A “Sunday night poetry” bonus: In re-reading H.D.’s Trilogy, I thought this poem (number 13 in The Walls Do Not Fall) had strong Otherside Picnic energy; I can imagine these lines, or something like them, being spoken by Sorawo:
The Presence was spectrum-blue, ultimate blue ray, rare as radium, as healing; my old self, wrapped round me, was shroud (I speak of myself individually but I was surrounded by companions in this mystery); do you wonder we are proud, aloof, indifferent to your good and evil? peril, strangely encountered, strangely endured, marks us; we know each other by secret symbols, though, remote, speechless, we pass each other on the pavement, at the turn of the stair; though no word pass between us, there is subtle appraisement; even if we snarl a brief greeting or do not speak at all, we know our Name, we nameless initiates, born of one mother, companions of the flame.
Sorawo of course has a special relationship with Toriko, her companion on adventures to the “Ultra Blue Landscape.” H.D. did as well with Bryher, an English novelist and film critic who was her companion in life. Bryher and H.D. met and fell in love in 1918, when H.D. was 31 years old and Bryher 33. Though both she and H.D. were at times married to others, she was H.D.’s main romantic partner for over 40 years, until H.D.’s death in 1961. They lived together in London during World War 2, while H.D. was writing the books that were later published together as Trilogy.
If you’d like to read more
- Internet Archive:
- Bryher: Two Novels: Development and Two Selves, by Bryher, with an introduction by Joanne Winning. Bryher wrote these two autobiographic novels a few years after meeting H.D.
- The Colors of Vaud and Ruan, by Bryher. Bryher was a fairly prolific and (in her time) popular writer of historical fiction; these are just two examples of many, the first set in 18th century Switzerland and the second in 6th century Britain.
- The Heart to Artemis: A Writer’s Memoir, by Bryher. This memoir was originally published the year after H.D. died.
- Borderline. This 1930 experimental silent film, directed by Bryher’s then-husband Kenneth Macpherson, features Macpherson, Bryher, H.D., and (among others) Paul Robeson. It’s very much of its time, but worth checking out for a glimpse of H.D. and Bryher in their prime. (H.D. appeared as “Helga Doorn.” Bryher was uncredited, but you can‘t miss her.) (CW: some racist language and attitudes.)
- Bookshop.org:
- H. D. & Bryher: An Untold Love Story of Modernism, by Susan McCabe. This looks interesting, but I wish it were cheaper.