Dogwood Blossoms Poem by George Marion McClellan.

Dogwood Blossoms

Poem by George Marion McClellan.
 
To dreamy languors and the violet mist
Of early Spring, the deep sequestered vale
Gives first her paling-blue Miamimist,
Where blithely pours the cuckoo’s annual tale
Of Summer promises and tender green,
Of a new life and beauty yet unseen.
The forest trees have yet a sighing mouth,
Where dying winds of March their branches swing,
While upward from the dreamy, sunny South,
A hand invisible leads on the Spring.
His rounds from bloom to bloom the bee begins
With flying song, and cowslip wine he sups,
Where to the warm and passing southern winds,
Azaleas gently swing their yellow cups.
Soon everywhere, with glory through and through,
The fields will spread with every brilliant hue.
But high o’er all the early floral train,
Where softness all the arching sky resumes,
The dogwood dancing to the winds’ refrain,
In stainless glory spreads its snowy blooms.
 

Recommended reading:

Poems by George Marion McClellan.

Video by Jack Kost.
2025.
 
Dogwood Blossom photographs by Jack Kost.
Sound effect credit:
Forest wind and birds
by freesound_community
from Pixabay.

National Coffee Day – September 29:

I can't stop drinking the coffee.

If I stop drinking the coffee, I stop doing the standing and the walking and the words-putting-into-sentence doing.

NOOOOOO not the coffee!  I need that to live!

OK, two words - need coffee.

I think, therefore I've had my coffee.

Coffee has a unique aroma that makes you forget how painful it is to be awake.

The coffee I ordered just came in. That should last me for about a week.

Procaffeinating (n.) the tendency to not start anything until you've had a cup of coffee.

When you order a coffee and they ask, "decaf or regular?"

Coffee? Only one cup please ...

/

Give me a minute. I'm waiting for my coffee to kick in.

Lord, give me the coffee to change the things I can .... and music to accept the things I can't.

First I drink the coffee, then I do the stuff.

Born on this day – George Marion McClellan:

George Marion McClellan

Writer

September 29, 1860 – May 17, 1934

Credits:
 
Poems:

A Butterfly In Church; A January Dandelion; A September Night; Dogwood Blossoms; The Feet Of Judas; The Hills Of Sewanee.

 

Books:
 

Old Greenbottom Inn and Other Stories (1906); Poems and Storiettes (1895); Songs of a Southerner / aka Poems (1896); The Path of Dreams (1916).

 

Recommended reading:
 

Poems by George Marion McClellan

by George Marion McClellan

Published by Legare Street Press.
Published 2022.
Paperback.

ISBN-10: 1016029799
ISBN-13: 978-1016029797

Poetry anthology.

Iris Murdoch, on reading and writing:

Reading and writing and the preservation of language and its forms and the kind of eloquence and the kind of beauty which the language is capable of is terribly important to the human beings because this is connected to thought.

 – Iris Murdoch.

On this day in movie and book history - Cry of the City (1948) The Chair for Martin Rome (1947)

Cry of the City

directed by Robert Siodmak,

written by Richard Murphy and Ben Hecht,

based on the novel The Chair for Martin Rome by Henry Edward Helseth,

was released in the United States on September 29, 1948.

Music by Alfred Newman.

Cast:

Victor Mature, Richard Conte, Fred Clark, Shelley Winters, Betty Garde, Berry Kroeger, Tommy Cook, Debra Paget, Hope Emerson, Roland Winters, Walter Baldwin, Robert Adler, Mimi Aguglia, George Beranger, Oliver Blake, Harry Carter, Dolores Castle, Ken Christy, Davison Clark, Ruth Clifford, John Cortay, Antonio Filauri, Tiny Francone, Howard Freeman, Ed Hinton, Kathleen Howard, Thomas Ingersoll, Robert Karnes, George Magrill, George Melford, Joan Miller, Tom Moore, Thomas Nello, Jane Nigh, Eddie Parks, Emil Rameau, Claudette Ross, Elena Savonarola, Harry Seymour, Konstantin Shayne, Dan Sheridan, Michael Stark, June Storey, Charles Tannen, Helen Troya, Tito Vuolo, Charles Wagenheim.

Recommended reading:

The Chair for Martin Rome

by Henry Edward Helseth.

