ARCHIVE ~ ITALO CALVINO ~

 

R E A D   M E

     The Road to San Giovanni

FRANCO ALL NIGHT ~

 

ON IMPUNITY, PINOCHET IN ENGLAND. . .~

 

R E A D   M E

    Knopf 2025

JOHN PRINE ~

 

J O H N   P R I N E

     Norton 2025

JUMP CUTS ~

 

R E A D   M E

One of the best titles from this

intermittent intriguing press ~

the poetry titles are on the weaker side

the re-issues are invaluable

the prose titles robust

THE BAND TONIGHT ~

 

℗ 2000 Capitol Records, LLC Released on: 2000-01-01 Producer: John Simon Composer, Vocalist: Richard Manuel Bassvocalist, Background Vocalist: Rick Danko Mastering Engineer, Mixing Engineer: Andrew Sandoval Engineer: Don Hahn Mastering Engineer: Dan Hersch Composer: Bob Dylan

RAUL MALO ~

 

R A U L    M A  L O

THINGS THAT DISAPPEAR ~

 

J E N N Y   E R P E N B E C K

R E A D   M E

     New Directions 2025

WANDA JACKSON TONIGHT ~

 

℗ 1958 Capitol Records, LLC

HALYNA KRUK ~

 

August

at night the pear bulbs illuminate

august's final meters    a porno plays

in someone's window, in a black living room

grasshoppers chirp, the spectators giggle,

the credits roll by unread

someone whispers emphatically in my ear: get rid of

all useless sounds like laments

about what happens to us in the end,

'cause it's not time yet, there's suspense and so on,

for it's geature-length and you can, by living

slowly and frugally, dry pears for winter,

darn stiff autumn shrouds of conversation with voices,

go for a stroll together around the empty park,

fingering the hole in your pocket,

which, in the end, we both fall out of

____________________

Halyna Kruk

Lost in Living

Lost Horse Press, 2024

translated by Ali Kinsella/Dzvinia Orlowsky

THE WORLD IS DANGEROUS ~

 

Hurray for the Riff Raff's "The World Is Dangerous" from the album 'The Past Is Still Alive,' out on Nonesuch Records: 2024

TILSA OTTA ~

 

I saw a herd of toads in the gully of my reflection

Staring at each other arguing over insects

It wasn't romantic 

White suits folded on the lake

And a gold medal gleaming like the mosquito

That can distinguish blue blood

From slime

Sliding down the rocky salt flats

Of Acaoulco's snowy isthmus

It was my saddest memory

I was in pieces

I was feeling Greco-Roman

A hermaphroditic breeze fluttered the skirts

Of parking lot shadows

An oil smell took me out of the scene

And I entered the dark cinema

I lit a cigarette

The first light came on and by law

They kicked me out of this world

_________________

Tilsa Otta

The Hormone of Darkness

translated Farid Matuk

Graywolf Press, 2024

CORA WEISS ~

 

C O R A   W E I S S

Cora Weiss at a news conference in New York City in 1972 with David Dellinger, center, the co-chairman of the Committee of Liaison with Families of Servicemen Detained in North Vietnam, and the Rev. William Sloan Coffin Jr., a Yale chaplain.Credit...Ron Frehm/Associated Press

MIKEAS SANCHEZ ~

 

Jesucristo’is Ja’ Ñäjktyäj’ya Äj’ Tzumama’is Kyionuksku’y

Äj’ tzumama’is ja’ myuspäkä’ kastiya’ore
natzu’ jyambä’ä ngyomis’kyionukskutyam
natzu’ xaä’ tumä nabdzu’
jyambäukam yanuku’is musokiu’tyam
Äj’ tzumama’is wyanjambana’ jujche’ ore’omorire’na
Muspabä tä’ tzamä’sawa’jin
tese’ kujtnebya’na eyabä’ ngomis wyinan’omoram
tese’na konukspa chokoyjin ni’ijse
Jesucristo’is ja’ myajna kyonujksku’y
te’ yore äj’ dzumamas’ñye
ñä’ ijtu’na pomarrosas yoma’ram
tese’ sunkbana’ tumä’ matza
wyrün’omoram wadbasenaka’
San Miguel Arkangel’is ja’ myajna’ kyänuksku’y
äj’tzumama’is kyänuksku’y wenen’omo yaxonguy’tyam’dena’
jukis’tyt numbana’ tese’ poyajpana te’ toya’ram
patsoke wejpana’ tese’ te’ Sungä mita’na yängu’kyämä
Te’ yängu’kyämärike pänayaju’ kuyay’yune’ram

