Monday, March 7, 2022

HOA NGUYEN ~



Unrelated Future Tense


with me being a bastard

and Saigon tea   will ask about my language

people will ask about bar girls

even without food in the poems

they will smell fish sauce and pho

ask about 'the war' which is to say

about men fathers and soldiers

about white Americans what

about them

about them

about white Americans what

about men fathers and soldiers

ask about 'the war' which is to say

they will smell fish sauce and pho

even without food in the poems

people will ask about bar girls

and Saigon tea   will ask about my language

with me being a bastard


__________________________

Hoa Nguyen

A Thousand Times You Lose Your Treasure

Wave Books, 2021


photo ~

1956, Vinh Long province. On the back of the original photograph, for the apparent purpose of giving it to someone unnamed, it says in her handwriting as follows:
“This is a glorious time, in 1956.
In those days I was a flying motorist artist—
this is the sole memory of my life.
For my friend, to keep as a memory…
The flying motorist artist”
Her Vietnamese name was Nguyễn Anh Diệp (April 21, 1941 – June 9, 2019). When she left Vietnam for North America in 1968, she became Linda Diep Lijewski. She does not leave the photo for the friend but takes it with her.



Saturday, March 5, 2022

Thursday, March 3, 2022

Wednesday, March 2, 2022

LETTERS FROM JAMES MERRILL ~

 



To Santa Claus


Wustl

[1932?]

[Southampton, NY]


Dear Santa Clause please bring me a flash-light.

                                                         James Merrill



______________

A Whole World

Letters from James Merrill

edited by Langdon Hammer & Stephen Yenser

Knopf 2021



R E A D     M E



Monday, February 28, 2022

TRAMP ~

 



"Why are we walking here, where to? Why aren't we sleeping in a bed,

in a house, a home, in the same room together; isn't it true

that we wake and sleep simultaneously? To love? Love

requires that we be at rest, that we settle down, that we

remain in the same place; motion is loneliness."

____________________________________

TOMAS ESPEDAL

TRAMP


Seagull Books

2010, 2022





Friday, February 25, 2022

ODETTA (1959) ~





Odetta’s work, Harry Belafonte, was tapped by Revlon in 1959 to do a prime-time live variety show 
 

Thursday, February 24, 2022

PESSOA PESSOA PESSOA ~

[ LISTEN ] 




On of the great literary biographies

of recent times — even with

Ellmann's James Joyce and

nicely aligned in scope and

adventure with

Kenner's The Pound Era


Liveright, 2021




Wednesday, February 23, 2022

ANNOUNCING NEW JONATHAN GREENE FROM LONGHOUSE ~

 




Jonathan Greene

Letter from a Hermit
in the Eye of a Storm

Longhouse 
2022



many-colored
& limited
$10
postpaid



We accept Paypal

Please use our email address of 

longhousepoetry@gmail.com


Payable by check ~

Longhouse 

PO Box 2454

West Brattleboro, Vermont 05303







Tuesday, February 22, 2022

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



Sunday, February 20, 2022

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