CLIFFORD BURKE ~

 

C L I F F O R D   B U R K E

1942- 30 June 2026

A friend to many in the small press world ~

captain of the seas with his Cranium Press

since the 1960s and long association with

Desert Rose Press while in New Mexico,

Hollow Orange was Clifford's literary journal

to keep.

    Photo by Andrea Grimes

DON CHERRY & ED BLACKWELL TONIGHT ~

 

℗ 1982 ECM Records GmbH, under exclusive license to Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Berlin

RONALD JOHNSON AGAIN ~

 

Wild Apples

                                                        with 'bow-arrow tang'

cows or birds or Johnny Appleseed

planted

New England westward

Whole orchards, boughs knotted

with fruits of coral & gold — to be eaten, Thoreau believed,

in the wind.              

                    Whose 'bloom' rubs off in pockets

like wild horses

broken in, harnessed

to plow.

                    Neither orchards of the east, in lichened

                    walls, or west

                    hedged in eucalyptus—

bounded only by slopes of oak

& of maple,

the woods-apple comes sweet from the hills, both spring

nights & autumn

a wildflower sharpness, an earthy

cider

                    Domestics

                    shape

                    for hand,

                    & tint

                    of 'apple

                    color'

                            —but wild may brindle

                    as a cow,

                    may rust like

                    rock

____________________________

Valley of the

Many-Colored Grasses

The Song Cave, 2023