2024
daydreaming w/ Bob Arnold
Musiciens: Matano Juma ; Yasseen Mohamed ; Zuhura Swaleh ; Ali Mkali ; Zein l’Abdin ; Maulidi Juma ; Zuhura & Zein Musical Part ; Ahmed bin Brek
Production exécutive / éditeur / transferts / restauration / mastering : Werner Graebner
Enregistrements : Zanzibar (2004) ; Dubaï (2005)
Prise de son : Werner Graebner
Writer and veteran Tim O'Brien reflects on the moral weight of the Vietnam War’s most infamous atrocity. Official website: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexpe... | #AmericanExperiencePBS In this interview from the American Experience archives, novelist and Vietnam War veteran Tim O'Brien, author of "The Things They Carried," reflects on the legacy of the 1968 My Lai massacre, in which U.S. soldiers killed hundreds of unarmed Vietnamese civilians. O’Brien discusses how the massacre shaped Americans’ understanding of the war, the moral and psychological toll on the soldiers involved, and the challenges of confronting painful truths about the past. Drawing on his experience as both a veteran and a writer, O’Brien explores how memory, storytelling, and accountability shape the way societies remember war. His reflections illuminate the broader context of the conflict and the lasting impact of My Lai on American public life. O’Brien spoke to American Experience on November 20, 2009. This interview was conducted for our 2015 documentary MY LAI and is being published as part of our series spotlighting remarkable archival conversations with historians, journalists, eyewitnesses, and other primary sources whose insights deepen our understanding of the past. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Day on Fire
The door shined in fiery daylight
but the braids of the women there
held still
one of them leaned over the waters on the cauldron
and on a piece of porcelain
a painted bird had worn itself out with singing.
The messenger was seen to come in
with a letter and a golden loaf in his hands
he spoke
then it was dead silence
and the whole garden gave up its scent.
Landscape with Two Laborers
The countyside was calm
a girl was washing her unblemished leg
and the hours
etched themselves into the cloth they faded
attacking the damask flowers.
The pages of a schoolbook
had been carried off by the wind
up above the eglantines
and down the length of the path
to ditches filled with clever beasts
to embankments covered in those herbs
favored for soothing teas
two laborers took their time
telling each other
the secrets of working with wood.
The Notice
The child pushing along the ring of a barrel
as his makeshift hoop
runs alone and shouts
but to the one who has just spelled out
beneath the N and the eagle of Empire
the draft notice
the old man says simply
in the blazing sun
while drinking a foamy pear cider:
"the next century will be worse"
though lovers go by singing.
Edge of the Hearth
The outbuildings with no real use
are left to the rains
a peasant woman
has an edge of the black hearth
for a seat
the evening turns
in swirls of her breath
the wind in the hollow tree
why beings and things
she thinks
and not nothing
_______________________________
Jean Follain
Earthly
The Song Cave 2025
translated by Andrew Seguin
Their ashes
where my father used to kneel
planting
where my mother used to bend
picking
As she puts
water on for tea
from my own pile
of bones and ashes
I reassess hers
In a crowded mountain bus
the endlessly monotonous
talk about Buddhist scriptures
when all I want to listen to
are the wheels on the road
The degrees to which
the closed fairgrounds
brings in even more
spellbinding beauty
to the sunset
In early spring mist
my lover floats across fields
from one dream
of sweet grass
to another
Our old
peacefully
decaying bodies
talking to children
selling lemonade
For anyone who sings
by a small window
in a small room
in the depths of
dying light
In the bedroom
sweeping up popcorn
from the night before
I see the hopeful eyes
of birds in the window
_____________________________
Ronald Baatz
One Oblivious Orange Fish
A Very Small Snowflake
A very small snowflake, you
As if dancing
As if slowly dancing, approach
My face
Instead of falling straight down like all the other snowflakes
Somehow, you spread your wings toward my face
But where did you get to, after that?
I never saw you again.
___________________
Han Kang
from The New Yorker, Feb 16, 2026
translated from the Korean by Maya West
Horace Silver – piano.... Donald Byrd – trumpet (# 1, 3-6 & 8-10).... Hank Mobley – tenor saxophone (# 1, 3-6 & 8).... Junior Cook – tenor saxophone (# 9 & 10).... Doug Watkins – bass (# 1-8).... Gene Taylor – bass (# 9 & 10).... Louis Hayes – drums.... Bill Henderson – vocals (#10).... ...................................................................... 1. "Cool Eyes" 5:55 2. "Shirl" 4:16 3. "Camouflage" 4:25 4. "Enchantment" 6:22 5. "Señor Blues" 7:01 6. "Virgo" 5:49 7. "For Heaven's Sake" 5:09 8. "Señor Blues" (Alternative take) 6:38 9. "Tippin'" 6:12 10. "Señor Blues" (Vocal version) 6:14 ...................................................................... Recorded - November 10, 1956 (#1-8), June 15, 1958 (#9-10) Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack
Mercurial Motion
Ineffable
translucent
white
becomes
a
baroque
pearl
(alone)
in
the
mirror
as
she
fastens
the
platinum
necklace
an
anniversary
present
behind
her:
it
regains
transparency
a
primary
consition
of
Li
Ching
Chao's
naked
nipples.
I
raise
Chinese
mamoncillos
to
my
mouth,
bite
rind
(nipple)
suck
white
viscous
(nipple)
fruit
I
eat
three
meals
(not
certainly
in
sequence)
three
meals
three
languages:
shark
fin
soup.
Sliced
papaya
(drops
of
lime
juice).
Herring
in
brine
with
dill
and
onion.
I
fasten
(unfasten)
Li
Ching
Chao's
necklace
three
times
a
day
(at
night
three
candles)
(printed
kimono
thrown
on
the
floor)
(slow
caterpillar
progress).
Wandering.
Reverberation.
I
receive
the
immanent
grace
of
Guadalupe
(Li
Ching
Chao)
turned
aside
the
middle
distance
the
(second)
condition
of
primordial
mercury:
transfixed
I'm
aware
(transcribe
it
here)
that
I've
left
on
the
beloved's
neck
the
(third)
trace
of
waterlily
(duckweed)
its
(snow-white)
skin
efflorescence
of
fish.
_________________________
Jose Kozer
translated from Spanish by Mark Weiss