HARLAN ELLISON ~

 

Spider Kiss

(2006 edition)

_______________

(original title)

1961

Think Elvis; Colonel Tom Parker

"the best novel ever written about rock 'n' roll."

Greil Marcus

THE DREAMS OF MABEL DODGE ~

 

R E A D      M E

JOY HARJO ~

 

Break My Heart

There are always flowers,

Love cries, or blood.

Someone is always leaving

By exile, death, or heartbreak.

The heart is a fist.

It pockets prayer or holds rage.

It's a timekeeper.

Music maker, or backstreet truth teller.

Baby, baby, baby

You can't say what's been said.

Before, though even words

Are creatures of habit.

You cannot force poetry

With a ruler, or jail it at a desk.

Mystery is blind, but wills you

To untie the cloth, in eternity.

Police with their guns

Cannot enter here to move us off our lands.

History will always find you, and wrap you

In its thousand arms.

Someone will lift from the earth

Without wings.

Another will fall from the sky

Through the knots of a tree.

Chaos is primordial.

All words have roots here.

You will never sleep again

Though you will never stop dreaming.

The end can only follow the beginning.

And it will zigzag through time, governments, and lovers.

Be who you are, even if it kills you.

It will. Over and over again.

Even as you live.

Break my heart, why don't you?

_____________________

Joy Harjo

An American Sunrise

Norton 2019

A SELF SUSTAINABLE FELLOW ~

 

JOURNEY INTO THE LAND OF THE ZEKS AND BACK ~

R E A D       M E

STANISLAW LEM ~

 

R E A D      M E

FRANK STOKES ~

 

HYPNOS (THE LEAVES), RENE CHAR ~

 

Although the translator wishes to be

a bit snippy about previous translations

of the Rene Char masterpiece — ignore him

and seek them out — likewise take this

new edition in hand and read it with

the same gusto & courage

of the poet

_____________________________

237

In the darkness of our lives, there is not one place

for Beauty. The whole place is for Beauty.

Rene Char, 

Hypnos

1946

CONCRETE POETRY ~

 

______________________________________________

The apple doesn't fall too far from the tree —

Nancy Perloff (daughter of Marjorie Perloff)

has edited an exceptional and dutifully global

appreciation of this diverse art form 

with an expert introduction by Perloff, along with

marvelous showcases by Augusto de Campos,

Ian Hamilton Finlay, Eugen Gomringer,

and now Susan Howe has entered the 

lexicon along with Dieter Roth and

many other naturals. 

Too bad Aram Saroyan wasn't included — 

the anthology is

missing that extra touch of play —

beautifully designed and with

fine detail on each biography.

The international breath

is the ticket.

{ BA }

eyeye

ARAM SAROYAN

THE MYSTICAL ROOTS ~

 

R E A D      M E

SKIP JAMES ~

 

MICHAEL DALEY ~

 

From what I have read of

Michael Daley's work

I believe

Romance With the Unexpected

may be his best

— it sustains 

______________________________

empty bowl

2022

CHARLES ADDAMS ~

 

C H A R L E S     A D D A M S

Turner 2006 / 2021

SAM LAY, DRUMMER WHO BLEW THE WHISTLE ~

 

S A M     L A Y

Bob Dylan rehearsing for his performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival with, from left, Mike Bloomfield, Sam Lay, Jerome Arnold and Al Kooper.Credit...David Gahr/Getty Images

WAYNE RANEY ~

 

STATE WE'RE IN (Archive) ~

 

G O     A H E A D,     R E A D     M E

THE WORLD OF BOB DYLAN ~

 

RAINER BRAMBACH ~

from Also in April

The year still young. I'm seized by a boisterous mood,

rainwater vat rhymes with sunshine in March

warming my back

and drying the moss-covered stone bench —

This springtime too will bring me by the by

plenty of quiet work round the garden.

What else?

Patience, Rainer, patience.

-

Not wanting to be part of it sometimes

making off into the underwood

past many a silly cow —

Then, lying in the elder shade, timeless,

not giving a damn

if one and one are three.

-

Surely the summer has other names

not just summer.

For instance Olea, a name

combining corn yellow, rye red,

meadow and forest green

in one.

-

To write a poem

without ballast

for instance late autumn

empty snail shell cobwebs

something falling silently

amid the whispers of the trees.

-

Free time working time dinner time

and the time to sleep —

The fast trains the slow trains

the coming and the going —

Early November and yet it seems

I heard the cuckoo just a little while ago.

-

A postcard from the Caribbean

taken out of the letter box —

oh well, Caribbean,

while I — all blessings come from heaven above —

have a white Black Forest in front of me.

-

Ten degrees below zero

and again a hearty

sneeze into the handkerchief

wiping my watering eyes

and skipping and hopping

until the ice puddle cracks

and a delicate spinet rings

persistently in my ears —

-

Never put to paper and yet unforgotten

the soft light of the gas lamps in the evening

the snowball fights won and lost

the downhill races on the wooden sledge

the roast hot chestnuts

in the newspaper cone

and the Hoorays in thoughtless songs.

Beauty of our childhood years, they won't come back.

translated by Esther Kinsky

______________________

Rainer Brambach

Collected Poems

Seagull Books, 2021

Rainer Brambach (1917-1983) grew up in Basel and left

school at the age of 14 to become a manual laborer. 

He spent much of the Second World War in prison and 

labor camps, an experience which greatly influenced his writing. 

Recognition and awards notwithstanding, he remained an 

outsider in the literary world and lived for many years in poverty.

GEORGE CRUMB ~

 

G E O R G E     C R U M B

MERLE HAGGARD ~

 

JANINE POMMY VEGA ~THE BEAT SCENE (BURT GLINN) ~

 

Unfortunately unidentified as a photograph in this

marvelous book of the Beat era — this is

a very young Janine Pommy Vega —

perhaps in a bar sitting next to Jack Kerouac

who she did meet when she was fifteen years old.

It's the lonesome traveler's profile.

It's Janine's soulful search.

[ BA ]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JANINE 

TODAY 

5 February 1942

T H E     B E A T     S C E N E

JASON EPSTEIN ~

 

J A S O N     E P S T E I N

JOHN BERRYMAN ~

 

R E A D      M E

ORWELL & SOLNIT AMONGST THE ROSES ~

 

R E A D      M E

Viking 2021

NOTHING ~

 

CHUCK BERRY (1965) (AGAIN) ~

 

BE A CARETAKER ~

 

R E A D     M E

DAVID THOMSON ~

 

R E A D      M E

knopf 2021

LEONARD COHEN & JULIE FELIX (1967) ~