DENIS JOHNSON ~

R E A D   M E 

    University of Iowa Press

    2025

MICHAEL HURLEY TONIGHT ~

 

Broken Homes and Gardens ℗ 2025 No Quarter Records Released on: 2025-09-12 Main Artist: Michael Hurley Composer: Michael Hurley Music Publisher: Snocko Music

ELIZABETH T. GRAY, JR ~

 

At Goudberg Copse

Mother, send down blessings on this haunted place

where we tripped and fell over barbed

wire into trenches over stumps, rose

and tripped again the whole night through,

where we stumbled on terrible shapes, not flesh and blood forms

but made of a swarm of noxious black darkness.

We buried more than the strength

of the regiment on these terrible ridges.

Please hold us with unbiased compassion.

Hold with compassion the gods

and demons gathered here.  Please stay here

and grant your blessings.

_______________

Elizabeth T. Gray, Jr.

Salient

New Directions 2020

Over several decades, Elizabeth T. Gray, Jr., has traced the contours and history of the Ypres Salient, diving deep into the British military archives and walking the haunted battlefield with survey maps in hand. Out of this physical and textural material, through a process of collage and an unexpectedly powerful convergence with a 12th c. Tibetan visualization ritual, Gray has composed a spare, fascinating, lyrical explanation of what she calls "The Missing," in shell-hole and curved trench, by way of magical amulets and the passage through obstacles. (New Directions)

RAY STINNETT TONIGHT ~

 

© 2013 Light in the Attic

BARBARA HAMBY ~

 

Ode on the Wildest Word

No, sir, I am not your baby, not your twenty-dollar

            shot of tequila, not your excise tax on petroleum

jelly, your high-risk dirigible in the bomb-alicious

            sky filled with lies, the radio highs that last

three minutes tops, the shuck and jive of yes ma'am,

            doublethink spam, drink-the-Kool-Aid

Marxist sham, the wham up-against-the-wall

            cattle call of the true believers, left and right,

the slight lisp on the edge of doom. O no, Daddy-o,

            I cannot swim out to your island of swoon,

or the two-bit room in the Alligator Motel, that hell,

            with its sharp teeth and open jaws, the seesaw

back and forth between high noon and doom,

            that tune. No, baby, I'm sitting here all alone,

grown woman, looking back on all the tricks, the love

            sick delirium that blasts off to the moon

and then dissolves into a rule book and curdled milk,

            the silk cave of raven wings, the slinky

rinky-dink dance with death, the breathless sigh. O my,

            I'm saying no to the bye-bye lullaby,

half-hearted whisky-and-rye apocalypse afternoon,

            the harpoon-in-my-gut regret that say yes

no everything, sings soprano in the church choir, mucks

            in the mire outside the front door, the storm gutter

matter of cant, the torn dress and sweaty hankering

            to do good, so here I am in a rococo imbroglio

of Hamlet and moonshine, the backwoods banter

             that begets shame, the no-name oblivion

of staying on the bus as it travels through the war zone

            and lets you off at what was once home.

______________________________

Barbara Hamby

BURN

UPittsburgh Press, 2025

JUSTIN TOWNES EARLE TONIGHT ~

 

Paul Simon "Graceland" 1986

℗ 2024 New West Records, LLC Released on: 2024-08-09 Main Artist: Justin Townes Earle Producer: Kim Buie Producer: Adam Bednarik Composer: Justin Townes Earle Music Publisher: Music (BMI) All Rights Administered By BMG Rights Management (US) LLC

WENDELL BERRY'S: MARCE CATLETT ~

 

R E A D   M E

      Counterpoint 2025

THE GREAT WOODY GUTHRIE ~

 

A short song from one of Woody's radio broadcasts. (1940's?) Featured in this performance are: *Woody of course-guitar and voc. *the great SONNY TERRY on harmonica, "whooops" and voc. other musicians most likely featured in this performance: *Pete Seeger - banjo *Cisco Houston - guitar voc. (pictured with Woody at :25)

O FREEDOM (BILLY BRAGG) ~

 

℗ 2008 Billy Bragg Released on: 2008-03-03 Main Artist: Billy Bragg Music Publisher: Cooking Vinyl Limited Composer: Billy Bragg

BILL EVANS ALL DAY ~

 

       Orrin Keepnews

          NYC, June 25, 1961

SOUL OF A NATION ~

 

Soul of a Nation: Afro-Centric Visions in the Age of Black Power - Underground Jazz, Street Funk & the Roots of Rap 1968-79

COWBOY JACK CLEMENT'S HOME MOVIES ~

 

A Documentary about Nashville's Maverick songwriter/producer, 'Cowboy' Jack Clement