City of Legends

I have been keeping busy.

A lot of writing.  A lot.  I’ve developed a stiffness in my right thumb from all the writing.  It hurts.

I kicked off a contest on DA (deviantart.com) for artistic interpretations of my poetry.  I’ll show you what comes out of it, next month.

Composing some…interesting…music for the next CD.

And generally riding out the energy flatline that occurs right after a book (loveaddict) comes out.  My first shipment is due in a few days, and it immediately goes out to people…not only advance sales, but also appreciation copies to the cover model (Liza Lorraine) , the muse (Mariya) and the three blurbers (Larry, Dave and Smita…and yes, Dave, your long-awaited copy of The Compleat Panther Cycles will go out with that.  No idea what happened to the first one.).

the sky waits, radiant blue,
for the red you bring with your fire
and I wait, wait for you,
burning with kindled desire.

you burn in colours of a raging soul,
infrared to heat sweetly and completely
consume those brave enough to touch
the flame without shame, moths to die,
frying in a split/second agony of joy
at having found the essence of you.

the sky waits, radiant blue,
for the red you bring with your fire
and I wait, wait for you,
burning with kindled desire.

William F. DeVault.  all rights reserved.

Thanks to the ever-inspirational Mariya for her latest works.

By Monday morning, January 26, 2009, the new CD, TRUTH, will be out, as well as all tracks off of it available through www.williamfdevault.com for those of you too cheap (or wrecked by the economy) to buy it.

The picture is by and of my friend and muse, Ukrainian artist and photographer Mariya Andriychuk, who contributed so much to the development of this CD, and I am eternally grateful.  The CD is dedicated to her for her influence and help.

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.

As you all well know, this is subject to random change. What can I say? I am mercurial, fickle and given to flights of ADD and….ooooh, shiny! Where was I? Ah, yes, the tracks.

(They’re Shooting Monks in) Burma: Protest piece about the violence in Myanmar.

TRUTH: You’ve heard it here. A slam against the geopolitical.

Panther on the Beach: The villanelle that seems to have a life of its own.

Zoloti Vorota: Literally "Golden Gate", a long form built around several poems inspired by the photography of my friend and muse, Mariya Andriychuk.

Vampyr: An erotic piece inspired by Liza Lorraine.

Laying in the Fields of Arbol: A long compilation of many works in the recent collection of works inspired by my beautiful and creative friends.

Faith Healer: The musical and poetic fusion that draws the venom from the wounds.

Yes, you are counting only 7 tracks, that may be all. I might add something more, but both Zoloti Vorota and Laying in the Fields of Arbol are long form, multi-poem compositions.

I am nearing completion of the TRUTH CD and have not yet found that one piece that blows me away, not in the same manner that "Right Set of Lips" or "Wordslinger" do. Knowing me it will come to me out of nowhere and I won’t know it until I’m run over by it.

Despite the fact that my voice is still a bit gravelly from the flu, I’m getting by. The raggedness of my voice just makes for an interesting attitude to my readings and recitations as I lay down the tracks.

Since I am planning to use one of Mariya’s images for the cover, I am going to submit several mock-ups to her and let her pick. That will be interesting, as I have not ceded control to another person in any aspect of my creative life since Aubergine. Time to start trusting people again.

Perhaps I shall do a work based around the theme of trust…the higher you fly the harder you fall but you’re still better off than those who didn’t fly at all…? Trite but if I get intimate to the topic…

I had a nice talk with Liza last night, she always leaves me more intrigued than when the conversation began. I like complicated women, always have, makes me feel like I am having to work hard for what I find. I like the sense of accomplishment. She asked me to tell her a secret. I did. Some real quid pro quo.

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…

Six Kittens Purring…

Thanks again to the lovely Mariya. And, of course, her cat.

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…

As Jay Leno getting a primetime variety show five nights a week is, I am certain, one of the signs of the Apocalypse, perhaps I should post more often to make sure I get everything said that needs said? Is NBC that bereft of new ideas or cash they have to go for this idea? And do they feel the need to scuttle Conan O’Brien in the process? They have to realize the damage this will do to his launch.

