Thursday, March 31, 2016

April from The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer

 April 
Based on The Canterbury Tales: Prologue 
With apologies to Chaucer 
for my modern rendering
Text, design & research by Rick Doble. All images are from commons.wikimedia.org unless otherwise noted.


 Many little birds 
 make melody 




 when April 
 with his showers  




 bathes the root  
 of each flower  




 soaking them 
 with sweet liquor 




 so that the tender shoots 
 and buds do grow 


The Original Text:
Here bygynneth the Book 
of the tales of Caunterbury
Whan that aprill with his shoures soote
The droghte of march hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
Tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the ram his halve cours yronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,...




Saturday, March 26, 2016

Metaphors For Being Human

METAPHORS FOR BEING HUMAN
All images are from commons.wikimedia.org unless otherwise noted. 
Research, text, design & editing by Rick Doble.


 Every age has its metaphors: 

 Today it's the computer 



 Last century the machine 



 Before that the zodiac 


 And before that... 


Australian aboriginal art 

Saturday, March 19, 2016

Spring Equinox 2016, March 20

 SPRING EQUINOX 
-- when day and night are equal --

 Derived from the Latin: 
 equi = equal 
 nox = night 



 With electric lights 
 and central heat 


 we have 
 forgotten 
 the delicate 
 balance 


 between 
 Earth 
 & 
 Sun 


Text, design & research by Rick Doble. All images are from commons.wikimedia.org unless otherwise noted.

Sunday, March 13, 2016

Rooftop At Night - New York City

 ROOFTOP AT NIGHT 
 NYC, 1962 
Spring Break
 Personal Stories 
Greenwich Village: 6th Ave., Greenwich Ave., 8 & 9th Streets, Christopher St., age 15
Map from Google Maps, photo from Google Earth. Text, editing, design & research by Rick Doble.



 It 
 was 
 a solitary 
 rooftop 
 night game 

 watching 
 all 5 roads 
 simultaneously 
 as they 
 converged 

 next to shoppers on the sidewalk 

 buying 
 vegetables 
 from 
 the 
 green grocer 


Sunday, March 6, 2016

Boarding School - Bergman's Magician

 EXETER STREET THEATER 
 Boston, 1960 
 Personal Stories 
Between Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire and New York City, age 15
Photograph of theater from commons.wikimedia.org; poster of The Magician used according to 'fair use' standard
Text, editing, design & research by Rick Doble.


 Between 
 boarding school 
 and parents 
 -- between trains in Boston -- 
 for just a few hours 
 I am alone 
 and 
 free 


 I take 
 the underground 
 to a strange forbidding 
 theater 
 where I watch 
 the supernatural: 
 Ingmar Bergman's The Magician 
 in stark 
 black & white 

Poster inserted from this url: 
 used in accordance with the fair use doctrine:
low resolution, non-profit publication, no effect on the market for this film.