In a Garnet World
In a garnet world
something troubles the rock
--a rash, an itching dazzle
that will not sleep or be soothed,
a night sky of stars without sky
or night; and stars that sting.
This rock once unseen
in its river of ice, is now sick.
A man climbing cloud-high
caught human sight of it
brought to it this blood-colored incurable
infection of light.
Janet Frame
She also held foreign membership of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, received honorary doctorates from two New Zealand universities, and achieved recognition as a cultural icon in her native country.
photo: My favorite vintage garnet earrings from Prague Old Town, when it was still Czechoslovakia.
Great "mineral" post!
ReplyDeleteAh Garnet! 30+ years ago I chose to get a garnet instead of my birthstone (Ruby) for my class ring because I loved it's deep richness. I've never regretted the choice, and to this day, love the wine-red depth of garnets.
ReplyDeleteI saw a bio-pic about Janet Frame called An Angel at My Table. It was pretty good, I recall.
ReplyDeleteYes, I know that film, Clever Pup! It's by Jane Campion and is excellent. I saw it years ago and I've been a huge fan of Frame ever since.
ReplyDeleteLovely poem. It remided me of a little brooch my sister got for her 9th birthday on account of it being the birthstone for January. I always found that garnets have more character than rubies when it comes to "red" stones. I know Janet Frame through the movie An Angel at My Table. A must-see movie.
ReplyDeleteand thanks for the Shirley Jones clip!
ReplyDeletegarnet...birthstone of january...me. Most always think of garnet as red...it is most common and associated...ahhhhh, but they come in a plethera of colors!! Almost every color. Red is my fave, though. It the depth and richness.
ReplyDeleteI inherited a beautiful, antique garnet ring from my great aunt .. multiple garnets, but it stands so tall that I scrape myself and anything around me when I try to wear it! So it sits in my jewelry box most of the time.
ReplyDeleteGarnet is a beautiful stone, I believe my mother's favorite, God rest her soul.
The garnet is my favourite gemstome, particularly those lovely blood red antique Czech garnets.
ReplyDeleteIn Austria there are brown garnets and here in Australia there are jet black ones.
Interesting poem although garnets are often found on the surface rather than dug up.
Ah Garnets! My goal in life is to entirely encrust Nettl with garnets, one piece of jewelry at a time.
ReplyDeleteHello Willow, we can never have too much of Janet...
ReplyDeleteYou have inspired me to look out some more of her work...she has such a novel way with words
I like the poem! And those earrings of yours...very nice. Thank you for the intro on Janet Frame :) My education expands once more.
ReplyDeleteGarnet is my birthstone, and a favorite of mine. Thank you for the poem, the bio info, and the opportunity to meet a writer not known outside of her country.
ReplyDeleteThe only stones I wear, other than diamonds in my wedding ring, are garnets in gold. I don't wear a lot of jewelry, mostly small earrings and maybe a ring and rarely a necklace...but whatever ... ALWAYS a garnet, and it is my birthstone. Love the poem....a new writer to me.
ReplyDeleteClever Pup....that is my next netflix film....on recommendation from a dear friend. I just love how the Bloggyhood (a Willowism) brings it all together.
TLee... I have heard there are GREEN garnets, but I have not seen one.
Fascinating poem...lovely...thanks for posting.
ReplyDeleteA beautiful brooch. Garnet is the birthstone for two of my daughters.
ReplyDeleteWhen built our house 40+ years ago, we often found garnets in many of the rocks that were unearthed.
I didn't know about Janet Frame, so thank you for the poem and the bio.
Beautiful! And I too posted on my favorite piece of jewelry--remarkably similar, yet it's fun to see a completely different take on the same topic!
ReplyDeleteOh, I remember "Angel at My Table"...it was a favorite. I didn't make the connection.
ReplyDeleteI love the garnet...wine-red depth is a perfect description. Your earrings are beautiful.
lovely! wonderful earrings!
ReplyDeleteLovely post. I adore the poem and I always love learning about new/old authors or poets that I hadn't heard of before.
ReplyDeletebright blessings!
WT did good! The earrings are as lovely as Janet's poem.
ReplyDeleteFor my birthday last year hubby bought me a set of red garnet jewelry. It is not my birthstone, but he just liked the set and figured I would too. It is beautiful.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the poem. I cannot say that I have ever seen any of her poety. Love the new saying under "Leave your comment". My previous post was about raisins and then here you put something about raisins.