Anyway, just a digressive rant before I launch into my latest babble. I just got back from the post office. Yes, it is Christmas time and only the truly desperate and insane go to the post office this time of year, but I had promised Mariya I would send her some of my books as a Christmas present and I have a pretty good track record for at least trying to keep my word over the last decade or so. Yeah, that’s Mariya in the picture. It’s just one of her pictures we’ll be featuring on the Amomancer blog and at williamfdevault.com, for those of you who care. Stop staring.

As I stood in line I was struck by the diversity of the people who were mailing obvious Christmas presents. Old, young, of every nationality and, most likely, every creed, as Christmas is not a religious holiday anymore, at least not in the US, but more of a cultural holiday. Some of the most hardcore Christmas-keepers I know are atheists or at least of a religious bent that they do not believe in Jesus as anything more than a marketing ploy on the level of Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny.

I dare say many of them believe in Energizer Bunny more than they believe in Jesus. But Christmas, in and of itself a bastardization of the Roman Saturnalia feast in order to keep converting members of the Roman polytheistic faiths from missing a big holiday, much as Hanukkah was not a big deal until there was a perceived problem with Christmas becoming an impediment to those who tried to keep their kids in the Jewish faith, is victim of its own successes and excesses.

Aside from a marvelous recitation from the Gospel According to St. Luke by the character of Linus at the end of "Merry Christmas Charlie Brown" and the occasional "God bless" in Dickens’ "A Christmas Carol", where does religion enter into our "keeping of Christmas"? We can buy as many overpriced Christmas cards with crosses on them (and let’s not even get into the perversity of the notion of remembering Jesus by making a graven image of the device that was used to torture Him) but does that really get the message across in this mind-numbing media festival we have made of it?

And no, having Donald Trump and Martha Stewart recite "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus" on a TV advertisement is NOT the spirit of Christmas. Yeah, I know when I think of the real Spirit of Christmas and Christian charity, there’s two people who belong right up there with Mother Theresa and Albert Schweitzer.

As a Southern Baptist turned Quaker (after a very brief stay with the Episcopalians, which almost sounds like a political movement to support a Joe Piscopo/Sarah Palin ticket in 2012 on the web) I have seen a fair range of views on the subject. Is it really offensive enough to those who may be offended by saying "Merry Christmas" or even "Happy Holidays" to forego it? I worked with a woman who took umbrage at my habit of saying "God bless you" when someone coughed. She had nothing against me saying it when someone sneezed, but she went off on me over my saying it to a cough. People who wish to find offense can get offended by anything.

I think people do need to be sensitive to other people’s beliefs, to be sure. But, despite the fact that I am offended by the wearing of idols of torture devices (crosses) and even with Jesus still nailed to it, dying in agony, (crucifixes), you do not see me out on the street, giving lip to everyone who doesn’t see anything wrong with it. We need to learn that the world does not revolve around us, our beliefs, our culture.

Be a little more understanding, a little more accepting. Especially, this time of year! After all, it’s Christmas…er, Kwanzaa…um, Hanukkah…Saturnalia…Solstice? Sheesh.

Peace (disclaimer: My use of the word "peace" is not to be interpreted as an attack on or criticism of the US Military, the Military-Industrial Complex, urban militias, state-sponsored terrorist groups, the films of Sam Peckinpah, or gangs operating out of any neighborhood, city, state or country in or on the Planet Earth or to express any dissatisfaction with the conduct of any invading alien races, up to and including those with god-like technologies and/or tentacles. It is not meant in any way to mock the discrepancy between Christian theology and US foreign policy or to make issue of the military career of Alvin York or the post-football career of OJ Simpson. If you have read this far you may need to get a life but if you have read this and understand all the references and subreferences included in this disclaimer you are a good person and should be applauded, even if I disagree with your political, sociological, philosophical or theological belief system and I will defend your right to hold, espouse and express it.) Selah. Now stop staring at Mariya, you’re making her nervous.