 

Jesus Never Understood My Grandmother’s Prayers

My grandmother never learned Spanish
was afraid of forgetting her gods
was afraid of waking up in the morning
without the prodigals of her offspring in her memory.
My grandmother believed that you could only
talk to the wind in Zoque
but she kneeled before the saints
and prayed with more fervor than anyone.
Jesus never heard her
my grandmother’s tongue
smelled like rose apples
and her eyes lit up when she sang
with the brightness of a star.
Saint Michael the Archangel never heard her
my grandmother’s prayers were sometimes blasphemies
jukis’tyt she said and the pain stopped
patsoke she yelled and time paused beneath her bed.
In that same bed she birthed her seven sons.

 

Nereyda’is myabaxäyu nwyt New’York

Nereyda’is myabaxäyu nwyt New’York
ne’ yamumä’ kiene tumä tuku’ ma’aomo ñoyibäis Macy’s
tumä ore’yomo
tumä pabiñomo pänajubä’ dä’ najsomo’ram
tumä’ nkiae ne’ pyoyubä koxtaksi’
ne’ chajkienbäu’bäis dyagbajk’ajku’y
Yanu’ku’is myuja’ajkujxye’
jaya’ iri’ nijuräbä kubgu’y nasakobajk’omo
yäjse’ tejse’ yenu’ ojse’jin
te’ nkiäram takyajubä pakakis’
kawa’ wä’ yispüjkiaju te’ tzama ja’ yispäjkia’äjse xis’
jiksek’ Ngiomi te’ nasakobajk’
Tzitzungätzäjk’mäbä
Tumä mätzik’ wane’rire’na
juwä’ yagbajk’unestam’ wyä’ñayajpana ñyatzku’tyam
Teje te Pinakate jenere’na natzkuxebä’
Tumä ne’pyakäyubä’ pabiñomo’koroya
teje’ te tojtzubä’najs Sonorasñye’ jenere’na mujabä’
wäkä pyatayaä’ pyajk’ käwanubä poyo’omoram
Nereyda’is myabaxäyu nwyt New’York
ne’ yamumä’ kiene tumä tuku’ ma’aomo ñoyibäis Macy’s
Nasakobajk’ uka mujspa manä’
minä’ pinja’ yanima
minä’ yajk’ tzunja’ kyändätzä’ tumä’moneko’ majkis yames’ñye
minä’ nobujta’ dyajxu’tzujkayajubä’ xys’
minä’ yajk’ tujkwiruä kyae’omo
te’ kyae’ myätzäbya’bäsna tzaune’ram
ijtyajubä te’ tzitzungätzojkis’myeya’omo
minä’ tejin’ käminä’
minä’

 

Nereyda Dreamed in New York

Nereyda dreamed in New York
contemplating her reflection in a Macy’s window
a migrant ore’yomo
a girl born in the Tzitzun empire
a girl fleeing barefoot
The grandness of her lineage could never
be compared to any other kingdom
but she grew up hungry
and her hands chapped by the cold
knew the countryside better than they know her own body
so Nasakobajk from the majesty of the Tzitzungätzojk
was just a music box
where the orphan girls stored their fear
But the Pinacate was too rural
for a cold girl
but the Sonora desert was very big
to find her skeleton hunched among the dunes
Nereyda dreamed in New York
contemplating her reflection in a Macy’s window
Oh Nasakobajk if you can hear her
draw near to gather her soul
draw near to satiate her 500-year thirst
draw near to rescue her injured body
draw near to turn her back into a girl
the one that played with the pebbles
that surround Tzitzun’s crater
draw near to her
draw near

