… A few months ago, I heard David Groff read from Live in Suspense, his most recent book, at the Jefferson Market Library. The poems were very visual, and philosophical, a bit like parables, with existence itself as the theme; … Continue reading
Category Archives: Odds and Ends
Spiritual Sonnets by Juan Ramón Jiménez
… SONETOS ESPIRITUALES I AL SONETO CON MI ALMA Como en el ala el infinito vuelocual en la flor está la esencia errante, lo mismo que en la llama el caminante fulgor, y en el azul el solo cielo; …..como … Continue reading
My Girl, My Girl
… The song I sing in the video is from Leadbelly. He called it “Black Girl.” I’ve changed some of the lyrics and added the end from another song, “Prettiest Train,” which Odetta sang on her Carnegie Hall record album. … Continue reading
words are birds
… … words are birds eye is sky … … … … …
Sonnet 44
… I hear Dad’s chainsaw echo down the fieldcutting firewood for December’s stove. Herknife in hand Mom chops the cabbage she’ll sealin jars pouring boiling water overit first with a tablespoon of sea salt.Come November she’ll have her sauerkraut.Summer yet, … Continue reading
Harry Kresky reads from A Poet’s Journey
… I met Harry Kresky in the late eighties; he was my lawyer, or I should say he was the lawyer for the community. Without going into too much detail, or I’ll be writing a book, Harry defended a Lower … Continue reading
O Pretty Self
O Pretty Self A snake curled in the sunfeels my shadow come and goesripples over stones. The stream falls downand oozes out of mossand mud where a deer’s stepped. No, I won’t pick this violet.Let it clutch the cracking rockblue … Continue reading
36
36 I see how strong a fragile thing can be. Look! A butterfly comes fluttering over its own reflection hovering out in the middle of a pond so deep and close you’d think no insect strength could last the … Continue reading
232
… Fluttering robins louder than my singingare violent on the lawn where they’re fightingover a worm—No!—I’m wrong. As quietas a junkie gets sticking the needle in no matter what funny business preceded it—Like a junkie suddenlysilent one bird enters the … Continue reading
Marc Chagall: Six Paintings
… I became aware of Marc Chagall when I was a teenager in the 1960’s. Many of the artists I discovered then were still alive like Dali, Picasso, Georgia O’Keeffe, Marcel Duchamp, and Marc Chagall too, whose brides, goats, and … Continue reading
Walking Blues
When Robert Johnson recorded “Walking Blues” in 1936, he was working from a version Son House, not the Devil, had taught him. And the great Son House himself was borrowing from a Blues tradition that began after the Civil War … Continue reading
A Reading for Black Square Editions: Anselm Berrigan, Marcella Durand, and Barry Schwabsky
Weeks before it happened, I had heard about the Black Square Editions book party that was scheduled to take place at the signs and symbols art gallery at 249 East Houston. As the day approached, I looked forward to it … Continue reading