PHANTOMS ~

 

Robert "Mack" McCormick at work on his book in the spring of 1970. Robert "Mack" McCormick Collection, NMAH

R E A D    M E

MAHMOUD DARWISH ~

A Music Sentence

A poet now, instead of me,

writes a poem

on the willow of distant wind.

So why does a rose in the wall

wear new petals?

A boy now, instead of us,

sets a dove flying

high toward the cloud ceiling.

So why does the forest shed all

this snow around a smile?

A bird now, instead of us,

carries a letter

from the land of the gazelle to the blue.

So why does the hunter enter the scene

and fling his arrow?

A man now, instead of us,

washes the moon

and walks over the river's crystal.

So why does color fall on the earth

and we are naked like trees?

A lover now, instead of me,

sweeps his love

into the mire of bottomless springs.

So why does the cypress stand here

like a watchman at the garden gate?

A horseman now, instead of me,

stops his horse

and dozes under the shadow of a holm oak.

So why do the dead flock

to us out of wall and closet?

______________

Mahmoud Darwish

If I Were Another

Farrar Straus Giroux, 2009

translated from the Arabic by Fady Joudah

KOBAYASHI ISSA ~

 

beggar child —

even in his lap

morning frost

the old hand

swats a fly

already gone

snow melting —

the thin children

of the slum

a chicken strolls

through the sitting room. . .

a long day

we start the spring

in our everyday clothes. . .

me and sparrow

_______________

A Taste of Issa

HaikuGuy. com

BLOODBATH NATION ~

 

R E A D    M E

Grove Press

2023

JAMES ALAN McPHERSON ~

 

R E A D    M E

Godine

GROWING UP UNDERGROUND ~

 

Years after Jane Alpert's

own classic

Growing Up Underground

(the underground is large enough)

KATHARINE DUNN ~

 

R E A D     M E

FAREWELL GORDON LIGHTFOOT ~

 

1938 ~ 2023

YVONNE JACQUETTE ~

 

YVONNE   JACQUETTE

1934 ~ 2023

JUNIOR WELLS ~

 

MAURICE WILLIAMS ~

 

SUN RA ~

 

S U N    R A

M O R E

MORESO

REMEMBERING THE GREAT JOHN TRANTER ~

 

J O H N    T R A N T E R

GET BACK THE BEATLES ~

 

THE      

B E A T L E S

ADAM ZAGAJEWSKI ~

 

R E A D    M E

HARRY BELAFONTE ~

 

Jacob Harris/Associated Press

H A R R Y     B E L A F O N T E

1927 ~ 2023

STEEPLEJACK~

 

JOHNNY GUITAR WATSON (ON PIANO) ~

 

STEVE ABBOTT ~

S T E V E    A B B O T T

S T E V E    A B B O T T

MOBY GRAPE ~

 

R E A D     M E

AUTOPORTRAIT ( JESSE BALL ) ~

R E A D     M E

DEVIN JOHNSTON ~

 

Little Egypt

Counterclockwise

a vulture circles

the point of emptiness

rising above a rotting corpse

once a deer

diluted with distance

until it smells of musk

while at the foot

of a river bluff

in underbrush

a brown thrasher

gets off with the work

of flipping hickory hulls

for the flutter of insect life

as a solicitor fossicks

among old files

in uncontested solitude

the long sifting

of a legal process

drop it drop it

pick it up

pick it up

cover it up

stet

stet

_________________

Devin Johnston

Dragons

Farrar Straus Giroux, 2023

SOUND MAN (GLYN JOHNS) ~

 

R E A D     M E

THE DAY'S MAIL ~

 

Clifford Burke

Clifford Burke

George Kalamaras

Jeffery Beam

John Martone

AHMAD JAMAL ~

 

1930 ~ 2023

All my inspiration comes from Ahmad Jamal

MILES DAVIS