MARGARET ATWOOD ~

 

R E A D   M E

JULEE CRUISE TONIGHT ~

 

  1989

POSTHUMOUS KEATS ~

 

R E A D   M E

      WW Norton 2008

LINDA GREGG ~

 

Asking for Directions

We could have been mistaken for a married couple

riding on the train from Manhattan to Chicago

that last time we were together. I remember

looking out the window and praising the beauty

of the ordinary: the in-between places, the world

with its back turned to us, the small neglected

stations of our history.  I slept across your

chest and stomach without asking permission

because they were the last hours.  There was

a smell to the sheepskin lining of your new

Chinese vest that I didn't recognize.  I felt

it deliberately.  I woke early and asked you

to come with me for coffee.  You said, sleep more,

and I said we only had one hour and you came.

We didn't say much after that.  In the station,

you took your things and handed me the vest,

then left as we had planned.  So you would have

ten minutes to meet your family and leave.

I stood by the seat dazed by exhaustion

and the absoluteness of the end, so still I was

aware of myself breathing.  I put on the vest

and my coat, got my bag and, turning, saw you

through the dirty window standing outside looking

up at me.  We looked at each other without any

expression at all.  Invisible, unnoticed, still.

That moment is what I will tell of as proof

that you loved me permanently.  After that I was

a woman alone carrying her beg, asking a worker

which direction to walk to find a taxi.

____________________     

Linda Gregg

Poetry, April 2026

BLACK ARTIST OF COMIC BOOKS ~

 

R E A D   M E

    IDW Publishing

     2020

ALICE SARA OTT TONIGHT ~

 

WILLIAM KENNEDY ~

 

      Library of America

MALCOLM COWLEY, Man of Letters ~

 

R E A D    M E

     Penguin 2025

RAE ARMANTROUT ~

 

Angel

When I was almost a woman

the men in the radio

called someone I thought

might be me

an angel and a  baby.

I wasn't offended.

What did I know?

I knew I would have to

empty myself to fit inside

the songs. And I wanted

to be in them as long as

they lived, to be called to

and never come. To be full of

my lighter and lighter self,

with literally no place to go

as it is in heaven

Between

"The,"

we say,

making

our claim

on eternity.

"The"

short gray

sidewalk between

those shaved strips

of lawn

_____________________

Rae Armantrout

Go Figure

Wesleyan University Press, 2024

CLIFFORD BURKE ~

 

C L I F F O R D   B U R K E

1942- 30 June 2026

A friend to many in the small press world ~

captain of the seas with his Cranium Press

since the 1960s and long association with

Desert Rose Press while in New Mexico,

Hollow Orange was Clifford's literary journal

to keep.

    Photo by Andrea Grimes

DON CHERRY & ED BLACKWELL TONIGHT ~

 

℗ 1982 ECM Records GmbH, under exclusive license to Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Berlin

RONALD JOHNSON AGAIN ~

 

Wild Apples

                                                        with 'bow-arrow tang'

cows or birds or Johnny Appleseed

planted

New England westward

Whole orchards, boughs knotted

with fruits of coral & gold — to be eaten, Thoreau believed,

in the wind.              

                    Whose 'bloom' rubs off in pockets

like wild horses

broken in, harnessed

to plow.

                    Neither orchards of the east, in lichened

                    walls, or west

                    hedged in eucalyptus—

bounded only by slopes of oak

& of maple,

the woods-apple comes sweet from the hills, both spring

nights & autumn

a wildflower sharpness, an earthy

cider

                    Domestics

                    shape

                    for hand,

                    & tint

                    of 'apple

                    color'

                            —but wild may brindle

                    as a cow,

                    may rust like

                    rock

____________________________

Valley of the

Many-Colored Grasses

The Song Cave, 2023

                    

CROOKED FINGERS TONIGHT ~

 

℗ 2026 Merge Records Released on: 2026-02-27 Main Artist: Crooked Fingers Producer: Eric Bachmann Composer Lyricist: Eric Bachmann

THE REVOLUTIONISTS ~

 

R E A D  &  L I S T E N

     Knopf 2026

THE EMERSON CIRCLE ~

 

R E A D   M E

    For an updated biography of the

   Concord radicals, this is

the one

RALPH STEADMAN ~

 

R E A D   M E

   Chronicle Chroma

   2025

KOKOMO ~

 

   puppy dog

MATISSE AT WAR ~

 

R E A D   M E

     Citadel Press

     2025

PABLO NERUDA ~

 from Ode to Walt Whitman

Without

disdain

for the gifts

of the earth,

the capital's

abundant curves,

or the purple

initial

of wisdom,

you

taught me

to be an American,

you lifted my eyes

to books,

toward

the treasure

of the grain:

broad poet,

across the

clarity

of the plains,

you made me see

the high mountain

as my guardian.

translated from the Spanish 

by Martin Espada

___________________________

Pablo Neruda

BRAZILIAN MUSIC TONIGHT ~