God bless.
Hang on a sec, isn't this the same writer whose life served as the basis for Jane Campion's movie 'An Angel at my Table'? A film I saw many years ago when I still lived in Cuba and that left me in tears? Please, clarify. The poem is absolutely wild and raw. It's stunning. Many thanks.
ReplyDeleteGreetings from London.
"An itching dazzle" - wonderful description! Garnets are my birthstone and I have many garnet rings that I adore. Love the glow and depth of colour.
ReplyDeleteThat talented Blog Princess G made me the most beautiful earrings for Christmas that go perfectly with my rings. Lovely poem, Willow - I was not familiar with her.
That was so much better than my poem. LOL!
ReplyDeleteAh Janet Frame, not quite an Aussie but we tend to 'steal' famous New Zealanders! Lovely earrings . . .I have some orangy garnet somewhere but I forget to put earrings in all the time and the holes heal up (now there's some useless information that you didn't need!) I was also distracted by your recipe! Yum. .
ReplyDeleteThe earrings are beautiful as are Frame's words. Nice take on the theme.
ReplyDeleteA little history in that ring.
ReplyDeleteI love garnets. They have so much to say.
Not sure if I can keep coming back to this blog. Your food postings have put a few pounds on me and now I want to go out and shop for the perfect garnet. With history, of course.
Beautiful earrings! They have amazing stuff in (now) Czech Republic. One of my favourite pieces was bought in Prague's Jewish Quarter.
ReplyDeleteAnother woman of great achievment!
ReplyDeleteWonderful poem and photo..one plunges into both..thank you!
While on a trip to Mexico, I was given a loose garnet stone. A jewelry store was giving them in hopes that you would purchase a setting. I should do something with it! The color is lovely..I love the depth of the red.
ReplyDeletei always like to pick up a piece that is indiginous to the area i visit...or if i can't afford that just a nice rock from the ground.
ReplyDeleteI'm a rock person, too, runmotman. I have rocks from all over, including one from the Charles Bridge in Prague. I label them in pencil on the bottom. :^)
ReplyDeletethanks for the reminder of janet frame...and I forgot campion's movie was about her... saw it so many years ago, think it's time for a rerun!
ReplyDeletebeautiful bling!!!!
garnets are one of my favorite stones...and yes! they do come in a variety of colors! hessonites have a warm orangey-brown color, while grossular garnets are the color of the sea. i spent several years drooling over a lovely aqua blue grossular garnet before i purchased it from my favorite gemologist and i made a simple necklace from it.
ReplyDeletethanks for the post!
I am so enjoying this poem and image.
ReplyDeleteI have an envelope of small garnets around here somewhere, but heaven knows where! Cool picture, and while the poem is very, very good, I really don't like the premise of it. I like garnets, and it rubs me the wrong way to see them described as an "incurable infection of light."
ReplyDeleteNice poem. Love the fact that you put the info on the author.
ReplyDeleteHave a nice day :o)
Beautiful earrings. Wonderful poem. So glad to learn about this intriquing lady author.
ReplyDeleteI just love the name garnet, such an exotic sounding mineral, not to mention the fabulous bold color!
ReplyDeletenice poem. and i really like the earrings.
ReplyDeleteYour earrings are gorgeous as is the poem.
ReplyDeleteI love sparkly things so much. Well ... who doesn't??
I had no idea garnet was a mineral... I love garnets, a friend once termed them the poor woman's rubies .. feh on that, they are lovely ...
ReplyDeleteLove the poem, love the info, love the picture...love everything about this post lol
ReplyDeletetake care
peace and love
xoxo
great post and accompanying pic! love the poem, will have to check out the author.
ReplyDeleteA real beautiful post and stone :)
ReplyDeleteI knew this name rang a bell. I've got a video copy of "An Angel at My Table" with Kerry Fox in the lead role. It's very compelling, but I haven't watched it in decades. I'll just have to dig it out now. Which reminds me, one of my all-time favourite biography films is "My Brilliant Career" with Judy Davis. Have I mentioned that one before?
ReplyDeleteKat
P.S. I finally got around to commenting on your "keyboard" post. Sorry I've been such a laggard lately.
