La Fontaine Subé in Reims, France... "Let all your things be done in Love." (1 Corinthians 16:14)
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Introduction:

My photo
Current: Danbury, CT, United States
Welcome! A few years ago, I discovered an application that artists employ in their works to bring cultural awareness to their audiences. Having discerned this semiotic theory that applies to literature, music, art, film, and the media, I have devoted the blog,Theory of Iconic Realism to explore this theory. The link to the publisher of my book is below. If you or your university would like a copy of this book for your library or if you would like to review it for a scholarly journal, please contact the Edwin Mellen Press at the link listed below. Looking forward to hearing from you!

Announcements

I will present or have presented research on Sydney Owenson (Lady Morgan) or my semiotic theory of iconic realism at the following location(s):

2023-2025: I will be researching and writing my third book on iconic realism.

April 2022: American Conference for Irish Studies, virtual event: (This paper did not discuss Sydney Owenson.) "It’s in the Air: James Joyce’s Demonstration of Cognitive Dissonance through Iconic Realism in His Novel, Ulysses"

October, 2021: Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, CT: "Sydney Owenson’s use of sociolinguistics and iconic realism to defend marginalized communities in 19th century Ireland"

March, 2021: Lenoir-Rhyne University, Hickory, North Carolina: "Sydney Owenson (Lady Morgan): A Nineteenth Century Advocate for Positive Change through Creative Vision"

October, 2019: Elms College, Chicopee, Massachusetts: "A Declaration of Independence: Dissolving Sociolinguistic Borders in the Literature of Sydney Owenson (Lady Morgan)"

30 April, 2025

Dandelion Wine Recipe



2025 is shaping to be an excellent year for the dandelion crop. Below is a recipe for dandelion wine I copied from my mother's recipe box many many years ago, but I've no idea of the origin of this recipe: 

Dandelion Wine Recipe
1 quart dandelion blossoms- packed solidly
1 gallon water, boiled for 10 minutes
Add blossoms to water and cook for 10 more minutes. 
After cooking, strain off the blossoms
Add 3 1/2 lbs. sugar to juice and 2 packets of dried yeast
Add about 4 oranges whole and 5 lemons whole
Add 1/2 lb. raisins
Soak one week with raisins. 
Stir well at least once a day while soaking during the 2 weeks.

29 April, 2025

Dante Alighieri's "Paradiso"

Photo from Google Images

Dante Alighieri’s Paradiso

Today, I’ve placed parallel posts on my blogs with both exploring Dante Alighieri’s final book of The Divine Comedy: Paradiso.

Spheres and circularity dominate the theme of this epic poem. Dante often even imitates the shape of the circle with his words. The Pilgrim and guide enter heaven at the convergence of four circles with three crosses. (This use of seven symbols refers to the seven virtues: 4 cardinal, 3 theological.) The three crosses could also pertain to the three crosses that we saw at Calvary, which would then lend to the idea of the theological. 

The term "cardinal" comes from the Latin cardo or hinge; therefore, the cardinal virtues (Prudence, Justice, Temperance, and Fortitude) are pivotal to any wise life. In the Old Testament Book of Wisdom, 8:7, we learn that "She [Wisdom] teacheth temperance, and prudence, and justice, and fortitude, which are such things as men can have nothing more profitable in life."
In The Republic, Plato identified these same virtues with societal classes and thus, the very faculties of humanity:

Temperance: produces classes, the farmers and craftsmen, also animal appetites
Fortitude: associated with the warrior class and the spirited element in man
Prudence: associated with rulers and reason
Justice: stands outside the class system and divisions of man, and rules the proper relationship among them.

The theological virtues of Faith, Hope, and Love (charity), indicate a higher level of consciousness and compassion. Lessons that pertain to each of these virtues repeat throughout the Old and New Testament and within more ancient religious precepts. 

28 April, 2025

The Long Eighteenth Century Political Writing of Sydney Owenson (Lady Morgan)

My collection of Sydney Owenson (Lady Morgan) books

Citizenry rise to proclaim their independence from legislative taxation without corresponding representation in individual communities. This cry for autonomy creates the atmosphere for the eighteenth century American colonists to stand strong against any form of tyranny and eventually to create a unique form of government “of the people, by the people, for the people.”  This concept resonates with Owenson, as she rewrites her own history to correspond with major events belonging to the American colonists’ revolutionary actions.  

