A Longhouse Birdhouse

Saturday, July 1, 2023

Friday, June 30, 2023

AFFIRMATIVE (THE GREAT MANDALA) ~

Thursday, June 29, 2023

Wednesday, June 28, 2023

LESLEY HARRISON ~

Kitchen Music

New York, 2017

collage = REALITY

— Joseph Cornell

the morning after

with its "back to life" feeling.

manhattan breakfast:

a restaurant of

silver grey driftwood -

a feeling of water.

ii.

outside the coffee shop

a young bird alighted -

treethrushsong

iii.

a gulf of rain,

and the city sinks an inch.

at Penn Station, the lush tyres of yellow taxis -

umbrellas of Cherbourg

in the subway crush.

iv.

chance encounters:

old back yards,

reflections of the sun through curtains

from the sidewalk, gleaming

the city market,

"Hey Jude" among

bees and melons

a steel bridge, the Hudson

blank between the walls.

a corner bar.

a girl in a window.

Thursday at the arboretum:

cool green

the cafe kitchen window open

and sounds tunnel in

- song sparrows,

butterflies that churr

vi.

downtown evening:

the sky towers of Manhattan

dark green against a stark aqua sky

then home, the sea

a new north blue.

the chill early March breezes

a wild piano music.

nostalgia wiped clear

vii.

this morning

among the tidewrack:

azimuth, whale bone

shoes and twine, a tedium of

cartons, floats

varia, et cetera.

a day owl, almost blue.

viii.

couch dream evening

entre chien et loup,

a high angelic sunset

"the earth with yellow pears

and wild with roses"

ix.

ephemera:

what minute (infinitesimal)

living can be

______________________

Lesley Harrison

Kitchen Music

New Directions, 2023

Tuesday, June 27, 2023

Monday, June 26, 2023

Sunday, June 25, 2023

When a friend came to tea and impulsively donned a rabbit mask owned by Mr. Ickovic, the photographer quickly grabbed his camera for an “Alice in Wonderland” sendup.Credit...Paul Ickovic/Robert Klein Gallery

P A U L I C K O V I C

1944, England ~ 2023, Prague

Saturday, June 24, 2023

JAMES BOOKER ~

Friday, June 23, 2023

YEUGENIA BELOAUSETS: WAR DIARY (UKRAINE) ~

"How can the world put an end to this crime? This is not just a war

but a continuous terrorist attack. And it looks like these crimes that

subjugate and colonize the Ukrainian people are meant not only to

intimidate us, but also to terrify the whole world.

Despair and fear help make this terror possible."

from War Diary

New Directions / ISOLARII

2023

Thursday, June 22, 2023

OCTAVIA E. BUTLER ~

b. June 22, 1947

Pasadena, CA.

Wednesday, June 21, 2023

THE WASTE LAND ~

R E A D M E

Reading a new superb book on Eliot and The Wasteland. I’m about to say on the Birdhouse the book has some of the same robust as The Pound Era. I wasn’t taking the book seriously until I was midway and then it dawned on me that I was the weakling here as a reader, the book is a marvel. I plan to continue where I woke up (midway) and finish the book and then out of respect must begin the book again and travel over everything I missed. I can pick up the thread midway in the book where I woke up since I know too well all the history and story but this is a fresh biography of the great poem, the great time, the great individual youngsters.

[ BA ]

Norton 2022

Tuesday, June 20, 2023

LESTER YOUNG ~

Monday, June 19, 2023

BILL PORTER VISITS ~

B I L L P O R T E R

Sunday, June 18, 2023

THE 1969 MEMPHIS COUNTRY BLUES FESTIVAL ~

Saturday, June 17, 2023

A Home for Peace: Betsy Corner & Randy Kehler ~

Randy Kehler & Betsy Corner have been standing strong against paying for war for more than 45 years. They were especially notable because their witness for peace led to an attempt by the govt to take their home, something that happens to very few resisters. The peace community, both locally in Colrain, MA, and nationally, gathered in a years-long occupation to protect Randy & Betsy's home. Just recently Randy & Betsy were aided by the WTRPF (War Tax Resistance Penalty Fund) as the IRS still pursued them. Their story is told in the movie An Act of Conscience

.L I S T E N

Friday, June 16, 2023

DANIEL ELLSBERG ~

Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers to the press, surrenders at the U.S. Courthouse in Boston on June 28, 1971, accompanied by his wife at the time, Patricia.Credit...

Donal F. Holway/The New York Times

D A N I E L E L L S B E R G

1931~2023

F U R T H E R

& F U R T H E R

MORE CORMAC McCARTHY (2017) ~

Cormac McCarthy, 2017

Thursday, June 15, 2023

JONATHAN GREENE ~

Forethoughts ~ Buying A Farm

We thought we knew what we wanted,

put earnest money down the day we first saw

the farm (fools rush in).

We wanted to be on water, and this has three-fifths

of a mile of river frontage. Did not know we'd be here

for five of the six highest floods on record.

We wanted to be secluded. Over a mile back

from a one-lane county road. Road work and

tons of rock that would cost a small fortune.

No access to potable water. Three wells dug but

no good water (sulphur and salt, the culprits)

but a cistern off the barn still works.

No electric. A right-of-way lawsuit

with our neighbors. Lawyers on all sides lying to us.

Turns out they had no clear title to their place.

After forty years we wake to our view

of the river bottom and the surrounding hill,

often socked in with river fog. Can't imagine

seeing anything else every morning.

_________________________

Jonathan Greene

Going Through It

Broadstone Books, 2023

Wednesday, June 14, 2023

ROBERT GOTTLIEB ~

Mr. Gottlieb, right, with Alfred A. Knopf Sr. in 1974. Mr. Gottlieb joined Mr. Knopf’s publishing house in 1968 as vice president and editor in chief.

R O B E R T G O T T L I E B