THE BELLS OF SAINT-SULPICE – The Vampire's Wife

I am listening to this beautiful piece of music on this Easter Monday – the opening of Louis Vierne’s wonderful Messe Solennelle, Opus 16, The Bells of Saint-Sulpice – sent to me by my dear friend, the filmmaker, Lian Lunson. Louis Vierne was the organist at Notre-Dame de Paris from 1900 until his death in 1937. The bells of Saint-Sulpice in Paris are so full of yearning, so full of the emerging spirit, held ‘just out of reach’ as Lian wrote. Thank you for sending this to me, Lian. We adore you. Love Susie. x

I stumbled upon this today and thought of Susie, and you. Sadness is overcome by the Happiness found in the small things. Love, Kat

https://open.spotify.com/album/5xQAlmHWaCziMWf4lRbYJ4

AH, MY DEAR ANGRY LORD

I love this terse little poem by the English poet, orator, and priest, George Herbert about the contradictory nature of religious belief, its good and bad sides, and its joy and sorrow. There's nothing like a bit of hard religion on a Sunday morning!!

NO TEAR-FLOODS OR SIGH-TEMPESTS

In A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning, the English poet, John Donne, likens his relationship with his wife, Mary, to a spiritual entanglement between two souls as he says farewell to her before he goes on a mission to Europe. I love the lines ‘let us melt and make no noise/no tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move’. Beautiful!

THE CARNIVAL IS OVER

I have just a simple song for you all from 1967, all the way from Australia (where my husband is), by The Seekers. I love this song, melancholy but so stirring, and Judith Durham, dressed in what looks like something from the archives of The Vampire’s Wife, is so touching. It is a song full of tears about the end of things and love’s enduring presence. We adore this song here at The Vampire’s Wife.