In the eighteenth century, the scientific world embarks on new discoveries. Sight, sound, and the universe embody the main thought patterns during this time. In this context, Marjorie Hope Nicolson observes, “the increasing self-consciousness of the eighteenth century about the sense of sight (leads) to a growing interest in all senses, their processes, and their interrelationship, and to an awareness of the ‘harmony of the senses.’” This encompasses those sensory stimuli, which affect every aspect of the human being. 

Owenson: 
To make her native country better known, and to dissipate the political and religious prejudices that hindered its prosperity...in her works, there was always some principle to be advocated or elucidated…Neither lovers, friends, nor flatterers, ever turned her attention from the steady, settled aim of her life-- and that was to advocate the interest of her country in her writing. (Memoirs, p. 284)

In this manner,  Owenson makes references to familial attributes in her descriptions of relations between Great Britain, America, and Ireland.

 _____________________________________
Marjorie Hope Nicolson, Newton Demands the Muse: Newton's Opticks and the Eighteenth Century Poets, (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1966), p 87.

27 April, 2025

Fractal Force

A few years ago, another blogger gave our poetry group a line prompt to use for our weekly poetry read. The line was as follows: "I am a crooked line." Well, the first thought that came to my mind was FRACTALS! I simply changed the word 'crooked' to 'fractal.' 
To view more fractals and listen to some ambient music, click HERE.

Incredible fractals found in Nature: Fiddlehead Ferns
Photo from Google Images

Fractal Force
I am a fractal line.
My course
aligns with the Spirit.
A conforming
non-conformist,
I weave between
giving and receiving
forthright
with humble regard for
pure
infinite
ubiquitous
Love.

© Jeanne I. Lakatos

To hear me recite this verse, click the link HERE. 


25 April, 2025

Daffodils, Forget-me-nots, and an Old Rock Wall

 

Daffodils and Forget-me-nots, along an old rock wall in Connecticut.


Daffodils, Forget-me-nots, and an Old Rock Wall

Daffodils and Forget-me-nots, 

planted many years ago along an old rock wall, 

remind us that others tread along this path. 

We forget them not, for their brilliance lingers.

Their journey has ended while ours continues,

endeavors never defeated by onslaughts 

of storms, heat, cold winds, and other calamities. 

We are strong, resilient, awakening each Spring:

Daffodils, Forget-me-nots, old rock walls...us.


© Jeanne I. Lakatos 



24 April, 2025

Cognitive Revolutions: Creative Revelations


A Beautiful Sunset in Danbury, CT


Yesterday, the Gospel Reading at church was the story of Jesus, meeting His disciples on the Road to Emmaus: Luke 24:13-35. It made me think...

We learn to recognize aspects of our lives that create impressions, unaware of the cognitive variations that our minds and bodies interpret and reinterpret. Yet, we continue to gracefully move through our personal universes. How often have we affected others? How often have others affected us?

Revolution of thought is inclusive of awareness within the mind and body with their inter/intra-connections. Very simply, as we perceive and cognitively organize our environment, we slowly create the opus that is only ours to share. To consider this concept in a positive way, that opus can move humanity to a higher level of consciousness.

Just think! If individuals elevated their thinking to those matters that pertain to the goodness and creative genius that dwells within, how generous we could be with each other! How marvelous this Earthly experience could be!

As we concentrate intently on our thoughts and their influences, we affect our reality, and thus, we open the possibilities of individual, creative, and Love connections... in God's time.

22 April, 2025

A Gathering of Souls

A Gathering of Souls

Friendship bound by a common thread

nourished with Eternal Bread

of kindness, love, and stories shared

revealing truth to one who cared.

These are the Blessings we unfold,

as youthful dreams become 'days of old'

and gatherings are more carefully planned,

honoring love as a theme so grand. 

Refrain from giving confusion reign!

A shivering soul has warmth to gain, 

I pick up my needle with colorful thread

  Repair the tattered.  

Share the Bread. 


© Jeanne I. Lakatos


(To hear my reading of this poem on Pod-omatic, click HERE.)

21 April, 2025

Harmony of the Spheres


The following is an excerpt from a paper I presented at the Mid-Atlantic Conference for Irish Studies, years ago. I've placed information  about this same topic on my other blog, which can be reached by clicking on the photo to the right.  

