Mariner
2026
Wednesday, April 15, 2026
Tuesday, April 14, 2026
JEWISH ROOTS, AMERICAN SOIL ~
In his new book about Bob Dylan, pictured here in 1974 (with The Band), Harry Freedman implies that elements of the singer’s Jewishness remained central to his art and identity.
(Jeff Robbins / Associated Press)
Monday, April 13, 2026
Sunday, April 12, 2026
ARACELIS GIRMAY ~
December
Or that I would run my hand along
the dip in the hill's grey back
up to its withers, feeling
the closeness of its heat,
its inwardness risen and rises and blown away
To be among their small group,
their mouths to the earth, their silences
Uncle is, swishing away the flies
Mother is, pouring black coffee through their hair
Each of us, briefly, a tense
cast into the other's time
Not to fill my ears with the sound of my own motion
but with ear
To hear the low voices of the shadows
To exist without the memory of words
To be traversed by elk, faces, wheels
To learn to stand outside the rooms of light
____________________________
Aracelis Girmay
Green of all Heads
BOA Editions, 2025
Saturday, April 11, 2026
Friday, April 10, 2026
Thursday, April 9, 2026
Wednesday, April 8, 2026
Tuesday, April 7, 2026
Monday, April 6, 2026
LOUIS JENKINS ~
Confessional Poem
I have this large tattoo on my chest. It is like a dream I
have while I am awake. I see it in the mirror as I shave and
brush my teeth, or when I change my shirt or make love.
What can I do? I can't remember where I got the tattoo.
When in the past did I live such a life? And the price of
having such a large tattoo removed must be completely
beyond reason. Still, the workmanship of the drawing is
excellent, a landscape 8 x 10 inches in full color, showing
cattle going downhill into a small western town. A
young man, who might have been my great-grandfather,
dressed as a cowboy and holding a rifle, stands at the
top of the hill and points down toward the town. The
caption beneath the picture reads: "Gosh, I didn't know
we were this far west."
Lake Superior
What I like best
are those rocks that
for no apparent reason
stand waist-deep
in the water and refuse
to come into shore.
You Move A Chair
You move a chair from its place in the corner
and suddenly you realize
someone had been sitting there all along.
You start to apologize.
Oh, no bother, he says and jumps up.
You are embarrassed, anxious.
He stands at the window,
hands folded behind his back,
watching the snow drift into the yard.
You can't think of anything to say.
You begin to hum in a nervous monotone.
You stand by the door.
Finally you try replacing the chair
but it's no use.
When you turn again he'll be gone.
My Feet
When I awake and look at my feet
I realize they must have waited all night,
immigrants clutching their papers,
clumsy thick-bodied peasants
still heavy with the old soil.
I think how many days they
must have stared at the ocean in dismay,
tried to cling to the pitch and roll,
no talent for swimming.
Now they stand, weary, bewildered,
still waiting, wondering which steps
to take across the snows
of this long winter
in the new world.
______________________
Louis Jenkins
Collected Poems
Will o' the Wisp Books
2023
Sunday, April 5, 2026
STANLEY PLUMLY ~
Porches
In southeastern Ohio there are porches,
one to a hill, that lean into the calm
like the decks of ships too long, too far out.
The coal is gone and the children have nothing to say.
And in the leftover towns the men fall asleep in their hands.
And the women stand on the porches in the evening
inside the deep eye of the sun,
listening for some kind of wind,
fixed utterly in any direction.
__________________
Stanley Plumly
Collected Poems
edited by David Baker & Michael Collier
Norton 2025
Elizabeth Stevenson
Saturday, April 4, 2026
MILTON ~ ESPERANZA
℗ 2024 Concord Records, Distributed by Concord. Released on: 2024-06-21 Recording arranger, Producer: Esperanza Spalding Recording Engineer: Arthur Luna Mixing Engineer, Engineer: Fernando Lodeiro Engineer: William Luna Jr Recording Second Engineer: Raphael Rui Castro Recording Second Engineer: Enzo Menegazzi Mastering Engineer: Oscar Zambrano Mastering Engineer: Piotr Garbaczonek Conductor: Rodrigo Ângelo Toffolo Composer Lyricist, Vocalist: Milton Nascimento Vocalist: Paul Simon Composer Lyricist: Marcio Borges
Friday, April 3, 2026
Thursday, April 2, 2026
Wednesday, April 1, 2026
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)
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
