The new Banner
Posted by William F. DeVault | Filed under Uncategorized
Thank you my most beloved Candy, for all the hard work you have put in to making my blog looking positively navigable. You are a miracle worker.
To those of you who are wondering what the hell all the pictures are that are in the new banner to this blog, here’s the breakdown (left to right):
The covers of my books
101 Great Love Poems. I designed the cover of this volume, still my only book available in both softcover and hardcover editions…
Ronin in the Temple of Aphrodite is one of my few books I am truly happy with, the cover was designed by myself (I even took the photo) and it features my friend Sarah Chadwick, photographed in front of the cracked glass wall at Dorsey’s Knob, just outside of Morgantown, West Virginia…
Love Gods of a Forgotten Religion features a cover photo of my second wife, Ann, taken by the marvelous Stephanie Fenter, and contains some of my better works…
from an unexpected quarter also has a cover featuring my second wife, Ann (the original cover design was too provocative and for once I gave in to the publisher). It is a very uneven volume, some great individual works, but some filler as well…
The Compleat Panther Cycles is my massive coffee-table book of the 640+ poems that comprise the panther cycles. The cover and inside artwork features alt-rock model Jillian Ann and the book itself is huge (not to scale in picture)…
The Morgantown Suite Poems has a cover photo of me by noted news and feature photographer Ron Rittenhouse. The book is a pleasant diversion back to my roots…
me in a shot I call my “California headshot”. The filtering made my hair look blonde (never!), and Candy insisted I use it here…
Amomancer (nightblooming), Nemicorn, The Naked Reads and The Last Romantic Verb (clockwise from upper left) are four of my CDs. I couldn’t leave them out…
Invocato is by a substantial margin the book I am most satisfied with. Don’t bother looking at your local bookstore, I chose to, at least for now, leave this “greatest works” volume an orphan the the ISBN distribution channels, although the clever amongst you can find it at lulu.com…
PanthEon was my first book, and thank you, Lauri, for convincing me to forget my prejudice against mainstream publishing and allow you to produce it. The cover is a self-portrait of the Panther (I should have known the relationship wasn’t going to last when she charged me to use the image…)
Candy Tothill, who is not only beautiful, but clever, competent and kind beyond words.
So there you have it…
Centaur at archive.org
Posted by William F. DeVault | Filed under Uncategorized
I failed to post the archive.org page for “Centaur”, in case you want it in a higher resolution or variant format for listening or downloading:
William F. DeVault’s Centaur at archive.org
Life is a cup of hot jasmin tea
Posted by William F. DeVault | Filed under Uncategorized
I was asked for input into what would be the final poem of the year (and the 97th post) in the Amomancer blog, and assented to the choice of my 2005 work “Perhaps there are yet panthers”. Despite my disappointment in the woman who inspired the works that are practically synonymous with my reputation, the Panther Cycles, I respect that poem. It speaks to who I am, having come at a time of great disillusionment, but expressing the hope that there should be someone out there for everyone, including me.
Yeah, I mean you Jaz. Having garnered your sister’s vote, do you think I will call it a day and retire my suit? Ha!
Yesterday I was asked who my favourite muse of all time was for my works. An unfair question. But one I felt like answering for the person who asked it, so I did. I think she was mildly shocked at who I named (Who was it? I don’t have to answer that for you…but I will give you a clue, she was quite tall). She was further surprised when I was asked how many muses I’ve had and I told her that there have been but three significant ones, despite E.J.’s insistence upon there having been like 8 major muses and a dozen minor ones. A single poem, a single stone, does not a temple of Aphrodite make. I have not been as promiscuous with my flesh or my heart as those who would benefit from thinking so would tell you.
In a perfect world, a perfect world, I would have married my first real love, Psyche, and that would have ended the path, she was beautiful, wise and brilliant. A great kisser (that’s important, you know), an earnest lover, intellectually passionate and of a sharp humour, she inspired some of my most elemental and enduring works. Without her I would never have become the poet, or the man, for good or for bad, that I am. I owe her infinite thanks. I measure all the women I have been inspired by against her, and most are found sadly lacking. No, it wasn’t her, but I wanted to state that, right here and now.
The New Year is upon us, and it is a time for sober reflection, introspection and mid-course correction.
The hell it is.
I want 110% power on all engines. Next time you see a comet in the night, passing Earth and waving hello as it fills the eye and sky with wonders, that’ll be me.
This is my moment of inertia.
Thanks to Jaz, Sarah, Peri, Elric, Dante, Brian, Jan, the guys in the band, Alan, Stephanie, Maggie, Jennifer, Robert, Tag, Chanda, Kristin, E.J., Nancy, Karla and everyone I am forgetting but will remember later.
One hell of a year, the bar has been set a bit higher for next year. And I’m already taking my running start.
truth…or…daring to be true
Posted by William F. DeVault | Filed under Uncategorized
Had a nice evening last night. No, not evening, night. Er, no…make that morning.
Long and silly story, which I won’t bore you with, but I managed to, in my spare moments, write some scandalously good poetry. So, a little lost sleep is well earned.
One of my companions kept asking me if I was sleepy. I told them I’d rather spend time with them than sleep. I should have said, with that raised eyebrow that indicate “target acquired” that I’d rather sleep with them than spend time, but that might’ve been too corny.
Besides, she knew what was in my heart. In some ways it is nice to be an open book, to have not the little, petty, cowardly secrets that everyone else seems intent on having and keeping and sweeping under the rug. Yes, it is a little scary, but I like the line uttered by George Clooney’s Major Archie Gates in David O. Russell’s classic anti-war film “Three Kings”: “The way it works is, you do the thing you’re scared shitless of, and you get the courage AFTER you do it, not before you do it.”
Confessing affection is scary, breathtakingly so (ask the Mad Gypsy).
What if the other person out of hand rejects you? It happens, it’s happened to me.
What if the other person gets in for reasons other than the happily ever after? It happens, it’s happened to me.
What if you take that leap of faith and not only release your desperate handhold on the rocks of the high cliffs above Kyrienar but press outward with all your might, so there is no hope of brushing a tree or outcropping of rock as you descend for a last ditch stab at survival, to prove how committed you are to this moment, to this paramour in (you hope) waiting? It happens, it has happened to me.
I could live the rest of my life alone, or living on “mosels and mould” and be a traitor to everything I believe in and preach, just as any Christian minister who gets up tomorrow in front of their congregation and praises the execution of Saddam Hussein is a traitor to their faith. The man was guilty, we know. But pragamatism, judgement and Christian values do not belong on the same altar. Read the Bible guys, especially those books after the Maccabees. But, I digress.
Or I choose to live within my principles and beliefs and religion of love and hope and passions immortal. I have spent almost three years in exile. The return of the poet-king was inevitable, but only on my terms. “I will take no pretender, again, to my bed”.
Besides, my readers love this part, most rooting for the happy ending, some rooting for roadkill, like the people who go to NASCAR events not for the competition, but for the accidents.
I do a great flaming chassis impression…SCREEEEEEEEEECH!
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