Seven Stories Press
2024
Tuesday, November 18, 2025
Monday, November 17, 2025
Sunday, November 16, 2025
Saturday, November 15, 2025
Friday, November 14, 2025
NACHOEM M. WIJNBERG ~
When I Was With You Song
When I was with you
I said to you:
take off my clothes,
remove my jewels,
lay them down carefully.
To help you
I will raise a foot
I will hold up an arm;
undress me slowly,
take off my shadow.
When I was with you
I said to you,
while my shadow moved
left, then right,
trying to hide.
Song
I have forgotten
what I discovered
because it is so long ago,
where do I sleep?
When I was a child
I thought I could be
between everyone
and the lights of the night.
That is what I thought,
that someone gets
what makes them shine
when they think of it.
That someone only knows
words for ever
and a day, quieter than
the day before.
Song
The joke is
I would have liked to be with someone
who was the beginning and the end for me.
When I am old
I will say what I like about love
like a girl who's not afraid of it.
Because I thought
it wouldn't happen again
that someone could love me.
That's me, put me down somewhere
where something is about to begin
and I will start.
Is there something
I mustn't joke about here
but only outside?
But if you're with me
you don't need to laugh at it
or only after you've turned it into a song
And sung it bakwards,
from the end to the beginning,
and then laugh as if in a gale.
At the Seaside
The girl walks to the sea
and at the seaside a man
asks: are you the girl
I was looking for?
She shakes her head,
holds out an open hand
on which he puts a ring
she will never lose for long.
He tells her how
she can recognize him
if she sees him again: he will
choose the other hand.
_______________
Nachoem M. Wijnberg
translated by David Colmer
NYRB 2022
Thursday, November 13, 2025
VIDYA BY ANDREW SCHELLING ~
Old Time Love Song Magic
2
My lord,
your eye
is a fresh blue river
a balance of soft grass —
to your nearest friends luck
to the enemy ruin
unseen through my woman's
body it races.
Meter: Puspitagra
Flowering Branch Tip
18
What rival warlords
beneath the orbiting moon & sun
have you not deposed?
Deva, I think you
the earth's finest warrior.
You circled my body
seized the black ropes of my hair
slipped the blouse off
and clasped my hips freely
your hand now approaches the
fragrant zone.
Meter: Sardula-vikriditam
Tiger's Play
20
Black swollen clouds
drench the far
forests with rain.
Scarlet kadamba petals toss on the storm.
In the foothills peacocks dance
they make love and none of it
touches me.
It's when the lighting
exposes an amorous flash
bright legs and arms
like a rival —
in grief
lonely grief
I am drenched.
Meter: Sardula-vikriditam
Tiger's Play
26
Monsoon season
the Rainbow Girl rises
her heart childlike
shifting about
one hue for another
she's a lute with no string
a song that changes
she dares you
to catch her.
Meter: Arya
Noble Lady
31
Shamelessly orange like a
parrot's beak,
arousing with a lover's
touch the clustered
lotus buds,
I praise this
great wheel the sun
Rising
it is an
earring for
the Lady of the East.
Meter: Arya
Noble Lady
______________________________
Vidya
Old Time Love Song Magic
translated from the Sanskrit by Andrew Schelling
Circumference Books, 2025
Wednesday, November 12, 2025
Tuesday, November 11, 2025
LIGHTNING HOPKINS TEXAS BLUES MAN TONIGHT ~
All songs composed by Sam "Lightning" Hopkins
Recorded by Chris Strachwitz on portable equipment in Houston, Texas, on December 18, 1967
Cover Photo by Chris Strachwitz
Cover design by Wayne Pope
Producer: Chris Strachwitz
Monday, November 10, 2025
AMY LOWELL ~
The Garden by Moonlight
A black cat among roses,
Phlox, lilac-misted under a first-quarter moon,
The sweet smells of heliotrope and night-scented stock.
The garden is very still,
It is dazed with moonlight,
Contented with perfume,
Dreaming the opium dreams of its folded poppies.
Firefly lights open and vanish
High as the tip buds of the golden glow
Low as the sweet alyssum flowers at my feet.
Moon-shimmer on leaves and trellises,
Moon-spikes shafting through the snow ball bush.
Only the little faces of the ladies' delight are alert and staring,
Only the cat, padding between the roses,
Shakes a branch and breaks the chequered pattern
As water is broken by the falling of a leaf.
Then you come,
And you are quiet like the garden,
And white like the alyssum flowers,
And beautiful as the silent sparks of the fireflies.
Ah, Beloved, do you see those orange lilies?
They knew my mother,
But who belonging to me will they know
When I am gone.
_________________________________________________
AMY LOWELL
Sword Blades and Poppy Seed, 1914
Sunday, November 9, 2025
Saturday, November 8, 2025
Friday, November 7, 2025
Thursday, November 6, 2025
LAFAYETTE THOMAS TONIGHT ~
Lafayette Thomas (born in 1928 in Shreveport, LA) was an electric blues guitarist. He cut his first sides as a sideman in Oakland, CA. in 1948 as a member of Bob Geddins' Cavaliers. He made his debut as a solo artist in 1951 recording one 78 RPM single at Sun Studios in Memphis TN. as L.J. Thomas and his Louisiana Playboys, that was issued on the Chess label. In 1954 he cut another single for the Modern label as Jerry Thomas. Sides recorded for the Peacock label in 1952 and for King in 1954 never saw the light of day. But he stayed busy in the 1950's and 1960's playing on records by Jimmy Wilson, James Reed, Juke Boy Barner (Bonner), Little Brother Montgomery, Roy Hawkins, Memphis Slim, and Jimmy McCracklin. He was a member of Muddy Waters' backing band on the classic 1960 LP "Muddy Waters At Newport". Lafayette made his last recordings as a solo artist in 1968. His last appearance as a sideman was on a Sugar Pie DeSanto record in 1972. He passed away in Brisbane, CA. in 1977. Composed by Lafayette Thomas Lafayette Thomas:Guitar All other musicians unknown. Recorded in Oakland, CA. c. 1955 Originally issued on Trilyte 1100 This recording taken from the CD "West Coast Guitar Killers 1951-1965 Volume 1"
TERRY HAUPTMAN ~
Night Music
We lose our way
In the honey
Of the forest's blue clay
As fireflies spark deer
In the clearing.
Who are we following hornets
To their nests
Flirting with doves?
We lose our way
In the honey
Of the forests blue clay
Rubbing funeral oil on crows
As the winds of misfortune
Thunder with love.
Kira's Song
These are the winds
That carry us stargazing with owls in the forest.
These are the winds that carry us through
The dark, the light
The everyday care
Calling down the spirit-fires
Through cadmium clouds.
These are the winds that sanctify
Our blessing and songs
Daughter of salt and pines,
These are the winds
That carry us through
The hard stories,
The roosting of crows,
The hoop of rain and flowers
Your black-tourmaline
Earth luminosity
Shines through
Your compassionate heart
Calling you to me
Calling me to you
Daughter
Lost
Children in lost worlds
Rake shards in orphan winds.
The one-eyed crow in Gaza
Screes the war-torn land
As the moon breaks open.
______________________________
Terry Hauptman
Shattered
North Star Press of St. Cloud Inc.
2025
Wednesday, November 5, 2025
Tuesday, November 4, 2025
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