LARRY McMURTRY ~

 

R E A D   M E

    Mariner 

    2026

JEWISH ROOTS, AMERICAN SOIL ~

 

In his new book about Bob Dylan, pictured here in 1974 (with The Band), Harry Freedman implies that elements of the singer’s Jewishness remained central to his art and identity. 

(Jeff Robbins / Associated Press)

R E A D   M E

NEIL YOUNG, OCEANSIDE/COUNTRYSIDE ~

 

     Silver Fiddle Music

     2025

REAL TALK ~ (John Mearsheimer) ~

 

    John Mearsheimer

#JohnMearsheimer #IranWar #USIranConflict #Trump #MiddleEast #Geopolitics #APTNews

ARACELIS GIRMAY ~

 

December

Or that I would run my hand along

the dip in the hill's grey back

up to its withers, feeling

the closeness of its heat,

its inwardness risen and rises and blown away

To be among their small group,

their mouths to the earth, their silences

Uncle is, swishing away the flies

Mother is, pouring black coffee through their hair

Each of us, briefly, a tense

cast into the other's time

Not to fill my ears with the sound of my own motion

but with ear

To hear the low voices of the shadows

To exist without the memory of words

To be traversed by elk, faces, wheels

To learn to stand outside the rooms of light

____________________________

Aracelis Girmay

Green of all Heads

BOA Editions, 2025

JOHN FAHEY'S OLD GIRLFRIENDS ~

 

     Varrick, 1992

TORTOISE ~

 

        International Anthem 2025

BRIAN ENO TONIGHT ~

 

     Virgin 1974

THE GODFATHER OF TINY HOMES ~ LLOYD KAHN ~

 

OLATUNJI ~

 

     Columbia, 1960

LUNA ~ SOS DELUXE~

 

   RCA 2024

PINK FLOYD TONIGHT ~

 

    1967

1. Astronomy Domine 0:00 2. Lucifer Sam 2:33 3. Matilda Mother 5:40 4. Flaming 8:48 5. Pow R Toc H (LIVE) 11:34 6. Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk 14:33 7. Interstellar Overdrive 17:38 8. The Gnome 27:20 9. Chapter 24 29:34 10. The Scarecrow 33:16 11. Bike 35:26

VISIT IRAN ~

 

    March 5, 2026

ELIZABETH WALDO ~

 

ELIZABETH  WALDO

      via Lucy V. Lee

YOKO TAWADA ~

 

R E A D   M E

    New Directions, 2025

LOUIS JENKINS ~

 

Confessional Poem

I have this large tattoo on my chest. It is like a dream I

have while I am awake. I see it in the mirror as I shave and

brush my teeth, or when I change my shirt or make love.

What can I do? I can't remember where I got the tattoo.

When in the past did I live such a life? And the price of

having such a large tattoo removed must be completely

beyond reason. Still, the workmanship of the drawing is

excellent, a landscape 8 x 10 inches in full color, showing

cattle going downhill into a small western town. A

young man, who might have been my great-grandfather,

dressed as a cowboy and holding a rifle, stands at the

top of the hill and points down toward the town. The

caption beneath the picture reads: "Gosh, I didn't know

we were this far west."

Lake Superior

What I like best

are those rocks that

for no apparent reason

stand waist-deep

in the water and refuse

to come into shore.

You Move A Chair

You move a chair from its place in the corner

and suddenly you realize

someone had been sitting there all along.

You start to apologize.

Oh, no bother, he says and jumps up.

You are embarrassed, anxious.

He stands at the window,

hands folded behind his back,

watching the snow drift into the yard.

You can't think of anything to say.

You begin to hum in a nervous monotone.

You stand by the door.

Finally you try replacing the chair

but it's no use.

When you turn again he'll be gone.

My Feet

When I awake and look at my feet

I realize they must have waited all night,

immigrants clutching their papers,

clumsy thick-bodied peasants

still heavy with the old soil.

I think how many days they

must have stared at the ocean in dismay,

tried to cling to the pitch and roll,

no talent for swimming.

Now they stand, weary, bewildered,

still waiting, wondering which steps

to take across the snows

of this long winter

in the new world.

______________________

Louis Jenkins

Collected Poems

Will o' the Wisp Books

2023

MARY McCASLIN TONIGHT ~

 

℗ 1994 Rounder Records., Distributed by Concord.

JIM RINGER TONIGHT ~

 

℗ 1996 Rounder Records Manufactured and distributed by Concord Music Group

STANLEY PLUMLY ~

 

Porches

In southeastern Ohio there are porches,

one to a hill, that lean into the calm

like the decks of ships too long, too far out.

The coal is gone and the children have nothing to say.

And in the leftover towns the men fall asleep in their hands.

And the women stand on the porches in the evening

inside the deep eye of the sun,

listening for some kind of wind,

fixed utterly in any direction.

