Saturday, March 18, 2023

WILL ALEXANDER ~

 





Ghostly Bonding by Kinetic



Since the living body persists

as strange accelerated crimson

what of its post-biology through ideas through ghostly bonding 

      with itself as kinetic?


does it persist within its after-state via chewn reindeer?


or does it unearth itself via post-mortem figment?


because kinetics reabsorb themselves

they remain trenchant

as certain owls

roaming the horizon as signs



___________________________

Will Alexander

Divine Blue Light

    for John Coltrane

City Lights Books 2022




Friday, March 17, 2023

OLAV H. HAUGE ~




Mountains Don't Attract Me Anymore


The mountains don't attract me anymore.

I've lived long enough between cold snowfields.

I still find my way in the woods, listen

to fall wind, and stop at the forest ponds,

engage with streams. Even late in the year

you can find good berries there.

You have to cross mountains if that's not enough.

Peaks stand there, so you know where you are.




______________________

Olav H. Hauge

The Dream We Carry

translated by Robert Bly

Copper Canyon Press, 2008




Wednesday, March 15, 2023

THE MONK'S RECORD PLAYER ~

 


R E A D    M E


An ugly as sin dust jacket but

the book is a delight to read





Tuesday, March 14, 2023

Monday, March 13, 2023

GERRY LOOSE / TWELVE AIRS ~

 




song of the thrush


sense of sound on air


knowledge of tree space in thrush-song


thrush weight on the branch


thrush weight on air sense


song weight on air space





nuthatch


qui-qui-qui who


slant-stone-on-ice song


going up coming down


upside song a ring


downside voice ceol


a-breath a-voice a-song a-ring





mistle thrush


a high clear closure


in throat tuc-tuc-tuc


of smeòrach a psalm


of stormcock a fluting


of wood/wind a lament


a sanctus in livid sky




___________________

from TWELVE AIRS

Gerry Loose

Dockyard Press/Glasgow

2023






Sunday, March 12, 2023

SON HOUSE ~

 




Recorded Live, 1964

Remastered by Ryan Smith




Thursday, March 9, 2023

Tuesday, March 7, 2023

Monday, March 6, 2023

Thursday, March 2, 2023

MOSAB ABU TOHA ~




On A Starless Night



On a starless night,

I toss and turn.

The earth shakes, and

I fall out of bed.

I look out my window.  The house

next door no longer

stands. It's lying like an old carpet

on the floor of the earth,

trampled by missiles, fat slippers

flying off legless feet.

I never knew my neighbors still had that small TV,

that the old painting still hung on their walls,

that their cat had kittens.





Palestinian Streets



My city's streets are nameless.

If a Palestinian gets killed by a sniper or a drone,

we name the street after them.


Children learn their numbers best

when they can count how many homes or schools

were destroyed, how many mothers and fathers

were wounded or thrown into jail.


Grownups in Palestine only use their IDs

so as not to forget

who they are.





Sobbing Without A Sound



I wish I could wake up and find the electricity on all day long.

I wish I could hear the birds sing again, no shooting and no 

    buzzing drones.

I wish my desk would call me to hold my pen and write again,

or at least plow through a novel, revisit a poem, or read a play.

All around me are nothing

but silent walls

and people sobbing

without sound.





Hard Exercise



In Gaza,

breathing is a task,

smiling is performing

plastic surgery

on one's own face,

and rising in the morning,

trying to survive

another day, is coming back

from the dead.





A Rose Shoulders Up


Don't ever be surprised

to see a rose shoulder up

among the ruins of the house:

This is how we survived.



_________________________

Mosab Abu Toha

Things You May Find Hidden In My Ear

Poems from Gaza

City Lights Books,  2022





Wednesday, March 1, 2023