WILLIE NELSON ~

                                              BA C K R O A D   C H A L K I E

D E C E M B E R     2 0 2 4

Willie Nelson long ago speaking about

a way of music, and music is often

applied many ways

NANCY SINATRA ~

 

Nancy Sinatra /Lee Hazelwood

   1966

DUBRAVKA UGRESIC (AGAIN) ~

 

R E A D   M E

    Dalkey Archive

     2003

MORE DORIANNE LAUX ~

 

The Optimism of French Toast

No matter how many years since

the first bite passed my lips, that business

of eggs and day-old bread, ribbon of syrup,

fireflies of butter sparking my tongue's buds,

I think of my Arcadian ancestors

landing on the shores of Nova Scotia, dragging

logs from the deep woods, fashioning windows,

hanging laundry from two oars dug into sand —

the flags of domesticity flayed by the wind.

I see the fruits of their labor rise up

from the marshes: beets, parsnips, cabbages

and corn, and the wheat they ground

to powder and baked into bread.

And the chicken shook out egg after egg

we broke into shallow bowls, beat

with a spoon, each thick slice dipped

into that loom of albumen, chalazae and yolk,

then laid on a scrim of grease in the pan

where it sizzled its solitary song.

How could these French be

considered a scrouge, their houses

burned to the ground they had worked,

forced to take the tangled circuity

of dirt roads with nothing but what

they could carry on their backs? No time

for funerals, no place to go. And yet

here I am at my kitchen table listening

to Clifton Chenier on the radio, daughter

of a people who refused to die: sacks

of wheat on their shoulders, spoon

in a belt loop, sugar sprinkled in a pant cuff,

a sleeping chicken hidden under a coat.

____________________

Dorianne Laux

Life on Earth

Norton, 2024

VLADIMIR SOROKIN ~

R E A D    M E

New York Review of Books

2024

THE BLACK UTOPIANS ~

 

R E A D   M E

Farrar, Straus & Giroux

2024

PSALMS 104 SUNG IN ANCIENT HEBREW ~

 

lyrics: 𝑷𝒔𝒂𝒍𝒎 104 (𝑪𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒆 𝑷𝒔𝒂𝒍𝒎) composition: 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒅𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍 𝑱𝒆𝒘𝒊𝒔𝒉 𝒃𝒂𝒃𝒚𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒊𝒂𝒏 arrangement: 𝒀𝒐𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒆 (𝑱𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏) 𝑫𝒓𝒐𝒓

CHARLES MINGUS SEXTET (1964) ~

 

The band: Eric Dolphy (Alto Saxophone, Bass Clarinet, Flute) Charles Mingus (Bass) Dannie Richmond (Drums) Jaki Byard (Piano) Clifford Jordan (Tenor Saxophone) Johnny Coles (Trumpet)

LUCINDA WILLIAMS ~

 

THE EDITOR, JUDITH JONES ~

 

R E A D   M E

The longtime Knopf editor Judith Jones in her Manhattan apartment in 2007.

Credit...

Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times

ALICE COLTRANE THE CARNEGIE HALL CONCERT ~

 

  Impulse 2024

NOW ~

 

Meet One of Hong Kong’s Last Remaining Pro-Democracy Activists

For Chan Po-ying, a labor rights leader, life is one of constant police surveillance, even on hikes. But she finds solace from tiny gestures of support.

R E A D   M E

Billy H.C. Kwok for The New York Times

PHOEBE GIANNISI ~

 

Flutes

in a time of idleness,

when the tender breeze

Zephyr

blows and caresses

their cheeks,

they sit in the thick shade

of a rock.

drinking milk

or wine.

lulled by the rustle

of leaves

and the tiny song of the cicada.

carving wood

or whistling.

but the best flute

isn't made of wood

but from the bones

of an eagle.

to make this music

you first needed to learn

how to fly.

_______________________

Phoebe Giannisi

Chimera

New Directions 2024

FREE LEONARD PELTIER ~

 

      Democracy Now!

EDWIDGE DANTICAT ~

 

R E A D   M E

      Graywolf 2024

LEAD BELLY ~

 

R E A D   M E

Cambridge University Press

2024

ALICE BROCK ~

 

A L I C E   B R O C K

1941 ~ 2024 

INGRAM MARSHALL (FLOW) ~

 

     John Adams

OSCAR GARCIA SIERRA ~

 

Birthday

first it was the train tracks,

then telecommunications

and now parties until the break of day.

i'm fucked

and everyone i know

is fucked.

and i guess everyone

i don't know

is also fucked,

and i guess that's why

i'm not interested

in getting to know new people,

and i guess that's why

no one else is

interested in getting to know me.

________________________

Oscar Garcia Sierra

Houston, I'm the Problem

World Poetry, 2023

translated from the Spanish by

Carmen Yus Quintero

CORKY LEE'S ASIAN AMERICANS ~

 

R E A D   M E

M O R E

        Clarkson Potter, 2024