The Last Will and Testament of Lemuel Higgins.

By Patrick James O’Connor.

“It was just this morning that I watched a buck come up over the hill that sits behind the north field looking off over toward East Angler. A little doe trailed along behind him, their white tails twitching in the chill of dawn. The sun was coming up over the forest to the east, and I thought to myself that it had come on just a bit later than the day before, its rays glancing quickly off the ground and giving a hint of gold to everything they touched in the softness of mid-autumn.
Lemuel Higgins writes these words to the only woman he has ever loved, from what will be his deathbed. Lemuel lays out all that he has left in this world to those he cares for, telling his tale of how he screwed up, how he went from a king of his own world to dying far from his wife and child in a bedroom in his best friend and brother in-law’s farmhouse. This is the tale of a small-town boy who seeks sporting glory and a way out of the hardscrabble farming community he was raised in.
This is a tale we’ve seen countless times splashed across the tabloid papers, a promising athlete, starts to believe all that he reads or is told and comes to believe they are invincible, they become dazzled by all that stardom has to offer, until reality, with it’s size ten boots, kicks them to the ground. Once Lemuel Higgins was on his way to a major league career in baseball, but when we meet him he’s lost everything, and is physically, mentally and emotionally a broken man, dying of aids after a blood transfusion after a drunken brawl.
*
What’s different about this tale is how it is written, although it’s a memoir and a love letter, it is also a coming of age tale, which makes this a bildungsroman - written in the form of a legal document -  because The Last Will and Testament is just that. Each chapter has become a bequest, of which there are fifteen, whether this is to wife, son or the bequest of forgiveness he gives to his dead father and it is through these bequests that we learn of Lemuel’s fall from grace.
*
Now a confession, “I Know Nothing About Baseball”, but that’s not a problem here, this is merely his chosen route out of the small town he comes from, it could have been by any means. This was a wonderful tale which kept me interested in Lemuel’s life, that even though you knew what an absolute (+ expletive of choice) he became, you end up rooting for him. When I read a book, I sometimes like to write notes, jot down ideas on a notebook app on my phone then when I’ve finished the book I reread them for ideas of what to write. Now what I’d noted was, Bon Iver’s first album, by which I meant this would be fantastic to read with that album (for Emma, Forever Ago) playing in the background, it’s not necessary but would make a wonderful ambience to this tale of a man faced with his final season on this earth.

*
*
*
“I, Lemuel Ryan Higgins, a resident of the State of New York, being sound in mind and somewhat less in body, having twenty six years of age and having been lawfully married to the most beautiful Sarah Danner Higgins for the best years of my life, and leaving behind me one son, Daniel Conor Higgins, known to one and all as Irish royalty as the rightful and true High King of Tara….”

*
*


Patrick James O’Connor was born and raised in farming country south of Buffalo, New York, where he worked variously as a horse trainer, farmhand, park ranger, waiter, septic tank cleaner, and social worker. In 1993, he worked as a congressional aide in the Washington, DC offices of New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. After studying English Literature at the University of Richmond, he spent a season hiking the Appalachian Trail before pursuing a degree in law. Then, whilst studying at Georgetown University Law Centre, he joined a fact-finding expedition to Guatemala, where he spent several years climbing volcanoes with his dog, Jonah, and working on indigenous rights and environmental issues. He is currently a partner at the Miami law firm, Harper Meyer LLP, where he practices international law and, among other projects, works to procure the return of stolen Mayan artefacts to Guatemala. The Last Will and Testament of Lemuel Higgins is his first novel.
For more information,
 www.PatrickJamesOConnor.com

The Literate Man

        

For Increased Ambience

The Natty hat comp #3 (The Result)

 

 

 






As per usual all the names were placed in a hat and then my daughter, pulled one out……………. The winner is Laura,(E-mail has been sent)  Congrats and  I hope you enjoy this book as much as I do. Also a big & hearty thank you all who took part, I thoroughly enjoyed your choices and the reasoning behind them.
Thanks,
Parrish.

#WBN2012 (A Givers Response)

Dear Giver
Congratulations! You have been chosen as a World Book Night giver and the book you will be giving away is The Book Thief which is your 1st choice. We're sorry to have kept you waiting for so long to find out but we hope you're pleased.

YES! After the usual waiting period, My daughter & I have been picked to be a World Book Night giver, with our first choice of book as well !!!!!!!!!!!! Chosen because we’ve both read and enjoyed it

ALL This constitutes a meeting of constellations, a consensus of neurons firing --- H.A.P.P.Y.

What happens next?
I will be emailed  in the next week asking me to select where I wish to collect my World Book Night books from. This collection point is the local participating bookshop or library where my books will be delivered in the week before World Book Night. 

