{"id":2352,"date":"2025-03-21T08:32:13","date_gmt":"2025-03-21T08:32:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/?p=2352"},"modified":"2025-03-21T08:32:16","modified_gmt":"2025-03-21T08:32:16","slug":"portrait-of-a-man-on-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/portrait-of-a-man-on-fire\/2352\/","title":{"rendered":"Portrait of a Man on Fire"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On the 29th<\/sup> of May, I was sent off to Joseph Dahl\u2019s townhouse. He was often seen strolling around Caden Street or by the lake in Muriel Park, wishing everyone a good hullo, usually while dressed in a grey suit tailored from JR Parking\u2019s and wearing a straw hat. A habit which made him the menace of a few penny counters and good Samaritans, but the local policemen regarded him as more an itch than any serious threat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSome people,\u201d he said as he gripped my hand in his leathery paw, \u201ccan\u2019t understand the spiritual life, they\u2019ll chant their vows come Sunday but rarely put those promises into practice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow about it?\u201d asked his not wife, not girlfriend, Susannah, who at that moment lazed upon the sofa. \u201cDo you swear by Christ or by Odin?\u201d

<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

I knew that Christ in this context, meant dull as dishwater conformity. To them Jesus was the brown-haired Caucasian, a treasured institutional piece, rather than a middle eastern rebel, and Odin was the big cheese of their ancestors, because Joseph and Susannah were \u201cnever one of us,\u201d but proud aliens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell,\u201d I replied ,\u201cas Woden was the god of my ancestors\u2019 enemies, I\u2019d swear by Excalibur instead, but you\u2019d still think me English. So, I\u2019ll swear by Caledfwlch.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Susannah laughed. \u201cOh I love it when you people hint at things I\u2019ve not yet read. Makes planet earth all the more exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joseph though, perhaps happy that I had never met his friends and thus had no inkling of the real him, shoved me towards the hall whilst Susanah, with an almost cat like sloth, let her fingers trace dust off the hardwood floor as her lips blew raspberries at our retreating backs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd now,\u201d Joseph laughed, \u201cI\u2019ll show you the centre piece of the home, centrepiece of my life really. Perhaps you\u2019ve heard of my dad, Lt. Eric Dahl and how he killed twenty soldiers during his tour of Qikiqtaaluk. The man was a modern day hero for Chrissake!\u201d

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And he led me to the landing where a gigantic and vivid painting stood above the bannisters, depicting a stern man, silver haired and silver moustached, standing proudly in a dark maroon suit, his left arm a wooden claw with a bloodhound sitting by his side. The interesting detail was that the man was engulfed in flame, and I don\u2019t mean that the portrait was burning, rather it appeared that Lt. Dahl, set himself ablaze and dutifully stood still to allow the artist to paint him at a leisurely pace, judging by the care to detail that one Mr J. Pasolini (his signature lay at the right hand corner) had given the work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAn act of self-control,\u201d Joseph beamed. \u201cThe man could remain perfectly cool, even if an ocelot ate his nose or the earth gave way beneath his feet. This painting is a monument to the spirit conquering the flesh, something we should all aspire to.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSure,\u201d I shrugged.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the 29th of May, I was sent off to Joseph Dahl\u2019s townhouse. He was often seen strolling around Caden Street or by the lake in Muriel Park, wishing everyone a good hullo, usually while dressed in a grey suit tailored from JR Parking\u2019s and wearing a straw hat. A habit which made him the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211":"","twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1490,1539],"tags":[114,1571,1182,8,122,20,1568,119,31,157,12,1350,1569,1570,11],"class_list":["post-2352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1490","category-heat","tag-but","tag-dahl","tag-good","tag-he","tag-him","tag-his","tag-joseph","tag-ll","tag-man","tag-more","tag-my","tag-off","tag-susannah","tag-swear","tag-was"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbrNJE-BW","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2352"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2353,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2352\/revisions\/2353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}