letter to my sweet-smelling woman waiting
text by tom sheehan
published 21 february 2008
originally published by retort magazine
 
the self expressed | volume 1 number 5
 
"Stories are living and dynamic. Stories exist to be exchanged. They are the currency of Human Growth." -Jean Houston
 
published since April 2007 | The Self Expressed is a collection of creative texts.
 
 

Tom Sheehan’s Epic Cures, (short stories), from Press 53 won a 2006 IPPY Award from Independent Publisher. A Collection of Friends, (memoirs), 2004 from Pocol Press, was nominated for PEN America Albrand Award for the Art of the Memoir). His fourth poetry book, This Rare Earth & Other Flights, issued by Lit Pot Press, 2003. He has nominations for eight Pushcart Prizes and two Million Writers Awards, a Silver Rose Award from ART for short story excellence, and many Internet appearances. He is a veteran of the Korean War (31st Infantry Regiment), a Boston College graduate after Army service, and is retired.

 
 

René François Ghislain Magritte (21 November 1898 – 15 August 1967) was a Belgian surrealist artist. He became well known for a number of witty and amusing images.

 
Magritte was born in Lessines, in the province of Hainaut, in 1898, the eldest son of Léopold Magritte, a tailor, and Adeline, a milliner. He began drawing lessons in 1910. In 1912, his mother committed suicide by drowning herself in the River Sambre. Magritte was present when her body was retrieved from the water. The image of his mother floating, her dress obscuring her face, may have influenced a 1927-1928 series of paintings of people with cloth obscuring their faces, including Les Amants, but Magritte disliked this explanation. He studied at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels for two years until 1918. In 1922 he married Georgette Berger, whom he had met in 1913.
 
Popular interest in Magritte's work rose considerably in the 1960s, and his imagery has influenced pop, minimalist, and conceptual art. -Wikipedia
 
 
 

 
 
Advanced Notions (various)
formerly patsymooreDOTcoms Bonus Writings; insightful and inciting literature from artists and about art
 
Amsterdam Dispatch (Karin Bos)
an insider's look at the art scene and artist life in Amsterdam
 
The Art of Fiction (Peter Quinones)
reviews of timeless literature
author interviews
 
bohoTV (various)
noteworthy Arts-centric viral video
 
Cambridge Letters (Kym Cooper-Rodgers)
reports about art scenes abroad
(9/2004-12/2005)
 
Deleted Scenes (Stuart Chait)
a guide to the great cinema and television you're missing
 
Design Psychology (Jeanette Joy Fisher)
a look at how design elements contribute to happiness, well-being, and productivity
(7/2005-3/2007)
 
The Iraq Watch Papers (various)
observations on war and peace
(3/2003-7/2006)
 
Lessons in Creativity (Linda Dessau)
self-care tips for artists
 
London Letters (Shakila Taranum Maan)
reports about the London arts scene and design
 
On Books (Tim Haigh)
book criticism
 
Paris: Vie et Art (Francis Powell)
an insider's look at the art scene and artist life in The City of Light
 
Portrait of the Artist (various)
a gallery of work by compelling visualists
 
Rake on Music (Jamie Lee Rake)
your map to the music underground
 
Savor (Brian Parker)
a passionate survey of food and cooking
 
The Self Expressed (various)
creative writing
 
Special Assignment (various)
profiles and interviews
 
Tending the Planet (Alyssa Stebbing)
ruminations on social responsibility and spiritual life
 
Thus Spake Fred (Fred Clark)
smart, witty examinations of socio-political issues
 
transcripts from A Lovers Quarrel
(Dwight Ozard)
one man's documentation of his restless relationship with faith and culture
(6/2004-9/2005)
 
Verse (Jim Newcombe/John-Paul Gillespie)
poetry laid bare
 
Verse Live (various)
new poetry
 
The World Watch Papers (various)
inspections of matters impacting the globe
 
Write of Passage (Eboni Rafus)
journalings of a confirmed writer

 

 
Les Amants
by René Magritte
click to enlarge
 
 

Ah sweet marrow ganglia matter of mind what inviolable pleasure brings me to my typer this time of night in the moonspill mooncream what draws me this way and that from my outer to my inner am I all questions in this mushrooming quiet and dark of night this sound of dead foxes hanging thinly with leaves the den not returned to mother hunted while hunting and dogged down this deep of night this dread of sleeping while my mind can still move its way over the wave of things can extrapolate conjure figment articulate touch smell know once again the musk I could die for right now this instant this eternity for my nares have the memory of fingers and the dry pulp beneath my nails is your residue of love I cannot manicure away ashes of our fire.


I see suck words on lips I see the drip of syllables phonetics of some word rock buried in you as deeply as mine sunless and miles deep past the six hundred miles an hour that our impulses travel from mind to extremities of selves to fingers of satisfaction to fingers knowledge to lips say to eyes move to pits of breast set into teeth like caraway seeds (oh I love the working memory as my tongue worries a pit like a cavity beginning—I form words for you at the touch) what tangible ghost of nights past is near me touching like grass or a spider web not quite there who the spirit travels its hands and lips and words against my ears my self my all as if Chapman’s Homer has its speech and touches to me I, I am alone atop Darien this abominable night though I have shares and am shared oh shared by madness oh stung by stars and simple grass


Oh, listen believe me daughter of words holder of the precious word rock


I am moonmaster starriser suncatcher burster of cometing yea a farmer plugging word songs but a listener of your night watches walker of your dreams the evil-doer doing done that far thin voice of a star moving on you oh dream death at morning light Ah it is lonely the fox is dead I hear the dogs cry above the clash of leaves the horn empties its wail on wind the den not returned to the young wait cold and hungry the burrow walls close in in cool pneumatics the ferret comes slowly at first teasing his mouth waters saliva runs oozing like sperm his back arches he tingles Oh love I’d love to come to your mouth to have your lips holding me is volcanic thought furnacing the blade of your tongue is ever merciless why are you so unkind to me why cut memory’s cut do my veins intrigue you my capillaries crawl like others crawl except when you loose your


tongue You are mad! mad! but I bid you I bid you come at me once all mouth, all imagination all energy I would know no other night nor own one I am doomed pusher of thought darer of deeds worder of words I am doomed who such lip when such thigh take the angle of my eye lest I lose that nearing breast bring your mouth where you’ve caressed use your tongue as gallant blade my private parts to invade


I moonmaster master of words roper of stars brander of herds of Pegasus flock beg your tongue talk let it be known beneath your bone I love your curves and wanting nerves Sleep comes now sifting through me pushing its delights into the barest ends of me the torture of a sugar remembered thighs intersect triangle of nerves coming away slowly as a rusty sled downhill excruciatingly lovely from the pitch of parting


Once I shot at a doe and oh! I missed! I missed!

 

Views expressed on this page may or may not be representative of The Bohemian Aesthetic or its founder. All materials appearing on this Web site are copyrights of patsymooreDOTcom, respective authors, or original sources.