ASIN: B0007I5CI0
First published 1947.
Published by Pocket Books.
Paperback.

Description:
Condemned killer escapes.

Martin Rome killed a policeman during a robbery. For this the State sentenced him to the electric chair. But before that bleak final moment Martin Rome had business to finish outside the jail – matters of stolen jewels and some human rats and a girl whose very existence he denied to the detectives but whose reality for him transcended all things. The swift, terrifying story of his mad undertaking, the grim revelation it brought to the police and, even more grimly, to Rome itself, is an emotional experience that leaves the reader thrilled and unnerved at the closing page.

“Just about the most real and convincing tough-job that has come in this season. Not easily forgettable.” – Saturday Review of Literature.

Born on this day – Greer Garson:

Greer Garson

Actress

Singer

September 29, 1904 – April 6, 1996

Credits:

Radio:

Brief Encounter (1946); Mrs. Parkington (1946); My Favorite Wife (1945); The African Queen (1952); The Philadelphia Story (1942); Twas the Night Before Christmas (1953).

Movies and television:

1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year (2009); 24th Annual Academy Awards (1952); 60 Minutes Of (2023); A Gift of Music (1981); A Report from Miss Greer Garson (1944); A Star Is Born World Premiere (1954); A Star Is Born: Special Features (2010); Adventure (1945); AFI Life Achievement Award (1976–1980); American Masters (1986); And the Oscar Goes to... (2014); At This Very Moment (1962); Blossoms in the Dust (1941); Bob Hope's World of Comedy (1976); Bogart: The Untold Story (1997); Captain Brassbound's Conversion (1960); Crown Matrimonial (1974); Dean Martin Celebrity Roast: Jimmy Stewart (1978); Desire Me (1947); Entertaining the Troops (1988); Extraordinary Women (2011); Father Knows Best (1957); From the Ends of the Earth (1939); General Electric Theater (1956–1960); Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939); Her Twelve Men (1954); Hollywood and the Stars (1964); Hollywood Hist-o-Rama (1961); Hollywood Talent Scouts (1966); Hollywood: Style Center of the World (1940); Hollywood: The Great Stars (1963); Hour Magazine (1986); How He Lied to Her Husband (1937); Inasmuch... (1934); Inside the Marx Brothers (2003); Invincible Mr. Disraeli (1963); James Stewart, Robert Mitchum: The Two Faces of America (2017); Julia Misbehaves (1948); Julius Caesar (1953); Little Women (1978); Madame Curie (1943); Meet the Stars #3: Variety Reel #1 (1941); Mondo Hollywood: Hollywood Laid Bare! (1967); Mrs. Miniver (1942); Mrs. Parkington (1944); My Father Gave Me America (1973); Pepe (1960); Perry Como's Christmas in New Mexico (1979); Personalities (1942); Pride and Prejudice (1940); Pride and Prejudice Revisited (2005); Producers' Showcase (1955); Random Harvest (1942); Remember? (1939); Rockette: A Holiday Tribute to Radio City Music Hall (1978); Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (1968–1970); Scandal at Scourie (1953); Screen Actors (1950); Showbiz Goes to War (1982); Some of the Best (1949); Some of the Best: Twenty-Five Years of Motion Picture Leadership (1949); Sophia Loren (2019); Star Stage (1955); Strange Lady in Town (1955); Sunrise at Campobello (1960); Talking Pictures (1988); Telephone Time (1957); That Forsyte Woman (1949); That's Entertainment! (1974); That's Entertainment! III (1994); That's Entertainment, Part II (1976); The 12th Annual Tony Awards (1958); The 18th Annual Golden Globe Awards (1961); The 25th Annual Academy Awards (1953); The 33rd Annual Academy Awards (1961); The 34th Annual Academy Awards (1962); The 37th Annual Academy Awards (1965); The 40th Annual Academy Awards (1968); The 45th Annual Academy Awards (1973); The 50th Annual Academy Awards (1978); The 69th Annual Academy Awards (1997); The Adventures of Errol Flynn (2005); The Age of Believing: The Disney Live Action Classics (2008); The Art Linkletter Show (1968); The Big Party (1959); The Bob Hope Show (1956); The Dick Cavett Show (1971); The DuPont Show of the Week (1962); The Ed Sullivan Show (1953); The Happiest Millionaire (1967); The Heart of Variety (1969); The Joey Bishop Show (1967–1968); The Law and the Lady (1951); The Linkletter Show (1967–1968); The Little Drummer Boy (1968); The Little Drummer Boy Book II (1976); The Little Foxes (1956); The Love Boat (1982); The Merv Griffin Show (1963–1971); The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Story (1951); The Mike Douglas Show (1980); The Miniver Story (1950); The Miracle of Sound (1940); The Red Skelton Hour (1964–1966); The School for Scandal (1937); The Singing Nun (1966); The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (1967); The Steve Allen Plymouth Show (1957); The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show (1956); The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1963–1972); The Valley of Decision (1945); The Virginian (1970); The Youngest Profession (1943); Theatre Parade (1937); This Is Your Life (1960); This Proud Land (1966); Twenty Years After (1944); Victory in the Pacific (1995); What's My Line? (1953–1958); When Ladies Meet (1941).

