Bob Dylan and band, Farm Aid 2025
Sunday, September 21, 2025
THE SONG (MARGO PRICE, FARM AID 2025) ~
She was made to sing it
Billy Strings finished off the instrumental with the band —
String's own set is the magnificent one — waiting
to post his set once it shows
Saturday, September 20, 2025
ISHMAEL REED ~
The Banishment
We don't want you here
Your crops grow better than ours
We don't want you here
You're not one of our kind
We'll drive you out
As though you were never here
Your names, family and history
We'll make them all disappear
We don't want you here
You look too good on Sunday
We don't want you here
You work too hard on Monday
We don't want you here
Your children are learning in school
We don't want you here
Why aren't they behind a mule?
We don't want you here
Your women dress so fine
We don't want you here
Your gain means
Our decline
Why aren't your men
Stooped and bent
The way they should be
They walk about town
As though they were free
We don't want you here
Go away and never return
We don't want you here
Your homes, farms and
Churches will burn
We don't want you here
__________________________
Ishmael Reed
Why The Black Hole Sings The Blues
Poems 2007-2020
Dalkey Archive, 2020
Reed's masterpiece "The Jazz Martyrs"
is included here
Friday, September 19, 2025
Thursday, September 18, 2025
Wednesday, September 17, 2025
ROBERTO TEJADA ~
Grassland
Flax color patches of flash-flame
vast little grassland
disturbance come
in splinter light
intractable
*
morning dispersed
on encrusted earth
in gravel shade
casting mineral
hold given over
to whatever survives
*
misgiven views
in diagonal glare
to the far mount
above the patter
of pronghorn
luted beyond
the lashing Tyvek
house-wrap
from a single wide
exoskeleton
*
over winter disruption
given on proximity
long unbroken
underspread
of ground
in miles
to the great elevation
the other name
for eye and throat
for land tilt
delivery
*
here is the fiend
of family
ferocity
here is the god
to reversing
genesis
as again to grace
once-broken
blades of agave
with blooming
_____________________
Roberto Tejada
Carbonate of Copper
Fordham University Press, 2025
Tuesday, September 16, 2025
Monday, September 15, 2025
NAGUIS MAHFOUZ ~
Dream 231
I saw Ibrahim Pasha emerge right out of his own statue
and go wandering from cafe to cafe, challenging the top
backgammon champions and defeating them one by one.
Dream 232
I found myself in the Al Ghouriya district and there were
twice as many police as civilians. I saw my father walking
toward me with a policeman on either side of him. I pan-
icked, thinking he was under arrest. But then he greeted
me and said: I see a policeman on either side of you, and
I'm afraid you've been arrested.
Dream 233
I found myself in our old house in El Abbassiya, with my
mother and sisters overcome with grief over the death of
our faithful and much-loved dog. I had only ever seen them
in such a state when the dearest to us had passed away.
Dream 234
I saw myself as the proprietor of a large farm around which
I had built a modern village with clean running water and
electricity. There was also a hospital, a school, a mosque,
and a church. I'd doubled the wages of the workers. Then
the warden of the district came to tell me: You stand accused
of showing up the neighboring landlords and, therefore, of
inciting anarchy and revolt among the innocent peasants.
Dream 235
I found myself in a group of young men listening to Osman
Bouzi, the most prominant producer of perfumes during
my youth: he was calling on us to boycott foreign goods.
My father told me, sitting cross-legged on his prayer rug:
That's all very well, but we haven't yet manufactured the
most essential products. I told him: Well, let's start with
what is possible.
Dream 236
I saw myself entering a new apartment, with the doorman
leading the way. Then he was nowhere to be seen. I became
homesick and wanted to leave, but I couldn't find my way
out. Voices, offering guidance, began to direct me. Some-
times they said to turn right and other times left. I called
out to the doorman, and then I called out to my family.
Darkness fell, everything was confusion. And yet, some-
how, I never altogether lost hope.
______________________
Naguib Mahfouz
I Found Myself . . .
translated by Hisham Matar
New Directions, 2025
Sunday, September 14, 2025
Saturday, September 13, 2025
Friday, September 12, 2025
Thursday, September 11, 2025
Wednesday, September 10, 2025
NEW ! ANDREW SCHELLING ~
Andrew Schelling
Books On The Game Trail
_______________
Longhouse, 2025
many-colored
& limited
$12
postpaid
U.S. orders
We accept Paypal
or check
Please use our email address :
longhousepoetry@gmail.com
Longhouse
PO Box 2454
West Brattleboro
Vermont
05303
Tuesday, September 9, 2025
Monday, September 8, 2025
LANGSTON HUGHES ~
Our Land
(Poem for a Decorative Panel)
We should have a land of sun,
Of gorgeous sun,
And a land of fragrant water
Where the twilight is a soft bandanna handkerchief
Of rose and gold,
and not this land where life is cold.
We should have a land of trees,
Of tall thick trees,
Bowed down with chattering parrots
Brilliant as the day,
And not this land where birds are grey,
Ah, we should have a land of joy,
Of love and joy and wine and song,
And not this land where joy is wrong
Oh, sweet, away!
Ah, my beloved one, away!
__________________________
Langston Hughes
Blues in Stereo
Legacy 2024
Sunday, September 7, 2025
NEW ! Renée Gregorio ~
Renée Gregorio
The Xenia Dialogues
_______________
Longhouse, 2025
many-colored
& limited
$12
postpaid
U.S. orders
We accept Paypal
or check
Please use our email address :
longhousepoetry@gmail.com
Longhouse
PO Box 2454
West Brattleboro
Vermont
05303
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