__________________

Stanley Plumly

Collected Poems

edited by David Baker & Michael Collier

Norton 2025

Elizabeth Stevenson

MILTON ~ ESPERANZA

 

℗ 2024 Concord Records, Distributed by Concord. Released on: 2024-06-21 Recording arranger, Producer: Esperanza Spalding Recording Engineer: Arthur Luna Mixing Engineer, Engineer: Fernando Lodeiro Engineer: William Luna Jr Recording Second Engineer: Raphael Rui Castro Recording Second Engineer: Enzo Menegazzi Mastering Engineer: Oscar Zambrano Mastering Engineer: Piotr Garbaczonek Conductor: Rodrigo Ângelo Toffolo Composer Lyricist, Vocalist: Milton Nascimento Vocalist: Paul Simon Composer Lyricist: Marcio Borges

DISFIGURED: FAIRY TALES. DISABILITY AND MAKING SPACE ~

 

R E A D   M E

         Coach House Press, 2020

BILLY BRAGG TONIGHT (w/ WILCO) ~

 

ULTIMATE JIM THOMPSON ~

 

R E A D   M E

   Library of America

   2026

MORPHINE TONIGHT ~

 

1994

   Netherlands

DENIS JOHNSON ~

R E A D   M E 

    University of Iowa Press

    2025

MICHAEL HURLEY TONIGHT ~

 

Broken Homes and Gardens ℗ 2025 No Quarter Records Released on: 2025-09-12 Main Artist: Michael Hurley Composer: Michael Hurley Music Publisher: Snocko Music

ELIZABETH T. GRAY, JR ~

 

At Goudberg Copse

Mother, send down blessings on this haunted place

where we tripped and fell over barbed

wire into trenches over stumps, rose

and tripped again the whole night through,

where we stumbled on terrible shapes, not flesh and blood forms

but made of a swarm of noxious black darkness.

We buried more than the strength

of the regiment on these terrible ridges.

Please hold us with unbiased compassion.

Hold with compassion the gods

and demons gathered here.  Please stay here

and grant your blessings.

_______________

Elizabeth T. Gray, Jr.

Salient

New Directions 2020

Over several decades, Elizabeth T. Gray, Jr., has traced the contours and history of the Ypres Salient, diving deep into the British military archives and walking the haunted battlefield with survey maps in hand. Out of this physical and textural material, through a process of collage and an unexpectedly powerful convergence with a 12th c. Tibetan visualization ritual, Gray has composed a spare, fascinating, lyrical explanation of what she calls "The Missing," in shell-hole and curved trench, by way of magical amulets and the passage through obstacles. (New Directions)

RAY STINNETT TONIGHT ~

 

© 2013 Light in the Attic

BARBARA HAMBY ~

 

Ode on the Wildest Word

No, sir, I am not your baby, not your twenty-dollar

            shot of tequila, not your excise tax on petroleum

jelly, your high-risk dirigible in the bomb-alicious

            sky filled with lies, the radio highs that last

three minutes tops, the shuck and jive of yes ma'am,

            doublethink spam, drink-the-Kool-Aid

Marxist sham, the wham up-against-the-wall

            cattle call of the true believers, left and right,

the slight lisp on the edge of doom. O no, Daddy-o,

            I cannot swim out to your island of swoon,

or the two-bit room in the Alligator Motel, that hell,

            with its sharp teeth and open jaws, the seesaw

back and forth between high noon and doom,

            that tune. No, baby, I'm sitting here all alone,

grown woman, looking back on all the tricks, the love

            sick delirium that blasts off to the moon

and then dissolves into a rule book and curdled milk,

            the silk cave of raven wings, the slinky

rinky-dink dance with death, the breathless sigh. O my,

            I'm saying no to the bye-bye lullaby,

half-hearted whisky-and-rye apocalypse afternoon,

            the harpoon-in-my-gut regret that say yes

no everything, sings soprano in the church choir, mucks

            in the mire outside the front door, the storm gutter

matter of cant, the torn dress and sweaty hankering

            to do good, so here I am in a rococo imbroglio

of Hamlet and moonshine, the backwoods banter

             that begets shame, the no-name oblivion

of staying on the bus as it travels through the war zone

            and lets you off at what was once home.

______________________________

Barbara Hamby

BURN

UPittsburgh Press, 2025

JUSTIN TOWNES EARLE TONIGHT ~

 

Paul Simon "Graceland" 1986

℗ 2024 New West Records, LLC Released on: 2024-08-09 Main Artist: Justin Townes Earle Producer: Kim Buie Producer: Adam Bednarik Composer: Justin Townes Earle Music Publisher: Music (BMI) All Rights Administered By BMG Rights Management (US) LLC

WENDELL BERRY'S: MARCE CATLETT ~

 

R E A D   M E

      Counterpoint 2025

THE GREAT WOODY GUTHRIE ~

 

A short song from one of Woody's radio broadcasts. (1940's?) Featured in this performance are: *Woody of course-guitar and voc. *the great SONNY TERRY on harmonica, "whooops" and voc. other musicians most likely featured in this performance: *Pete Seeger - banjo *Cisco Houston - guitar voc. (pictured with Woody at :25)

O FREEDOM (BILLY BRAGG) ~

 

℗ 2008 Billy Bragg Released on: 2008-03-03 Main Artist: Billy Bragg Music Publisher: Cooking Vinyl Limited Composer: Billy Bragg

BILL EVANS ALL DAY ~

 

       Orrin Keepnews

          NYC, June 25, 1961

SOUL OF A NATION ~

 

Soul of a Nation: Afro-Centric Visions in the Age of Black Power - Underground Jazz, Street Funk & the Roots of Rap 1968-79