See you on the night.

 

 World Book Night (UK)

 World Book Night (USA) 

World Book Night (Facebook)

World Book Night (Twitter)

WBN(USA,Twitter)

I Hope all who take part, spread the love of books, but more importantly that they

                    ENJOY!

The Natty Hat Comp #3

It’s becoming a bit of a tradition for The Parrish lantern to take part in The Literary Giveaway Blog Hop, run by Judith at Leeswammes' Blog. The idea behind the hop is that although there are a lot of hops aimed at YA readers, this one is aimed at those whose persuasions are more literary, by this she means that the prize given should be of literary merit.  It does not have to be the most difficult classic ever, but please no romance, urban fiction or YA. Thrillers, poetry and non-fiction are fine, as are contemporary fiction, literary fiction and any other genres not in the categories above. All participants run their own hops but are linked under the umbrella of Judith’s The Literary Giveaway Blog Hop title, making this the fourth hop, but the third The Natty Hat Comp.

The Natty Hat Comp #3
Now as it’s a literary hop I try to make who ever takes part - think a bit -  that’s all I ask, no need to follow unless you want to, nowt else but answer a question. The first time was to choose a favourite poem, the second a favoured word, so I had to come up with a new idea, which I found whilst browsing the internet a couple of weeks ago. In Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, people memorize books, literally becoming the embodiment of a particular book, so….. my question is what book would you be?
All those who enter the competition and leave me some way of contacting them (E,mail, Twitter etc.), will receive, what would be my(one of) choices. This book is by a writer, I discovered for myself, back in my youth and whose work I devoured, and yet apart from his poetry I had not read in a long time, part scared that it was a youthful flirtation, part whatever other reason sprung to mind?. My choice is Lawrence Durrell’s Alexandria Quartet, this wonderful tetralogy as Durrell explains in his preface to Balthazar, “are  four novels(Justine (1957), Balthazar (1958), Mountolive (1958), and Clea (1960) that are an exploration of relativity and the notions of continuum and subject–object relation, with modern love as the subject”, but beyond that it’s a book of words that have a poetic urgency that will make you gasp, with the realisation that language can be expressed with such a painful beauty and yet still be human.
Here is the link list to my fellow cohorts, compadres,collaborators,  comrades and partners in crime, please check them out and pass on my regards – Oh and enjoy. Thanks again..

2. Leeswammes/ Curiosity Killed The Bookworm/ Lit Endeavors (US)/ The Book Whisperer/ Rikki’s Teleidoscope/ 2606 Books and Counting/ Sam Still Reading/ Bookworm with a view/ Breieninpeking (Dutch readers)/ Seaside Book Nook/ Elle Lit (US)/ Nishita’s Rants and Raves/ Tell Me A Story/ Living, Learning, and Loving Life (US)/ Book’d Out/ Uniflame Creates/ An Armchair by the Sea (UK)/ bibliosue/ Lena Sledge’s Blog (US)/ Roof Beam Reader/ Misprinted Pages/ Mevrouw Kinderboek (Dutch readers)/ Under My Apple Tree (US)/ Indie Reader Houston/ Book Clutter/ I Am A Reader, Not A Writer (US)/ Lizzy’s Literary Life/ Sweeping Me/ Caribousmom (US)/ Minding Spot (US)/ Curled Up With a Good Book and a Cup of Tea/ The Book Diva’s Reads/ The Blue Bookcase/ Thinking About Loud!/ write meg! (US)/ Devouring Texts/ Thirty Creative Studio (US)/ The Book Stop/ Dolce Bellezza (US)/ Simple Clockwork/ Chocolate and Croissants/ The Scarlet Letter (US)/ Reflections from the Hinterland (N. America)/ De Boekblogger (Europe, Dutch readers)/ Readerbuzz (US)/ Must Read Faster (N. America)/ Burgandy Ice @ Colorimetry/ carolinareti/ Ephemeral Digest/ Scattered Figments (UK)/ Bibliophile By the Sea/ The Blog of Litwits (US)/ Kate Austin/ Alice Anderson (US)/ Always Cooking up Something.

Valentines Day (Twelve Roses).

For Paula.

************************************************

One Rose

for Icarus

who swam to the sun

One rose

for all of us

left undone

One rose

to raise me

in your sight

One rose

to grant me

all of your nights

*************

One rose

to all who fall

from your grace

One rose

to keep this fool

far from that place

One rose

to the hero

whose tale ends in blood

One rose

to all lovers

who kept warm their love

**************

One rose

to the wounded

who lay feathered in blows

One rose

to the rejected

buried deep in your snows

One rose

on the alter

of all living truth

One rose

a chalice

my hearts blood for you

(G.Moon)

pomes ALL SIZES

If you have a Poem/ Poet, you admire, please introduce them to me.

