JOAN MITCHELL'S COLOR ALPHABET ~

J O A N      M I T C H E L L

THE FEUD ~

Pantheon 2016

A  REVIEW

THE CHILD POET ~

R E A D      M O R E

SUSAN STEWART ~

Graywolf Press 2017

Wrens

their tumbling joy

decanted descanting

over cobble

stones in and out

of firethorn back

and forth to gingko

who knows

who will

ever know

what net

binds them

loosening

song?

I would not

lose them

could not lose

them know

if there's

another

place another

world another life

there must be wrens.

———————————

Susan Stewart

EDNA GALLMAN COOKE ~

AND THE RICH, GET RICHER ~

Obama Accepts $400,000 Fee for a Speech

( on Wall Street )

( Surprise! Surprise!)

R E A D       M E

JONATHAN DEMME ~

JONATHAN  DEMME

photograph by Suzanne DeChillo

———————————————

One of our grandest modern film directors

is elegantly showcased and

remembered by the

New York Times,

with a film lover's thanks.

G O O D B Y E

D E M M E     F I L M S

D E M M E     &     M U S I C

EMILY DICKINSON ~

Amherst College Press

2017

M O R E      E M I L Y      D I C K I N S O N

ANSELM KIEFER ~

A     R E V I E W

Seagull Books
2016

MY BEAUTIFUL KNOW-IT-ALL ~

Library In The Woods 

1000s  & 1000s  & 1000s  & 1000s of books

Neat in rows room to room, floor to floor

Sometimes the mice

Run over the tops

My Beautiful Know-It-All

Before the robins could tell me

My lover told me —

“The robins are back”

Surgery

I just moved a curled up

woolly caterpillar from this

year’s woodpile into next year’s

10 Days Worth Of Amox~Clav

My cat can’t figure out why I’ve been sick so long

I see it in his face, eyes blinking, pinkest nose

my friends don’t know what to say after awhile

they figure it’s better to just go quiet

and so I go quiet

next subject will be politics

my lover is most concerned but sees me coming

to make love and says with a grin, “you’re better”

my mother, who shouldn’t come into this poem after

I make love but there she is, asks, “so what’s the

matter?” like it’s my fault

and maybe it is

—————————————

Bob Arnold

BEAUTIFUL   DAYS

Longhouse

BIG FUN ~

HELL NO ~

"I have sought in this essay to rescue the Vietnam
peace movement from oblivion."

— Tom Hayden

R E V I E W

THE SWAMP ~

“If monopoly persists, monopoly will always sit 
at the helm of the government.”

Woodrow Wilson

R E A D      M E

photo ~ NY Times

JAMES KOLLER ON THE ROAD ~

J A M E S      K O L L E R

~

I've had this tape sitting here for over a month now waiting for a spring day
of a sort to bloom so I could set it forth on the Birdhouse just the way Jim Koller often
took off for the west (from Maine) during the Spring. He had much family out
that way. Friends. Totems.

This tape, shared from Jim's youngest son Bert, who made the
recording of Jim, maybe around the time Jim was in his early 70s
is my guess — and you will hear the old midwest of his tone
and language (born outside Chicago) and a little whiskey and whiskers.
These are some of Jim Koller's finest road poems, and after Kerouac
few saw the open road as open and skyline as Koller.

Take a listen.

[ BA ]

J A M E S     K O L L E R      R E A D S

EARTH DAY ~

EarthRise,

the 1968 The Last Whole Earth Catalog

described this image as

"The famous Apollo 8 picture of

EarthRise over the moon."

THE HATRED OF POETRY ~

A N     E X C E R P T

PETER HANDKE ~

R E V I E W

Farrar Straus Giroux

2016

HITLER AT HOME ~

R E V I E W

Yale University Press 

2015

DAVE VAN RONK ~

WALKING INTO SPRING ~

Short Story

She came to me before bed rubbing

face cream from her hands to her

cheeks and onto her lips

and kissed me on the lips

like it was the most natural

thing to do

so I tasted of face cream

long after she had fallen

asleep

and 

I didn't

mind

Leaf~Like

How long together —

so that when she

leaves for a moment

to find a bathroom

I wait in the aisle of

a store seemingly

active and content

yet only in pause —

so that when she

returns I continue

and if she didn’t —

leaf-like I’d

blow away

Walking Into Spring

The shortest black shorts on all the sidewalk

Also the longest legs

It’s 69 degrees after a very strange winter of no snow for months and 

   a blizzard

The hair is brown and straight and it falls way past her shoulders

No one notices her because she is at ease which is why I notice

She’s as natural as a leaf I found today and put into my shirt pocket

Just a leaf, from last fall, and now almost spring

No one else wanted it

She’s just walking

Eating ice cream from a cup

With a spoon

Day

at

a

stand

still

like

only

winter

can

———————————————

Bob Arnold

BEAUTIFUL   DAYS

Longhouse

BRUCE LANGHORNE ~

Bruce Langhorne

N E W     Y O R K     T I M E S

O B I T U A R Y

ACROSS THE TABLE ~

DESOLATION ~

SHADOWBAHN ~

L. A.   TIMES   BOOK   REVIEW

blue rider press 2017