Born on this day – Virginia Bruce:

Virginia Bruce

Actress

Singer

September 29, 1910 – February 24, 1982

Credits:

A Dream Comes True (1935); Action in Arabia (1944); Adventure in Washington (1941); AFI Life Achievement Award (1980); Arsène Lupin Returns (1938); Behind the Movie Lens (1938); Between Two Women (1937); Billy Rose's Casa Mañana Revue (1938); Blue Skies (1929); Born to Dance (1936); Born to Sing (1942); Brazil (1944); Butch Minds the Baby (1942); Careful, Soft Shoulders (1942); Cavalcade of the Academy Awards (1940); Complicated Women (2003); Dangerous Corner (1934); Downstairs (1932); Escapade (1935); Fashions in Love (1929); Flight Angels (1940); Follow Thru (1930); Fugitives (1929); General Electric Theater (1953); Great Performances (1987–2003); Hard to Get (1929); Hell Divers (1931); Here Comes the Band (1935); Hired Wife (1940); Hollywood Goes to Town (1938); Hollywood Hobbies (1939); Hollywood Without Make-Up (1963); Illusion (1929); Istanbul (1952); Jane Eyre (1934); Kongo (1932); Land of Liberty (1939); Let 'em Have It (1935); Let Freedom Ring (1939); Let's Go Native (1930); Lilies of the Field (1929); Love, Honor and Goodbye (1945); Lux Video Theatre (1953–1956); Madame Wang's (1981); Matinee Theatre (1956); Metropolitan (1935); Night Has a Thousand Eyes (1948); Only the Brave (1930); Paramount on Parade (1930); Pardon My Sarong (1942); Pirate Party on Catalina Isle (1935); Pointed Heels (1929); Raffles (1930); Safety in Numbers (1930); Science Fiction Theatre (1955); Screen Snapshots, Series 16, No. 1 (1936); Screen Snapshots, Series 18, No. 9 (1939); Shadow of Doubt (1935); Sky Bride (1932); Slightly Scarlet (1930); Society Doctor (1935); Society Lawyer (1939); State Department: File 649 (1949); Strangers When We Meet (1960); Stronger Than Desire (1939); Studio 57 (1956); That's Entertainment! (1974); The Bad Man of Brimstone (1937); The Bigelow Theatre (1951); The First Hundred Years (1937); The Ford Television Theatre (1952–1957); The Garden Murder Case (1936); The Great Ziegfeld (1936); The Invisible Woman (1940 / 1966); The Loretta Young Show (1955); The Love Parade (1929); The Man Who Talked Too Much (1940); The Mighty Barnum (1934); The Miracle Man (1932); The Murder Man (1935); The River of Romance (1929); The Silver Theatre (1950); The Social Lion (1930); There Goes My Heart (1938); There's That Woman Again (1938); Times Square Lady (1935); Two Grooms for a Bride (1955); Undercurrent (1956); When Love Is Young (1937); Whoopee! (1930); Why Bring That Up? (1929); Wife, Doctor and Nurse (1937); Winner Take All (1932); Woman Against Woman (1938); Woman Trap (1929); Women of Glamour (1937); Yellow Jack (1938); Young Eagles (1930); Ziegfeld Girl Intro (2004).