Garnets have a better color than the Ruby...they just need a good PR agent and a better stage name...
ReplyDeleteGarnets are a curious mineral... found in rock veins and sometimes laying upon the ground. They were once regarded as poor people's trinkets. Now they are sought out and are most fashionable. Besides being used for jewelry they are commonly used as an abrasive material. Garnet sandpaper has been around for a long, long time.
ReplyDeleteWonderful earrings and a super poem.
ReplyDeleteGarnets are my birthstone but I don't think I have ever had anything garnet.....
"...this blood-colored incurable
ReplyDeleteinfection of light..." What a fabulous line. Great pic, too, Willow.
Considering garnet's my "birthstone," that poem would seem to explain a lot!
ReplyDeleteSounds like an author I might like, too. Thanks, Willow.
i love the earrings. i do wonder how one could twice be a contender for the nobel prize for literature, tho', since they only ever leak the names of those being considered and refuse to confirm. so many have been contenders and so many who deserved it never won (tolstoy, nabokov, kundera)...but i still love the earrings. :-)
ReplyDeleteearrings fabulous! - poem wonderful!
ReplyDeleteoh jewelry, I love it! great stones and lovely post
ReplyDeletehappy twirls,
Libby
I remember when we used to mine gem stones -- ruby and emerald and sapphires were the minerals we tried to find and keep. I don't recall garnets.
ReplyDeleteLove garnets too. Thanks for the info on Janet, I did not know her at all.
ReplyDeleteSigh. The list just keeps getting longer.
fab earrings. garnets are one of my favorite gems. ah yes, but too is interesting the fact of JF being placed for many years of her young life in a mental hospital and apparently winning a literary prize or maybe it was a book publication prize just as they were about to do a lobotomy. Then of course they sent her out into the world with no guidance as to how to "do" life after being in her "protective" environment for so long. All this, makes her writing so poignant I htink. I didnt know about the Nobel Prize nominations.
ReplyDeleteYour ear rings would match a vintage rink my mother and father-in-law gave me!
ReplyDeleteI shall look her up - love the poem and the jewels!
ReplyDeleteLove the poem.... and the jewelry - and I shall look up the author. Great post.
ReplyDeleteThose are stunning garnets. Such a rich, deep color to them.
ReplyDeletei would like to look up her work now.
ReplyDeletegorgeous earrings and such a nostalgic bit of history to go with them.
ReplyDeleteThe earrings are beautiful. So WT has a good eye among all his other talents. I love the poem. I've read some of Janet Frame's works before and I like her a lot. This is perfect!
ReplyDeleteShe is just amazing. One of my favorite writers. She is unforgettable. I was so greatful for Jane Campion's movie. Wasn't the young girl who played her just perfect?! I'm going to check out your older post from your Linkwithin widget. I Love My Link within widget...fun!
ReplyDeleteCatherine
She was a troubled lass.
ReplyDeleteLove the Garnet...really your whole post. Many thanks!!
ReplyDeleteWhat a fantastic blog!! I love that Flying Shirley dolly you have over there on the right hand side.
ReplyDeleteI followed you over from Dave King's blog. I hope that's okay.
If you have a moment or two of your life that you'd care to waste, please visit me at my blog and say hello.
Wishing you a weekend filled with much love, joy and laughter and....
Steady On
Reggie Girl
I noticed you had been reading Janet Frame. I love the movie about her, I think it's called "An Angel at My Table," but I could be a little off on the title. I've never read any of her work.. Thanks for the poem. And the garnets are beautiful! I love the color. I didn't read other comments before I wrote this, I see other lovely people liked the movie, too!
ReplyDeleteI noticed you had been reading Janet Frame. I love the movie about her, I think it's called "An Angel at My Table," but I could be a little off on the title. I've never read any of her work.. Thanks for the poem. And the garnets are beautiful! I love the color. I didn't read other comments before I wrote this, I see other lovely people liked the movie, too!
ReplyDeleteWelcome back, Flying Shirley!
Ah yes,
ReplyDeleteGarnet's color is soooooo rich and deep. Like a glass of good red wine.
"...........a rash, an itching dazzle.... " That's Rather Beautiful.
ReplyDeleteLOVE those earrings! Garnet is my birthstone, but I don't have any of them.
ReplyDeleteMust learn more about Janet Frame now.