If only life was so easy
that everyday was sunshine and happiness
but problems and issues surround
and we stumble as we go along

We make errors and carry regret like a second skin
we hold onto them like a suitcase full of old clothes
any progress a small victory, flashes like a firecracker and is gone
a brief light that illuminates our path before the darkness returns

Love is a sharp sword
yet it is that which we use to defend ourselves
to keep the world at bay
we take our fill of it, only to lie starving

The people we love shape and mold us
yet abandon us to the darkness in times of need
bonds of commonality refresh and sustain
but in the darkness our hands come unclasped and we lose our way

The next book I am reading is Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad.

Conrad is a polish author who lived from 1857 to 1924.  He most likely died of a heart attack.  He moved a lot as a child living in the Ukraine, Warsaw, north of Moscow and other places.

He was a poor student and was sent to France at 16 for a career at sea.  He spent 20 years in the merchant navy and eventually made captain.  This was to form the basis for most of his stories and characters.  He wrote about what he knew...what he lived.

He started writing at the age of 36.  Due to poor health he had to give up his career at sea.  He wrote the rest of his life.  Like many authors he never achieved measurable financial success but managed to keep afloat.

He was described as "an emotional man subject to fits of depression, self-doubt, and pessimism, disciplined his romantic temperament with an unsparing moral judgement."  Interestingly enough he was a contemporary of Henry James who he knew personally.

Heart of Darkness is a story about Charles Marlow and his job on the Congo River as an Ivory transporter. Conrad himself had been the captain of a boat 8 years earlier that sailed up the Congo....I feel an adventure coming on....

Tim

I finished Portrait of a Lady.

So my take on it.  Much deeper than most of the pieces I have read of this genre.  A really tragic tale about a  youthful American girl who wants to experience life and basically fails to find what she had hoped.

She was so free spirited and open eyed and ends up choosing an unconventional life.  She doesn't marry the rich English Lord or the American businessman, but instead marries a poor American living in Italy.

She ends up unhappy and basically estranged.  I really enjoyed the book.  The writing style was simple and engaging with a tendency toward wonderful prose.  The ending really left me wanting.  We spend all this time learning about Isabel and what makes her tic, then dismiss the whole story in a few paragraphs....

Well....off to the next book.