Translated from Zoque by way of Spanish by David Shook

How to Be a Good Savage and Other Poems (Milkweed Editions 2023)

These poems first appeared in English in World Literature Today 88, no. 5 (September 2014)

 

ALIEN DAUGHTERS WALK INTO THE SUN ~

 

R E A D   M E

Semiotext(e) 2023

ROBERT JOHNSON ALL DAY & NIGHT ~

 

CARMEN MIRANDA TONIGHT ~

 

THE NOTEBOOK ~

 

R E A D   M E

     Biblioasis 2024

THE WAYS OF PARADISE ~

 

R E A D   M E

       Fitzcarraldo Editions

       2024

STEVE CROPPER ~

 

S T E V E   C R O P P E R

Steve Cropper, Guitarist, Songwriter and a Shaper of Memphis Soul Music, Dies at 84

As a member of Booker T. & the MG’s and as a producer, he played a pivotal role in the rise of Stax Records, a storied force in R&B in the 1960s and ’70s.

Steve Cropper in 1973. His guitar licks could be heard in hits by Otis Redding, Sam & Dave and Wilson Pickett, among many others.

Credit...                                                                David Reed Archive/Alamy

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PETE SEEGER TONIGHT ~

 

Words and Music by Pete Seeger (1964)

DRUMMOND HADLEY ~

 

Drum Hadley on Drumm Street, San Francisco
photo by Emma Piper-Burket 2009

R E A D   M E

"JAILBREAKERS" ( Y OU B E T ! )

 

AI’s safety features can be circumvented with poetry, research finds

R E A D   M E

MEREDITH MONK TONIGHT ~

 

Artist: Meredith Monk Album: Songs Of Ascension Release date: May 13, 2011

TIMELESS MUCHA ~

 

R E A D   M E

    d.a.p 2025

PJ HARVEY TONIGHT ~

 

NICOLAS GUILLEN ~

 

NOTICE

By resolution of the Local Authority

this great zoo was created

for natives and foreigners

and the pride of our nation.

Among the most prized specimens

are the water and wind animals

(as in the case of the hurricane),

also, a real live Aconcagua,

a teenage guitar,

living clouds,

one professor monkey, and another embryonic one.

Fatherland or Death?

     

                                               THE DIRECTOR

THE CARIBBEAN

In the aquarium of the Great Zoo

the Caribbean slips by.

                This animal,

enigmatic and maritime,

has a crest of crystal glass,

a blue back, a green tail,

an underbelly of compact corral,

and the gray fins of a hurricane.

On the aquarium, this inscription:

                                                         "Caution: it bites."

GUITAR

They went out hunting for guitars,

underneath the full moon.

And they brought back her:

pale, fine, lithe,

ceaseless mulata eyes,

a waist of open wood.

She's young, just barely flies.

But already she sings

when she hears, in other cages,

the flittering wings of sones and coplas.

His somber sones and her lonely coplas.

On her cage is this inscription: 

                                                    "Caution: she dreams."

THE RIVERS

Here is the serpent's cage.

Coiled up on themselves,

the rivers, the sacred rivers, sleep.

The Mississippi with its Blacks,

the Amazon with its Indians.

They are like the powerful springs

of gigantic trailer trucks.

Laughing, children toss them

little green living islands,

parrot-painted jungles,

manned canoes,

and other rivers.

The great rivers wake up,

uncoil themselves slowly,

gobble down everything, swell, almost bursting,

and then go back to sleep.

HURRICANE

A thoroughbred hurricane,

just arrived in Cuba from the Bahamas.

Raised in Bermuda

but has family in Barbados.

Has been to Puerto Rico.

Ripped out the mainmast of Jamaica by the roots.

Was going to ravage Guadeloupe.

Did ravage Martinique.

Age: two days.

_________________

Nicolas Guillen

The Great Zoo

translated by Aaron Coleman

The University of Chicago Press, 2024

photograph:

Langston Hughes, Michael Koltyov, Ernest Hemingway, Nicolas Guillen in Madrid, 1937