BOBBY BLUE BLAND ~

 

PJ HARVEY & THOM YORKE ~

 

PJ HARVEY ~

 

PJ HARVEY ~

 

MAGIC MOMENTS ( PERRY COMO ) ~

 

NINA SIMONE ~

 

DEAN MARTIN ~

 

PEARLS BEFORE SWINE ~

 

VAN MORRISON ~

 

THE LAST TIME ~

 

MERCY, MERCY ~

 

ROLLING STONES ~ ROUTE 66 ~

 

WATCH THE DOG ~

 

Colombian Mountain Madness

WAY OUT THERE ~

 

    Pete Seeger & Arlo Guthrie

JIM DODGE ~

 

Shoeing the Centipede

You don't need a high I.Q.

to write a haiku,

and doggonit

a sonnet

just ain't that tough.

Free verse? Shit,

a brain-damaged woodpecker

can write that stuff,

and sure as snowflakes melt in Hell

you can write a villanelle

by finding two strong lines that rhyme

and sticking with them.

Plus, just between us,

a sestina is

pretty much six words

that can go either way,

while a roundelay

is mainly refrain.

And honestly,

most any turd

off the street

can create an iambic beat

using words as crude

as duh and cat.

Let those rummy critics quibble

in polysyllables

and wave their paper hats:

writing poems isn't hard.

What's hard, what elevates

you to a bona fide bard,

what summons new colors from the sun,

is writing a great one.

_______________

Jim Dodge

Always Something

Limberlost Press

Rick & Rosemary Ardinger

17 Canyon Trail

Boise, Idaho 83716

www. Limberlostpress.com

one of the finest books of poems for 2023

or any year

TREEPLANTER (Yacouba Sawadogo) ~

 

Yacouba Sawadogo

1946 ~ 2023

Photo Reuters

MACK McCORMICK'S FIELD RECORDINGS (BLUES) ~

 

FARAH JASMINE GRIFFIN ~

 

R E A D     M E

In Search of a Beautiful Freedom

Norton, 2023

JOHN NICHOLS ~

 

Rewind history, please

I want another chance.

J O H N    N I C H O L S

J O H N    N I C H O L S

John Treadwell Nichols (July 23, 1940 – November 27, 2023) was an American novelist. He was known for his "New Mexico trilogy" of novels

RAY BRADBURY ~

 

R E A D    M E

also:

A wretched Hatchet Job by the likes

of the New York Times

where within the review you will find:

"He (Bradbury) had an unusual habit, one I’ve never encountered to this extent, of mailing innocent civilians copies of his stories, plays and books. Rule No. 1 of literary life is to not give people copies of your stuff, unless specifically requested. Because a book is not just a book but an obligation."

So imagine Walt Whitman never sending Ralph Waldo Emerson

unsolicited Leaves of Grass. Never mind my own half-century of

sending Longhouse in the thousands to the poor "innocents"

and vice-versa gladly in return

now obligated to do what? — read, share, enjoy, pass along.

Feel sorry for this reviewer who receives most everything free

from the publishing gin mill, and the majority, if not all,

is from the mainstream.

[BA ]

Simon & Schuster, 2023