Human beings have an inherent need to interact with one another. Yet, they often find themselves struggling with what appears to be the truth of their perceptions. This ambivalence leads to the categorizing of experiences as a way to manage personal reactions. Philosophers, such as Immanuel Kant and Carl Jung, as well as mathematicians, such as Pythagoras and Kepler, have clarified this management in terms of music, more specifically, the music of the spheres.

This concept illustrates that human communication parallels strict mathematical components associated with harmonics. To clarify the concept of harmony of the spheres, one can consider a musical tone that contains the original resonating frequency with overtones creating precise harmonic variations.

Pythagoras’ theory contained the idea that there was a distinct mathematical configuration, establishing a relationship of the harmonic distances between the planets. These harmonics were considered the substance of a planetary influence on the human psyche.

Centuries later, Johannes Kepler clarified this theory with his discovery that harmonic energy emanates from the sun, and there exists an exact harmonic relationship between each planet. Philosophers of the eighteenth century, such as Immanuel Kant, connect Kepler’s theory to the concept of human consciousness.

Thus, music of the spheres represents the harmonics of human thought whereby one idea, emanating from a human being, extends to another throughout the centuries, and overtones or nuances of thought create a new harmonic of the original conception. This new harmonic, then, resonates with another interpretation, and soon, there are many new concepts formed that connect with the original resonating thought.

17 April, 2025

Easter: Renewal

Pysanky eggs that I hand-painted... Whew! a tedious, but rewarding process.

Easter Tridiuum (Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Sunday)

A Joyous Easter to You!


I took this photograph of a flower growing in the sidewalk on NUI campus, Galway, Ireland.

 Awaken

Awakened
moments, conceived 
meiosis of human spirit,
evolve 
into a vision ~ 
Divine intercession.

A festering wound
bleeds 
to hasten the quickening 
toward conscientious
toward Love...
 Awakening.

         © Jeanne I. Lakatos

To hear me recite the above verse, please click HERE.

Sydney Owenson: Rituals and Political Reality through Saint Mary Magdalene in Her Narrative, 'Saint Clair'

Stained Glass Image of Saint Mary Magdalene 
from Google Images

From my book, Innovation in Rhetoric in the Writing of Sydney Owenson...
pp. 208-209:

As Sydney Owenson interweaves the blind devotion to rituals of Catholics with those of the French Revolution, she carefully demonstrates the affiliation of church and state, contrary to legislative decrees in the British Act of Union 1801, which states that those of a particular religious affiliation would not be permitted to hold public office. Thus, those jurisdictions, which primarily consist of Catholic citizens, would not receive representation within the governmental forums and subsequently, would not receive legislation in their favor. Owenson presents this conflicting belief system by cleverly choosing Mary Magdalene, the woman chosen by a few selected medieval scribes to be represented historically as a woman scorned, yet in her narrative, St. Clair, Mary Magdalene is the source of a worshipped relic. In her revolutionary, albeit romantic, style, Owenson challenges her aristocratic audience to reconsider its dependence on ritualistic prejudice against the population it wishes to control. 

Owenson concludes this passage with a reference to a rose, her personal symbol for Ireland. She uses the adjectives, ‘faded, with a tear of genius and sensibility,’ to describe this weathered bloom. This incongruous set of descriptions for a flower held as a ‘sacred vial’ indicates a conflicted perspective. In the following sentence, she reveals with more clarity her conflict, “I confess in one sense but certainly more disinterested in another.” If Owenson attempts to confess to her reading audience her own disinterest in the viability of questionable sacredness in religious relics, she does so by linking her beloved countrymen and women with the possibilities of becoming more conscious of their political reality through their symbolic treasures, such as the weathered rose as the symbol of ancient luster.


15 April, 2025

Boston

I wrote this verse shortly after the day that Boston endured an explosion at the Boston Marathon on Freedom Day. On that same day, just minutes before the explosion, the Kennedy Library archive section experienced a fire. Hmmm...coincidence? Perhaps. Perhaps not. 


Boston Public Garden (photo from Google Images)

Boston

A city
like many others
with Freedom under attack,
but citizens
fight back.

One by one,
they
draw from strength
draw from courage
draw from love
of one another
drawn from God.

Then they withdraw
the venom 
from those who draw too often
from the wellspring
of hospitality.

So, these patriots grow
in strength:
Boston Strong!

