ELENA FERRANTE ~

 

R E A D     M E

Europa Editions

2022

SOMETHING CLOSE TO MUSIC `

 

No Longer Very Clear

It is true that I can no longer remember very well

the  time when we first began to know each other.

However, I do remember very well

the first time we met. You walked in sunlight,

holding a daisy. You said, "Children made unreliable witnesses."

Now, so long after that time,

I keep the spirit of it throbbing still.

The ideas are still the same, and they expand

to fill vast, antique cubes.

My daughter was reading one just the other day.

She said, " How like pellucid statues, Daddy. Or like a. . .

an engine."

In this house of blues the cold creeps stealthily upon us.

I do not dare to do what I fantasize doing.

With time the blue congeals into roomlike purple

that takes the shape of alcoves, landings. . .

Everything is like something else.

I should have waited before I learned this.

_________________________

Something Close to Music

John Ashbery

David Zwirner Books

2022

___________________________________________

If you can't stand Ashbery's work 

this is just the book for you —

impeccable poems (meaning: inventive,

crisp, word-saturated) diced with

square smart art criticism,

(there isn't a tired page)

and the price of this

handsome size book

is also ideal.

Take a bow

Jeffrey Lependorf.

(editor)

ALBERT AYLER ~

 

ALBERT AYLER, HOLY FAMILY (1970) ~

 

South of France, July 27, 1970

(in three months he'd be gone)

MISSING JIM HARRISON ~

 

R E A D     M E

( then act )

EVERYTHING AND NOTHING ~

 

R E A D      M O R E

Yet one more edition of this tiny gem

(fiction and short essays)

from New Directions, this time as a

"New Directions Pearl" —

do ignore the typo on the

author's birth date on the back cover

1890, which it isn't, 1899 is more accurate —

Groucho Marx, Jean Rhys and H P Lovecraft were born in 1890.

JANA PRIKRYL ~

 

First Voice

Went fetal as an ear on the bed and tried to feel

the dusty blue rhomboid of window being

in the vanguard of twilight every second,

hurtling, the word impressing itself

as no hurtling would on my mind

through space on the back of this

whale turning, turning, punctual

the other cheek to that star

_________________

Midwood

Norton, 2022

LHASA DE SELA ~

 

! Happy Anniversary !

Susan & Bob

WATERLOO SUNSET ~

 

PHIL KLAY (UNCERTAIN GROUND) ~

 

R E A D      M E

Penguin Books

2022

DODIE BELLAMY ~

 

D O D I E       B E L L A M Y

Semiotext(e)

2021

TIM PAGE, PHOTOGRAPHER ~

 

T I M   P A G E

PENOBSCOT TRANSFORMER TALES ~

 

Newell Lyon learned the oral tradition from his elders in the Penobscot Nation in Maine and was widely considered to be a “raconteur among the Indians." The thirteen stories in this new volume were among those that Lyon recounted to anthropologist Frank Speck, who published them in 1918 as Penobscot Transformer Tales. Transcribed for the first time into current Penobscot orthography and with a new English translation, this instructive and entertaining story cycle focuses on the childhood and coming-of-age of Gluskabe, the tribe's culture hero. Learning from his grandmother Woodchuck, Gluskabe applies lessons that help shape the Wabanaki landscape and bring into balance all the forces affecting human life. These tales offer a window into the language and culture of the Penobscot people in the early twentieth century. 

In “Still They Remember Me," stories are presented in the Penobscot language and English side-by-side, coupled with illustrations from members of the tribal community. For the first time, these stories are accessible to a young generation of Penobscot language learners and scholars of Native American literatures at all levels, from grade school to graduate school.

FURRY LEWIS TALKS & PLAYS ~

 

ALEX KATZ ~

 

A L E X    K A T Z

ALL THE JOHNNY CASH YOU NEED ~

 

HOWLIN' WOLF, MEMPHIS SESSIONS ~

 

BREECE D'J PANCAKE ~

 

JAYNE   ANNE   PHILLIPS

R E A D     M E

PHOTO OF BREECE D’J PANCAKE, ALBERT AND SHIRLEY SMALL SPECIAL COLLECTIONS LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA.

JIMMY NOLEN ~

 

MIKOLAJ GRYNBERG ~

 

R E A D   &   L I S T EN