A BLACK COUNTER-CULTURE ~

R E A D     M E

BURT BACHARACH ~

 

BURT   BACHARACH

1928 ~ 2023

BLUE BAYOU ~

 

VINOD KUMAR SHUKLA ~

 

‘Were that we all had lived together’

 

Were that we all had lived together

under one roof

without separate kitchens—

grandfather,  great aunt, 

father, uncle, siblings—

and remained in 

the same neighbourhood. 

Grass lives next to grass,

mud next to mud,

and in the wind live 

storms, hurricanes, 

and scent-laden gusts.

Unbroken, without knots,

the earth’s wind is one

with our breathing.  

_________________________

Vinod Kumar Shukla

(with ever thanks to

Arvind Krishna Mehrotra

who sent the poem to me 

from India this morning)

M U C H     M O R E !

“College” was first published in English in Blue Is Like Blue (2019), a collection of Vinod Kumar Shukla’s stories translated by Mehrotra and Rai, by HarperCollins India.

     

      

DAVID HARRIS ~

 

D A V I D     H A R R I S

1946, Fresno ~ 2022

THE BEATS IN MEXICO ~

 

JOHN TRUDELL BONE DAYS ~

 

JANINE POMMY VEGA ~

 

H A P P Y     B I R T H D A Y,    J A N I N E !

__________________

February 5, 1942

PETER GARLAND, THE BASKETWEAVE ELEGIES ~

 

JOHN BRADLEY ~

 WHEREAS:

YOU KNOW this street, you're safe, but

somehow the hushed houses, tilting

trees, bent shadows look unfamiliar.

You find your apartment, approach

the door, a chatty neighbor kid

trailing you. But your key, it doesn't

fit the lock. Maybe you don't live

here, says the kid. You try another

door, and this time —relief—the key

slides right in. You notice all the lights

are on, Frank Sinatra's voice purring

in the living room. Did you leave

music on? says the annoying kid.

In the bathroom, there's a young

woman in white scrubs. She's tending

three bodies on stretchers. Still

bodies—much too still. Who

are you? you demand.

Sanan, she replies. But I live here,

you declare, pushing the hardness

of the fact in her placid face.

Not now you don't, she states.

In the basement, you tell your story

to a cop, who nods politely.

When you begin to shout,

he gently places an open hand

on your chest. It feels like a bird,

warm and fragile. I'll look into it,

the cop tells you. Which stirs

more anger. Upstairs,

in the bathroom, you hear Sanan

tell one of the patients, Don't worry.

This place is now ours.

___________________

John Bradley

Dear Morpheus, The Glue That Is You

Dos Madres Press, 2023

BIG RIVER~

 

LET'S DO IT ~

 

R E A D      M E

Pegasus Books

2022

DARIA HALPRIN ~

 

EUGENE OSTASHEVSKY ~

 from The Feeling Sonnets

49.

Some say poetry is already translation.

Thought worded, bordered and ordered. Incorrect.

The word is its own reward in poetry. It reigns over itself.

It is sovereign. The word is weird. It is foreign.

Poetry is when you don't understand the language.

When you don't understand, you stand under. You listen.

What you don't understand is poetry.

What you understand is translation.

Is that true. Or is it just poetry.

If it were true would it be just translation.

"The doubt that is not doubted is not the ever-fixed doubt."

I am reading a study of Laozi, which positions his lines as        

        propositions.

Is there a poetry of propositions.

Is there a poetry where words don't contradict each other.

________________

Eugene Ostashevsky

The Feeling Sonnets

New York Review of Books

2022

JOHN & FRANCES REEDY ~

 

CEES NOOTEBOOM ~

 

R E A D    M E

Bear's Sonic Journals: JOHNNY CASH (1968) ~

 

Carousel Ballroom

April 24, 1968

M O R E

A MOUNTAIN TO THE NORTH . . . ~

 

R E A D     M E

HAZEL & ALICE ~

 

ELIAS CANETTI ~

R E A D     M E

BLACK MUSIC IN BRITAIN IN THE 60s ~

 

Cherry Red Records

2022

CLAUDIA ANDUJAR ~

 

CLAUDIA   ANDUJAR

M O R E !

HILMA af KLINT ~

 

University of Chicago Press

2022

DAVID CROSBY ~

D A V I D     C R O S B Y

1941 ~ 2022

David Crosby with new puppy

PHOTOGRAPH BY PERMISSION OF DAN GERBER

M O R E

JIMMY REED ~

 

POLINA BARSKOVA ~

 

R E A D      M E

New York Review of Books

2022

JACK GUTHRIE ~

 

Woody's cousin

KOKO TAYLOR & LITTLE WALTER (1967) ~

 

POKEY LAFARGE ~

 

CINEMA SPECULATION ~

 

R E A D    M E

chatty, beloved to the

60s-70s cinema

JOHNNY FULLER/PHILLIP WALKER BAND ~