik dan alle dagen op tijd
voor het eten zou zorgen.

En men zei dat ik onderdanig was
en geneigd om te volgen en dat ik
zou vloeien. Met regelmaat, en discreet
onder mijn rokken. Verbeter mij

want ik heb een naakte achterkant,
een rusteloos profiel en ik durf
op tafel slaan, zonder dat er deeg
ligt om te kneden, en ik kijk niet

altijd naar beneden. Verbeter mij,
als mijn blik te wild wordt of mijn tong
te scherp. Als de onrust van het vlees
mijn zinnen binnen dringt, verbeter mij.

Hilde Van Cauteren (Hamme, 10 maart 1967)