City of Legends

Occasional muse and good friend of mine Mariya Andriichuk pleasantly surprised me earlier today by launching her website, which includes several of the poems that I have written out of inspiration for ther lovely works.

Please pay her a visit, with the caveat that there is substantial nudity in her works and if you are offended by such things, you may not be comfortable.

Here is one of her inspiring works, entitled "God’s Care".

The site can be found at:

http://www.ladymartist.com/

Okay, time for our semi-annual ritual of rumour control. 

Very simple. 

I am not currently engaged, about to get engaged, secretly married to or anything else.  I am still ronin and that’s the current battle plan.

There are women I enjoy the company of, but I’ve learned a valuable lesson:  Even the best intentioned people don’t always know what they want.  That includes me, and the vast majority of women I have known in this life (I extrapolate that most fit the mold).

Yes, I have good friends and those who inspire me.  My most excellent friend Jazz (whom you may also know as nightblooming or Huerta), from whose playful work with the English language I take the word in the title you scratched your head at.  We have known each other for almost a decade, and she has even been the cover of one of my CDs.  We’ve flirted, and I have even used her as a muse in absentia of a primary one being in my life.  And make no mistake, I do find her adorable, and intriguing, she’s a very terrific woman (and tall, she’s sort of a Hispanic version of Brigit).  If the mothership returned tonight and said I could only take one with me, she’d probably be the first number I call…she just probably wouldn’t answer, being out in a mosh pit somewhere.  I’m not kidding.  She’s an accomplished rock bassist and writes some seriously demented poetry. 

There’s Liza, whose photography sometimes shows up here, on williamfdevault.com and the Amomancer blog.  Charming, brilliant, talented and sexy as only a Brazilian fireball can be.  The realities of geography and the chronography makes it extremely unlikely that I will ever fill a role in her life other than a counseling uncle, but I do adore her.  Much the same for Mariya, again a long-distance flirtation with many poetic works sparked by her fearless artistic photography.  But, last time I checked, she had a boyfriend and contrary to the mythology, if a woman tells me (not if the man tells me, as people don’t own people) that she is in a relationship, she is off limits.

For now I am left to my adorisimz (the word Jazz coined for our style of mock fighting with compliments), my memories and several decades of genetically ordained indestructibility.  By the time Shelley was my age he had been decomposing for almost three decades.  Urgh.

Besides, who knows what will be coming at me from an unexpected quarter (gratuitous book plug).  My first serious relationship came out of a chance meeting at an airport that ended with me falling down an escalator.  My first wife, I met while I was engaged to another (the one I fell down the escalator over).  My second wife, I met on an airplane and was dating only women at the time.  And these aren’t the weirdest cases.  I accept the fact that the thunderbolt chooses its own time and place to strike.  I just grit my teeth and hope I don’t disintegrate in the firestorm.

My phone could literally ring right now with a new opportunity or someone of my past yearnings, re-entering the orbit of my life.  When the jolt comes, expect me to seize on with both hands, my toes, teeth and eyelashes, and to write of what it does to me, for good or for ill.  I will welcome such an adventure with open arms and seek to carry it with me the remainder of my days, being faithful and monogamous, and maybe taking my time to give her a book cover.  I’ve put 4-1/2 women on book covers (the Panther, the Leopard, nightblooming, the Goldenheart and Aubergine (looking around) I don’t see any of them hanging around.  Jazz suggests, rather snarkily, that maybe I attract women who are seeking immortality, but not the immortalizer.  Hrm.

So to recap:  Not involved with anyone right now.  The poetic works you are seeing springing anew are being inspired my memories and speculations and the occasional sense of awe at the writings or artwork of someone I feel resonance with.  In the last few years there’s been a few near-misses, and one resounding long-distance collision (is that even possible?), but right now, in my soul of souls, I am in solitude, romantically, and it is not a bad place to be.   I am learning to accept and respect the role of the ronin, the integrity of who I am.

It is uncomplicated. No illusions, no doubts, no trust issues.  I used to get up at ridiculous hours of the morning or stay up half the night to be a human alarm clock or comfort food to the passion du jour.  Now I am more self-contained, more self-aware.  I have found some answers I did not think were knowable.  I have written things I would have not been able to a decade ago.

I have not lost faith in love, in romance, in faith itself.  Don’t worry about me.  I’m just getting started.

Stopping only for a soda run, to play with the hyperactive Great Pyrenees that shares my bedroom, and to fill out the interview question answers for WhoHub, I have made massive strides towards the finish line of the new CD (TRUTH).

Vampyr came out very nice, with a rich darkness that layers well on the romantic and erotic subtext.

Faith Healer is needing a slight tweak, but I walked away from it when I lost the forest for the trees, and am finishing up "…Fields of Arbol".

I also found a nugget that I had bumped from a previous CD to add to the mix.

Don’t be surprised if I open the doors for a few selected readers tomorrow on all tracks, as a preview…or maybe all of you, just for fun.

I am awaiting Mariya’s approval on the cover.  It is, after all, her face and body and photographic artistry.  It’s nice her skills and talents complement mine.

I said I would, or might, share the titular track from my next CD, TRUTH, with you here.

So, here it  is.

TRUTH

And yes, I am working of several possible cover designs for the CD, featuring the photography of Mariya Andriychuk, if I can just get her to keep some clothes on long enough…or not.  Maybe it is time I really put out some naked reads.

My friend and occasional muse, Mariya, posted a self-portrait on a site we both frequent and it inspired the following poem. I’d post the picture here, but I am trying to keep to a PG-13 rating. She loved the poem, I am grateful for the inspiration.

Sensible Horizon

I want to see beyond the edge of the world
leaving behind the sensible horizon
to reach for all I ever wanted, all that haunted me
when a child, dreaming of where I would be
one day, when grown and owning my destiny.
The sun touches me and I feel it warm me.
The light like a lover’s hands, never tired
of touching me to tell me of desire constant.
The heat, like earnest words and thoughts
given to me to bear me to the edge of the world,
to the sensible horizon, where there you wait.

William F. DeVault. all rights reserved.

My true love gave to me…

8 angels singing…

Thanks to my angel, Mariya, for her continued contribution in this whim of mine.  This photo of her, and subsequent photo manipulation, is one we have discussed using as a book cover.

On the Third Day of Christmas my true love gave to me

three soft hugs

…

Infinite thanks to Mariya Andriychuk for her contribution of her self and her photography to Day Three…

Just an announcement. I am beginning the revisions to williamfdevault.com to pull it into a fuller configuration, with more graphics, more recordings and downloadable texts.

I have just "closed escrow" with my gifted and lovely friend, Ukrainian photographer Mariya Andryichuk, to provide the primary photos for the flavour of the site, you’ll understand more clearly once it is up and flying. Many, many thanks to her. You can check out some of her portfolio at deviantart.com, just be aware that some of her work on that site is comprised of nudes and will be blacked out if you are not a member (membership is free).

Mariya has contributed previously to all my sites and works as a freelance photographer and graphics designer. No, there is no "personal connection" involved. Nyah! That is her work and her, in the flesh, in the enclosed picture.

I am looking forward to pulling focus on this move and am grateful to Mariya for her enthusiasm and inspiration.