the most lively colors
“I spent whole hours, I may say whole days, in representing to myself, in the most lively colors, how I must have acted if I had got nothing out of the ship.”
—Daniel Defoe, The Life and Strange Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, 1719.
a checker-work of Providence
“How strange a checker-work of Providence is the life of man!”
—Daniel Defoe, The Life and Strange Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, 1719.
The city above
“As John did name these stones is Scripture,
I knew each one in neat rotation.
The gem of jasper, the first to treasure,
I saw formed there on firm foundation;
It glistened greenly in lowest measure.
Sapphire was set in second station.
Chalcedony then, a spotless pleasure,
Glowed pale and pure, third in formation.
The emerald, the fourth, a green creation,
The sardonyx, the fifth, a stone put on,
The sixth, the ruby, he saw with elation
In the Apocalypse, the apostle John.
John then saw the chrysolite,
The seventh gem in ornament,
The eighth, the beryl, clear and white,
The twin-hued topaz, ninth in ascent,
The tenth, the chrysoprase, set there tight,
The jacinth, eleventh, heaven-sent,
The twelfth, the gentlest in that site,
The amethyst purple, with indigo blent.
The rising wall’s embellishment
Was jasper pure; like glass it shone.
I knew it by his development
In the Apocalypse, the apostle John.
As John described, yet saw I there
These twelve, great steps were broad and steep.
The city above, completely square,
Was long and high, and of wide sweep,
With streets of gold, like glass so rare,
And jasper wall, like glair we keep.
The abodes within, adorned with flair,
Had every jewel one finds in a heap.”
—Pearl, a 14th-century medieval poem, author unknown; translated from the Middle English by William Vantuono, 1995.
pearl affluent
“Hedgerows on lands, and rivers through lairs;
Their currents gleamed like fine gold filament.
I strolled to a stream displaying its wares;
Lord, dear was its adornment.
The adornments dear in depths that glow
Revealed fair banks of beryl bright.
Swirling freely, the stream did flow,
Whispering en route, whirling aright.
Biding at bottom, stones bestow
Glistening beams, void of blight,
Like stars which woodsmen sleep below,
Streaming in sky on winter’s night;
For each jewel joined under floods in flight
Was emerald, sapphire, or pearl affluent,
Lending that brook its luminous light,
So dear was its adornment.”
—Pearl, a 14th-century medieval poem, author unknown; translated from the Middle English by William Vantuono, 1995.
old fashioned
“I’m old fashioned
I love the moonlight
I love the old fashioned things”
—I’m Old Fashioned, music by Jerome Kern, lyrics by Johnny Mercer, 1942. Chet Baker’s version springs immediately to mind, does it not?
bricks. Bricks. And more bricks
“My Baltimore childhood was made out of bricks. Bricks. And more bricks. . . . Brick sunsets, brick picnics, brick newspapers delivered on frosty brick mornings. Everything the color of bacon and dried blood: brick.”
—Tom Robbins, from Another Roadside Attraction, 1971.
an iridescent ring
“When death finally sucks her down the drain, as it must suck everyone, Amanda will leave an iridescent ring around the tub.”
—Tom Robbins, from Another Roadside Attraction, 1971.
Little Boxes
“There’s a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one,
And they’re all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.”
—from Little Boxes, words and music by Malvina Reynolds, 1962.
October days
“It was one of those mellow October days that seem concocted from a mixture of sage, polished brass and peach brandy.”
—Tom Robbins, from Another Roadside Attraction, 1971.
a brain
“The afternoon sky looked like a brain. Moist. Gray. Convoluted. A mad-scientist breeze probed at the brain, causing it to bob and quiver as if it were immersed in a tank of strange liquids.”
—Tom Robbins, from Another Roadside Attraction, 1971.