MICHAEL ONDAATJE ~

 

The First Rule of Sinhalese Architecture

Never build three doors

in a straight line

A devil might rush

through them

deep into your house

into your life

_____________________

Michael Ondaatje

The Distance of a Shout

Knopf 2026

ETHIOPIQUES TONIGHT ~

 

Various Artists Ethiopiques, Vol. 10: Tezeta - Ethiopian Blues & Ballads 1 Eyètègnu Nèqu - Frew Haylou 0:00 2 Hédètch Alu - Muluqen Mellesse 4:15 3 Tèrèdtchéwalèhu - Alemayehu Eshete / Amha Eshete 9:30 4 Heywèté - Tèsfa Maryam Kidané 15:07 5 Tezeta - Sèyfu Yohannès 20:23 6 Altèlèyèshegnem - Alemayehu Eshete / Amha Eshete 25:46 7 Gubèlyé - Traditional - Mulatu Astatke 30:42 8 Tezeta, Mahmoud Ahmed / Traditional Mahmoud Ahmed 35:25 9 Man Yehon Telleq Sèw - Alemayehu Eshete / Amha Eshete 47:53 10 Tezeta - Traditional - Tèsfa Maryam Kidané 54:38 11 Tezeta - Menelik Wèsnatchèw 1:00:50 12 Tezeta Slow - Kassa, Gétatchèw 1:05:25 13 Tezeta Fast - Kassa, Gétatchèw 1:10:36

THE FOOL ~

 

R E A D   M E

     New Directions, 2019

GISELE PELICOT, A Hymn to Life ~

 

R E A D   M E

   Penguin

    2026

RIDE THE NIGHT ~

 

   1990

BIRHAN KESKIN ~

 

Thick Consistency

i lost the mountains behind me the seas on my horizon

the animals i slept and woke with

it was as if the main river flowing out of me stopped

i lived as if nothing happened.  with a joyous spirit that passed

    through the world

i laughed for the very last time

green grass touched my feet.  a sky full of white clouds

walked over me.  between the two i slept

all this is now a sorrowful sentence in a romani song

____________________

Birhan Keskin

Earthly Conditions

World Poetry 2025

VICTOR HERNANDEZ CRUZ ~

El poema de lo reverso

In which everything goes backwards

in time and motion

Palm trees shriek back into the ground

Mangos become seeds

and reappear in the eyes of Indian

women

The years go back

cement becomes wood

Panama hats are seen upon skeletons

walking the plazas

Of once again wooden benches

The past starts to happen again

I see Columbus's three boats

going backwards on the sea

Getting smaller

Crossing the Atlantic back to the

ports of Spain    Cadiz    Dos Palos    Huelva

Where the sailors disembark

and do back to their towns

To their homes

They become adolescents again

become children      infants

they re-enter the wombs of their mothers

till they become glances

Clutching a pound of bread

through a busy plaza

that becomes the taste

of the sound of church bells

in reverberation.

_______________________________

Victor Hernandez Cruz

IN THE EYE OF THE WILD ~

 

R E A D   M E

        Nolwenn Brod

      New York Review of Books, 2021

        translated from the French Sophie R. Lewis

BUENOS HERMANOS TONIGHT ~

 

2020

JOHN ASHBERY ~

This Room

The room I entered was a dream of this room.

Surely all those feet on the sofa were mine.

The oval portrait

of a dog was me at an early age.

Something shimmers, something is hushed up.

We had macaroni for lunch every day

except Sunday, when a small quail was induced

to be served to us. Why do I tell you about these things?

You are not even here.

_____________________________

John Ashbery

ELMORE LEONARD ~

      R E A D   M E 

   Mariner 2025

LUCINDA WILLIAMS TONIGHT ~

 

Black Tears · Lucinda Williams · Tom Overby · Doug Pettibone World's Gone Wrong ℗ 2026 Highway 20 Records marketed and distributed by Thirty Tigers

BODY HIGH ~

 

R E A D   M E

       Repeater 2025

ABDULLAH IBRAHIM GOODNIGHT ~

 

1934 ~ 2026

   ABDULLAH  IBRAHIM 

RUBY RIDGE ~

 

R E A D   M E

    Little, Brown

    2026

SHIRLEY COLLINS ~

 

R E A D   M E

Shirley, 1967. Photo by David Montgomery

 

Wynken, Blynken, and Nod

• 
• 
• 
• 

Eugene Field

1850 – 

1895

Wynken, Blynken, and Nod one night
   Sailed off in a wooden shoe,—
Sailed on a river of crystal light
   Into a sea of dew.
“Where are you going, and what do you wish?”
   The old moon asked the three.
“We have come to fish for the herring-fish
   That live in this beautiful sea;
   Nets of silver and gold have we,”
            Said Wynken,
            Blynken,
            And Nod.

The old moon laughed and sang a song,
   As they rocked in the wooden shoe;
And the wind that sped them all night long
   Ruffled the waves of dew;
The little stars were the herring-fish
   That lived in the beautiful sea.
“Now cast your nets wherever you wish,—
   Never afraid are we!”
   So cried the stars to the fishermen three,
            Wynken,
            Blynken,
            And Nod.

All night long their nets they threw
   To the stars in the twinkling foam,—
Then down from the skies came the wooden shoe,
   Bringing the fishermen home:
’Twas all so pretty a sail, it seemed
   As if it could not be;
And some folk thought ’twas a dream they’d dreamed
   Of sailing that beautiful sea;
   But I shall name you the fishermen three:
            Wynken,
            Blynken,
            And Nod.

Wynken and Blynken are two little eyes,
   And Nod is a little head,
And the wooden shoe that sailed the skies
   Is a wee one's trundle-bed;
So shut your eyes while Mother sings
   Of wonderful sights that be,
And you shall see the beautiful things
   As you rock in the misty sea
   Where the old shoe rocked the fishermen three:—
            Wynken,
            Blynken,
            And Nod.

My friend Arvind shared this poem a few days ago

from India, both of us in the old shoe.

The poem is in the public domain. 

EL-P FANTASTIC DAMAGE ~

 

       Fat Possum Records

CHRIS MARKER, IMMEMORY ~

 

R E A D   M E

       Exact Change 2025

    

     M O R E

         http://gorgomancy.net/

THE LIVING CITY ~

 

R E A D   M E

      Other Press, 2025