wonderful wonderful magazine called beyond (don't hold the slightly hokey name against them -- you gotta see this thing of beauty)

Matthew Francis (hi Matthew) was just here in Victoria, which was great, and he left a stack of 'beyonds'. He seems to be a regular contributor to this worthy publication since these two issues both had pieces in them by him. It's eclectic, beautifully illustrated and designed, ad free (!!!), Canadian, deep, and in places hilarious. The two issues Matthew left also happened to contain interviews with Bruce Cockburn and Jane Siberry respectively, both of whom I happen to have practically revered since birth/age 14, respectively. I haven't gone to their website yet (am about to do so as soon as I finish this) but I'm assuming it shatters previous categories of cool as well as does the publication itself. If not, subscribe anyway and help a very very Good Thing continue. My stars, it's good -- www.beyondmag.com --go there or be square.

Okay, now for a Something. Until I think of a good name for the kind of thing I post, that's what it'll be called. This Something is shamelessy stolen from issue 13 of beyond (their lack of capitalization, not mine, so don't bug me about it).

Broken-hearted:

We really cannot undertake to advise you as to what is your best course. Yours is a peculiar case. It is rare for any one person to be simultaneously threatened with epilepsy, deserted by an affianced lover after the banns have been published, bitten by a dog, which had been rendered insane by being led about by a string, expelled from her lodging for non-payment of rent and thrown out by an active volcano. These events do not often happen together. Do not, at any rate, return the presents you lover gave you. If we were in your place we should convert them into cash. Then you might take out a County Court Summons against the owner of the dog, also the volcano, and have something left over for a Breach of Promise action.

Punch, 1887
Dear Worried Violet
Rosemary Hawthorne

and there's this Something for my fellow film lovers -- again, stolen:

The most beautiful films are those which one hasn't seen.

--Bernard Eisenschitz
quoted in Film Journey: Confessions of a Cinephile
by Doug Cummings (also issue 13)

Okay, I'm off to explore, and to catch up on what's cookin on my favourite blogs! Cheerio.

Elinor Wylie

I hereby swear that to uphold your house
I would lay my bones in quick destroying lime
Or turn my flesh to timber for all time;
Cut down my womanhood; lop off the boughs
Of that perpetual ecstasy that grows
From the heart's core; condemn it as a crime
If it be broader than a beam, or climb
Above the stature that your roof allows.
I am not the hearthstone not the cornerstone
Within this noble fabric you have builded;
Not by my beauty was its cornice gilded;
Not on my courage were its arches thrown:
My lord, adjudge my strength, and set me where
I bear a little more than I can bear.

From "One Person"

I have loved this exquisite sonnet for many years now. I don't know anything about the poet or the work it is apparently excerpted from, but wow is this woman a deep thinker, and can she ever write! It is such a perfect poem to express a woman's service to God. And an architecture theme to boot!