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Recently, I visited Basil and Martha King at their beautiful home in Brooklyn. Baz has been sketching faces in charcoal—I really enjoy the adventure of looking at them.
Not long ago, he was featured in The Cafe Review, a literary magazine out of Maine. His work is on the front cover, a playing card from a series he did decades ago, and on the back cover are four of his recent faces. His poems are featured in the issue as well, and Baz reads those in the video below.
I have also printed the poems—they follow the video—so you can read along if you want to. Enjoy.
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poems for Steve Ruttrell
1)
………..A Triangle dreams
………..Of having a tail
………..A striped tail
………..Like a sergeant
………. It walks a straight
………..Line
2)
…………When he was a young man Walt Whitman had a short beard.
……….. In the Civil War Whitman has a long beard and he fed pie
…………to the wounded. Whitman’s Leaves of Grass stings America’s
…………being, its worth and its person. America learns to live and
…………die.
3)
…………There is no poem
…………In these triangles
…………There is heat
…………And a heart
…………Beat
…………That will not
…………Destruct
…………Three angles
…………Go up
…………Three sides
…………Come down
4)
………..Oh Black Mountain, wonderful place,
………..desperate place. I was blown to
………..where light abstracts the smallest thing,
………..into the core of a vernacular, into
………..the heart of the abstract. No wind but the
………..stillness blows me, no reason; no
………..existence blows the shapes that have lost
………..their edges. Oh, Black Mountain,
………..wonderful place, desperate place. Blow your
………..feathers and your worms. Your
………..mulch protrudes the surface. Your bravery
………..blows forgiveness. Your anger
………..blows freedom. Oh, Black Mountain,
………..wonderful place, desperate place. I
………..was blown to where light abstracts the
………..smallest thing, into the core of a
………..vernacular, into the heart of the abstract.
………..No wind but the stillness blows
………..me, no reason; no existence blows the
………..shapes that have lost their edges
5)
………..Give
………..Before there was charcoal
………..There was fire
………..And naked bodies
………..Are heard
………..Give me a home
………..And something to eat
………..Give me water
………..Give me sex
………..Give me before you
………..Give
………..Give me a painting
………..With four corners
………..And a center
………..To keep me warm
6)
………..Necklace
………..Pride being true
………..To what is said
………..Can only be said
………..On land
………..Stretch the canvas
………..And
………..Size the Atlantic
………..My mother’s eyes are the
………..Necklace of my childhood
………..And I wear
………..Pride being true
………..To what is said
………..Can only be said
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………..On land
………..Stretch canvas
………..And
………..Size the Atlantic
7)
………..Emily Dickinson
………..Emily Dickinson made it very clear to her family. She was
………..not interested in the King’s English.
………..With language I am me – without it I am yours – and that
………..can never be. Verbs, nouns and articles, Emily Dickinson
………..conjugated a language that became the furniture in her
………..bedroom. With language I am me – without it I am yours –
………..and that can never be.
8)
………..Drawing
………..Inside
………..The Red bricks
………..Of Bruges
………..Modigliani
………..Found
………..Africa
………..In Paris
………..He spoke French
………..Was he never paid?
………..In Paris
………..He coughed
………..And spoke
………..To
………..A bird’s eye
………..A nipple full of
………..Honey is a shawl
………..For
………..The desert heat
………..Remember
………..She too
………..Is inside
………..The Red Bricks
………..of Bruges
9)
………..Dinner for Two
………..When Dante
………..Saw Beatrice
………..He told her
………..They would have
………..Breakfast in New York
………..Lunch in London
………..Dinner in Paris
IMPORTANT NOTES!
All these poems (except for #2 and #4) were published in Afterthought/Paintings and Poems, a special limited edition of only 20 copies – facing reproductions of Basil King’s paintings – published by Granary Press in 2022. The copies now reside in specialty libraries in the U.S. For more information, visit the Granary Press website.
#2 – Walt Whitman – was deleted from the Granary edition due to technical problems with the image.
#4 – This poem was part of Basil King’s narration in the BAM production of Richard Reed Parry and Bruce Dessner’s Black Mountain Songs in 2014. Baz was not used as The Narrator when this production was later presented in England or at Black Mountain College. It was first published as a poem in Learning to Draw/A History, UK: Skylight Press, 2011, in Part II of “The Real Thing Has Four Parts.”
#7 – Emily Dickinson – was published as a stand-alone in Talisman Journal in 2022.
Basil thanks editors Steve Clay, the developers of Black Mountain Songs, Daniel Staniforth, and
Ed Foster for their support of his work.
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You can find out more about The Cafe Review here:
https://www.thecafereview.com/
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I’d like to mention a favorite book of mine by Basil King called Disparate Beasts, stories about the lives of artists told in poems of sublime enlightening biography and gossip that I find to be a thoroughly enjoyable read.
Disparate Beasts is published by Marsh Hawk Press. You can check it out here:
http://www.spdbooks.org/Products/9780996991179/disparate-beasts-basil-kings-beastiary-part-two.aspx
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Here is my blog post with Basil King reading from Disparate Beasts:
Basil King reads from Disparate Beasts