DOLORES KEANE ~

 

KISS THE EYES OF PEACE (Tomaž Šalamun) ~

Folk Song

Every poet is a monster.

He destroys the voice and the people.

His singing builds the technology that destroys

the earth so that the worms don't eat us.

A drunkard sells his coat.

A scoundrel sells his mother.

Only a poet sells his soul

to separate it from the body that he loves.

________________________

Tomaž Šalamun

Kiss the Eyes of Peace

Selected poems 1964-2014

translated from the Slovenian by Brian Henry

Milkweed Editions, 2024

There are far calmer and elder photographs of Tomaž Šalamun

 all over the Internet, but this is the photograph for this poem

KRIS KRISTOFFERSON, THE PILGRIM ~

 

  K R I S   K R I S T O F F E R S O N

     Kristoffer Kristofferson was born on June 22, 1936, in Brownsville, Texas ~

September 28, 2024, Maui, Hawaii

GEORGIA SEA ISLAND SINGERS ~

 

TIMOTHY O'SULLIVAN ~

 

R E A D    M E

Farrar, Strauss, Giroux

2024

LIGHTNIN HOPKINS (ASH GROVE) ~

 

JOHN PHILLIPS ~

 

Spell

Listen

carefully

you may

hear a word

in the silence

thinking

to say

something not

said before

to make something

happen

that hasn't

happened before

one word

with the belief

changing silence

changes everything

This

for Nelson Ball

There is

a here

we aren't

close to

even if

it's where

we are

Stone

If you insist on being here

at least say something

Six

Lana asked

if cats

knew they

were animals

did they have

a language

to know

it in

Or did they

think we were

animals

wondering

if we had a

language

to know

ourselves

Seen

for Eva

crows above a field

will always be

Van Gogh's

_____________________

John Phillips

Language Being Time

Shearsman Books, 2024

EDUARDO HALFON ~

 

R E A D    M E

Bellevue Literary Press

2024

ZIM NGQAWANA ~

 

℗ 1998 Gallo Record Company

SANDRA McPHERSON ~

Sandra McPherson

1943—2024

JANA PRIKRYL ~

 

Anonymous

Just in front of the porch steps, on a flat stone

that appears partially tucked under the porch,

a ficus in a clay planter. It produces

strange sounds. The silence that comes dressed

in not the past but conditional tense

may be quietest, it's endured the most.

_________________________

Jana Prikryl

No Matter

Tim Duggan Books, 2019

PAPA GEORGE LIGHTFOOT ~

 

RECONSTRUCTION OF ZBIGNIEW HERBERT ~

 

So Much

How hard

to save a person

who loves

I always feel

your slender arm

heavy as a body

It runs through my fingers

like water

Your breath

my pallor

and care

How hard

to save a person

who trusts

I bend over your sorrow

I lift the weight of love

I lift you from earth in my arms

carry you on my lips

give you up to prayer

On the Repatriation of

Bruno Jasienski's Remains

When the thaw reached

the Far North

the poet's body emerged

from under the ice cap

his grave so shallow

body only half buried

a daisy in one ear

a little grass in the other

but taken all in all

he was in very good shape

so they freshened him up

wiped the mold from his lips

blew on him and slapped him

doused him with jasmine

farewell dear poet

off to your fatherland

his fatherland is happy

the academy overjoyed

no one says they killed him

they all say: he came back

they scream and shout

the crowd lifts him up

so you see my old pal

no need for living legs

at the author's evening

obedient comrades

whip him into shape

make blustery threats

and attached to his strings

the poet steps up to the mic

a little stiff but confident

he wants to read his poems

His hand in his wig

his voice makes the megaphone squeal

he grunts and gestures

and they all say: he's so alive

the poem ends with a shriek

he raises a hand and screams

the string snaps and the arm

drops woodenly on the table

so as to erase the image

the cry goes up: long life

and presidium and poet

go off to have a drink

his wife is at the reception

but she behaves differently

when looking at her husband

she sobs into a handkerchief

champagne caviar oysters

pineapples and wine

poor man no more will you

drink water or feed on clay

but the poet eats nothing

doesn't even clink glasses

pale he goes off to one side

begins to wind his shroud

but no one notices this

alcohol flows like a stream

and it's only near dawn

they yell: he's gone and died again

________________________

Zbigniew Herbert

Reconstruction of the poet

Ecco, 2024

Translated by Alissa Valles

AGNES VARDA ~

 

R E A D   M E

     A new biography surveys the prolific and pioneering

 career of the filmmaker Agnès Varda.

Norton 2024

DUBRAVKA UGRESIC ~

 

R E A D   M E

&

M O R E

A Muzzle for Witches

University of Rochester

2024

CATHY MERRICK ~

Cathy Merrick, Advocate for Indigenous People in Canada,

 Dies at 63

Ms. Merrick during a candlelight vigil outside a Winnipeg courthouse in April during the trial of a white man accused of killing four Indigenous women. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau paid tribute to her after she collapsed while speaking to reporters on Sept. 6. Credit...Sebastien St-Jean/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

C A T H Y   M E R R I C K 

CLIFFORD BURKE ~

 

     Desert Rose Press

     2024

JELLY ROLL BLUES ~

 

R E A D   M E

Censored Songs & Hidden Histories

THE BOOK AT WAR ~

 

R E A D   M E

Basic Books 2023

SUPREME CIDER DONUT ~

 

This is a supreme cider donut

melt in your mouth donut

the clincher of a September day

after picking blueberries at

Green Mountain Orchards in

Putney, Vermont ~

No promo — they don't

know us and we don't

know them — even if

we have been scrambling

their bountiful hillsides

 picking there for decades,

the best cider donut

we have ever had —

thank you!

    ______________________