“I thought how utterly different that evening had been from any other in my life. Different not because there was high drama or intense romance, for there was neither. But different in the sense that her room had been transformed by her presence and the poet’s work into a lush and exotic island in the […]
Continue reading“By now, Skylar had reached South Dartmouth Avenue, a cocoon of greenery enveloped the pedestrian from above and below and on all sides. The yards here were meadows flowing gently down to planting strips of thick grass that separated the sidewalk from the street, along which grew, in even distribution, Norway maples more than fifty […]
Continue reading“Ohio was not the shimmying maiden called the tropics, or the handsome aristocrat of Italy, or the godlike giant of the Himalayas, or the romantic Bedouin of the Sahara. She was the warty, wide-hipped grandmother whose daughter had died young leaving in her care three wild youngsters: the old white-haired grandmother in the ankle-length black […]
Continue reading“Genuine beauty, though, transcends physical symmetry. A woman of purely physical beauty, the yearned-for, imitated, and drooled-over cover girl, that paragon of modern society’s hypnotic captivation by the perfect bone structure of the utterly inane, is attractive, but only to the sense of touch. Her body entices a man’s fingers and other appendages to contact […]
Continue reading“As he listened to Traffic, the novice escaping-artist believed that he needed to hear the messages contained in the music precisely at this point in his development; in other words, he clearly understood that the orchestration of specific events in his life served a complex, greater purpose, being not random occurrences, meaningless in their arrangement, […]
Continue reading“Skylar dedicated the room to fellowship, philosophizing, and the arts. He hung prints of famous paintings on the wall: Van Gogh’s “Starry Night,” Monet’s “Impression: Sunrise” (whose exhibition, the first example of a new style of painting, gave Impressionism its name), and three Maxfield Parrish works: “Daybreak,” “Ecstasy,” and “Waterfall.” The Van Gogh served as […]
Continue reading“And above all other delights, be they discussion or artwork, floated the music that filled this room. Skylar and his guests orchestrated the music, like Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons,” to match the atmospheric conditions of the moment: it might be dreamy, romantic, playful, exotic, transcendental, assertive, or childlike depending on their mood at the time […]
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