RILKE'S GARDEN ~

 

R E A D   M E

        Seagull Books, 2025

REBECCA SOLNIT'S ROAD ~

 

R E A D   M E

        Haymarket 2025

ZANZIBARA TONIGHT ~

 

Musiciens: Matano Juma ; Yasseen Mohamed ; Zuhura Swaleh ; Ali Mkali ; Zein l’Abdin ; Maulidi Juma ; Zuhura & Zein Musical Part ; Ahmed bin Brek 

Production exécutive / éditeur / transferts / restauration / mastering : Werner Graebner

Enregistrements : Zanzibar (2004) ; Dubaï (2005)

Prise de son : Werner Graebner

TIM O'BRIEN (VIETNAM WAR) ~

 

Writer and veteran Tim O'Brien reflects on the moral weight of the Vietnam War’s most infamous atrocity. Official website: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexpe... | #AmericanExperiencePBS In this interview from the American Experience archives, novelist and Vietnam War veteran Tim O'Brien, author of "The Things They Carried," reflects on the legacy of the 1968 My Lai massacre, in which U.S. soldiers killed hundreds of unarmed Vietnamese civilians. O’Brien discusses how the massacre shaped Americans’ understanding of the war, the moral and psychological toll on the soldiers involved, and the challenges of confronting painful truths about the past. Drawing on his experience as both a veteran and a writer, O’Brien explores how memory, storytelling, and accountability shape the way societies remember war. His reflections illuminate the broader context of the conflict and the lasting impact of My Lai on American public life. O’Brien spoke to American Experience on November 20, 2009. This interview was conducted for our 2015 documentary MY LAI and is being published as part of our series spotlighting remarkable archival conversations with historians, journalists, eyewitnesses, and other primary sources whose insights deepen our understanding of the past. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

JEAN FOLLAIN ~

Day on Fire

The door shined in fiery daylight

but the braids of the women there

held still

one of them leaned over the waters on the cauldron

and on a piece of porcelain

a painted bird had worn itself out with singing.

The messenger was seen to come in

with a letter and a golden loaf in his hands

he spoke

then it was dead silence

and the whole garden gave up its scent.

Landscape with Two Laborers

The countyside was calm

a girl was washing her unblemished leg

and the hours

etched themselves into the cloth they faded

attacking the damask flowers.

The pages of a schoolbook

had been carried off by the wind

up above the eglantines

and down the length of the path

to ditches filled with clever beasts

to embankments covered in those herbs

favored for soothing teas

two laborers took their time

telling each other

the secrets of working with wood.

The Notice

The child pushing along the ring of a barrel

as his makeshift hoop

runs alone and shouts

but to the one who has just spelled out

beneath the N and the eagle of Empire

the draft notice

the old man says simply

in the blazing sun

while drinking a foamy pear cider:

"the next century will be worse"

though lovers go by singing.

Edge of the Hearth

The outbuildings with no real use

are left to the rains

a peasant woman

has an edge of the black hearth

for a seat

the evening turns

in swirls of her breath

the wind in the hollow tree

why beings and things

she thinks

and not nothing

_______________________________

Jean Follain

Earthly

The Song Cave 2025

translated by Andrew Seguin

WOODEN SHJIPS "BACK TO LAND" ~

 

    2013

A CHANCE MEETING ~

 

R E A D   M E

2004

2024, reissued

AEDNAN ~

 

R E A D   M E

   Knopf 2024

RONALD BAATZ ~

 

Their ashes

where my father used to kneel

planting

where my mother used to bend

picking

As she puts

water on for tea

from my own pile

of bones and ashes

I reassess hers

In a crowded mountain bus

the endlessly monotonous

talk about Buddhist scriptures

when all I want to listen to

are the wheels on the road

The degrees to which

the closed fairgrounds

brings in even more

spellbinding beauty

to the sunset

In early spring mist

my lover floats across fields

from one dream

of sweet grass

to another

Our old

peacefully

decaying bodies

talking to children

selling lemonade

For anyone who sings

by a small window

in a small room

in the depths of

dying light

In the bedroom

sweeping up popcorn

from the night before

I see the hopeful eyes

of birds in the window

_____________________________

Ronald Baatz

One Oblivious Orange Fish

Black Fig Press, 2026