   

 

The Heart In Reality.

*

Love Poems Erich Fried.

Without You.

Not nothing
without you
but not the same

*********** 

Not nothing
without you
but perhaps less

********** 

Not nothing
but less
and less

*********** 

Perhaps not nothing
without you
but not much more

When I wrote an answer to the question “Discuss your thoughts on sentimentality in literature. When is emotion in literature effective and when is it superfluous?”, I used a poem by Pablo Neruda as my main example, I could quite easily have used an example by Erich Fried. The crux of my argument was that although anything written was reliant on artifice to convince the reader of it’s veracity, it then becomes how you use it, that to make it work it must be like sleight of hand, so all you see is the magic and not some fool playing with their hands. This brings me to the poetry in this book, there is a deep yearning and desperation to his words, there’s a pain that’s more than bone-deep and yet he displays a stoicism and an optimism that comes across in the humour, this is a poetry that doesn’t scream it’s loss, it displays a subtlety and calm that makes it even more powerful.

What It Is
It is madness
says reason
It is what it is
says love 

 ******

It is unhappiness
says caution
It is nothing but pain
says fear
It has no future
says insight
It is what it is
says love

 *******

It is ridiculous
says pride
It is foolish
says caution
It is impossible
says experience
It is what it is
says love.

********** 

This poetry comes across as deeply personal, proudly wearing it’s lovers badge, and yet it doesn’t become corny, it is touching yet doesn’t become saccharine, bighearted but doesn’t simper or whine, this is a poetry that reveals it’s heart as an elemental force, natural. Whose appeal lies in it’s simplicity, humanity and in the direct honesty of it’s gaze. In this fantastic bilingual edition from Oneworld Classics, one of the twentieth centuries great poets, has been translated with an understated sagacity that allows the poetry to shine. The Translator Stuart Hood, was a long-time friend, fellow writer and colleague of whom, The Times Literary Supplement said that 'Hood’s sensitive translation accurately captures Fried’s style, his incisive, constant questioning and his refusal to shy away from any issue… an apposite introduction to the English-speaking reader of an important contemporary German poet.'  The Guardian described it as 'A poetry bared to the ironic quick, to the quintessential bone, and it is alive and alarming in Stuart Hood's excellent translations from the German.'. For those whose German language skills are of a high enough standard this is also a Bilingual Edition.

The Heart in Reality

The heart

that said:

“Don’t be afraid for me”

freezes

and is afraid for her

to whom

it said it

Erich Fried (May 1921 – November 1988),  although born in Austria, lived in England. Born to Jewish Parents in Vienna, he was a child actor and from a young age wrote strongly political essays and poetry. When his Father was murdered by the Gestapo after the Anschluss with Nazi Germany , he and his mother fled to London, where he found casual work as a librarian and in the factories, he also joined a left-wing emigrant movement (Young Austria) but left in protest of it’s growing Stalinist tendencies. In 1944 he married Maria Marburg, just before the birth of his son & also published his first book of poetry, the marriage didn’t last long as they had separated by 1946, at which time he was working for the BBC’s German Service, where he met his soon to be life-long friend and the translator of this book (Love Poems) Stuart Hood. in 1952 he divorced his first wife and married Nan Spence Eichner, with whom he had two children; David (1958) and Katherine (1961). Erich and Nan divorced in 1965. In 1965 he got married for a third time to Catherine Boswell with whom he had three children; Petra (1965), Klaus and Tom (1969).
**************

In the Post-war Years, although he lived in England, his reputation as a poet, writer and translator grew in German  and his native Austria. His oeuvre also included radio plays, a novel, short prose pieces and works of criticism, add to these a libretto and his translations of T.S. Elliot, Shakespeare, E.E. Cummings and Dylan Thomas.  In 1982 he regained his Austrian nationality, retaining the British  one he has adopted in 1949. He died in 1988 of cancer whilst in Baden-Baden, Germany, and is buried in  London. He was also known for his politically inspired work and was published on both sides of the iron curtain, achieving great popularity. An Austrian literary prize is named after him - the Erich Fried Prize.

Alma Classics(OneWorld Classics)
Erich Fried(Wiki)
Stuart Hood(Wiki)
Erich Fried Prize.

For more Erich Fried Poetry

(100 Poems Without a Country)


Challenges 2012 Page.

pomes ALL SIZES

If you have a Poem/ Poet, you admire please introduce them to me.