© Jeanne I. Lakatos

11 April, 2025

Upon Viewing the Bog Bodies Exhibit at the National Museum of Ireland

On one of my research trips to Ireland, I visited the National Museum and viewed an exhibit of Bog Bodies. These were individuals who had been discovered buried for centuries within the bogs throughout the country. I was struck by my own emotions as I viewed these remains. At one point, I just wanted to place a warm blanket over their leathered remains and wish them a safe journey to be with our Lord. 

I took this photo of the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin, 
whilst sitting on a bench just outside the National Library.

Upon Viewing the Bog Bodies of Ireland
Inside
the exquisitely sculpted rotunda,
behind exhibits of gold and amber adornments,
exposed in tombs of plexiglass,
lay remains of people
who once held hands,
smiled gently to their loved ones,
kissed softly on moonlit nights.

Centuries pass,

and as her silent witness meets theirs,
she senses a tear's warmth
and whispers a prayer
that their spirits are far away
and at peace.

© Jeanne I. Lakatos

You can hear my reading of this poem by clicking HERE.

09 April, 2025

Trains! A Phantasmagorical Journey

Grand Central Station, NYC
Photo from Google Images

One week, my poetry group leader asked us to consider taking the train. Well, my trains of thought below switch tracks now and then: from London's Victoria Station Underground to the New York City's Metro North, which in 2005-06, transported me from Connecticut via Brewster, NY to Grand Central Station, NY City, a phantasmagorical experience, centered with love. 


Phantasmagoria

My train of thought travels
along rickety tracks
holding onto every second
of life, whirling images
in hues of benevolence,
common sense,  and innocence
trying to make sense of it all,
love

Thrilling, drilling,
milling, willing,
this train has made stops:
friendships, family,
laughter, tears
love

Dedication, rumination,
allocation, tribulation,
abandonment, containment
achievement, bereavement
love

Once, I rode the train in London.
It stopped suddenly, and we
were told to evacuate.
The bomb did not detonate!
Divine Love

I stepped through a city of bedlam
eyes of fear, fearless, far from home
found my way to the British Library
back to my daughter’s smiling eyes
alive and satisfied, determined:
Loved

Clickety-click, the clock ticks
in synchronicity with New York City.
Passengers wait, date, relate, abate
whirling past the swans, evergreens,
quaint boutiques of Chappaqua:
country love

to Harlem’s door,
racing past graffiti,
colors smearing, words jeering
interlocking letters on a wall
tcxtual shout outs: anxious, proud
confused, fused, words:
city love

Bridge to tunnel, dark, lights blink
so many tracks, interlace under
this train slowly squeals to a stop,
doors open; we walk through the gates
under a Grand Central firmament
to blend in with the multitude
and I am one...
love.

© Jeanne I. Lakatos

(You can hear my reading of this by clicking HERE.)

06 April, 2025

Listening...

A view of a cold, wet Spring day

Listening... 

I feel strength in the wind today.
It doesn't care what I have to say
because it has a job to do,
spreading seeds and pollen everywhere, 
so I stand very still and listen with care. 

Birds do not chirp as they did the day before, 
but they dart from branch to branch
seeking shelter and food with no worries
about their cold, wet feathers. 
In fact, they seem to enjoy this weather.

Windblown hair wraps around my face
and darting raindrops pelt my cheeks, 
yet here I stand listening
to the bare branches click with delight,
their strong leaf blossoms stand up to the fight. 

Puddles that form along the road 
reflect low, ethereal clouds, 
gliding through the gray sky, 
like pictures painted by a Master's hand.
 Then, I hear a message, simple but grand: 
"Let go; let God." 

© Jeanne Iris Lakatos

To hear me recite this verse, please click HERE




03 April, 2025

Frontal Acumen

photo taken by me in Danbury, Connecticut, U.S.A.

In a recent year, we had an extraordinary weather pattern here in Connecticut. As a front rapidly moved through the area, the skies filled with color, then torrential downpours, then sun and warm temperatures. Then, we were back in the freezing zone with snow predicted. As Mark Twain commented once, "if you don't like the weather in New England, just wait a few minutes." Okay, that's the weather report. What does this all mean philosophically?  

Human consciousness continually evolves, and as we move through our daily activities, nuances affect us in ways that sometimes we don't even realize until other events bring these subtle revelations into focus, providing clarity and introspection.


Frontal Acumen
Such grandeur surges
in a moment of wonder: 
guiding, hoping, gusting, 
winds envelop 
swirling reality 
shaking dreams loose,  
sparking an idea 
with Authority. 

© Jeanne I. Lakatos