GOSPEL HARMONETTES ~

 

Slavoj Źiźek ~

 

    M O R E !

SONGS OF MIRABAI ~

 

Some Songs of Mirabai

           ________________________

paga bandha ghumgharyam nacyari

Binding my ankles with silver

I danced —

people in town called me crazy.

She'll run the clan

said my mother-in-law,

and the prince

had a cup ofvenom delivered.

I laughed as I drank it.

Can't they see?

Body and mind aren't something to lose,

the Dark One's already seized them.

Mira's lord can lift mountains,

he is her refuge.

mhare dere ajyo

Come to my bedroom,

I've scattered fresh buds on the couch,

perfumed my body.

Birth after birth I am your servant,

sleep only with you.

Mira's lord does not perish —

one glimpse of the Dark One is all she requests.

jagamam jivana thora

Life on this planet is fragile,

why take up a burden?

From mother and father

come birth,

but from the font of creation comes karma.

People waste life,

heaping up merit like they're buying and selling —

it's pointless.

I sing out the raptures

of Hari, go into passions with sadhus,

nothing disturbs me.

Mira says — it's your power Dark One,

but it's me who crosses

the limits.

nenam lobham atakam

Wolfish eyes fixed on the Dark One,

hungry, restless,

scouring every inch of his body.

When he came into view

smiling faintly,

lit up with moonlight.

I nearly collapsed by the door.

My family speaks of their plans

to restrain me

but my eyes flash through every obstruction.

Don't they know somebody's claimed me?

I lift to my forehead

every word uttered,

some ugly, some tender —

without the Dark one's approval

nothing survives.

kina sang khelum holi

Terrible solitude

festival day

now that he's gone.

Damn these rubies and pearls,

I'll string devotional beads

at my throat.

And here's an old hermit cloak —

now that fod and house

are distasteful

it matches my feelings.

What makes me like this?

It's a riddle.

You take me to bed

then go off and fuck

some other girl.

Does she have you under her spell

that you can't even write me?

Mira's bundle of nerves in your absence.

Look at her,

an unwatered weed when the

Dark One's away, 

            she wilts in the rubble.

______________________

Songs of Mirabai

translated by Andrew Schelling

White Pine Press, 2024

COMPANION FOR THE JOURNEY VOLUME 31

THE STAX SONGWRITER DEMOS ~

 

   PLAY  ME  ALL  DAY  &  NIGHT

      Stax Records

THE DEATH OF TRUTH ~

 

     Steven Brill

      Al Hunt

ROY HAYNES WAS WITH US FOR 99 YEARS ~

 

R O Y   H A Y N E S

THE DEATH OF TRUTH ~

 

R E A D   M E 

    Knopf 2024

ELLA JENKINS ~

 

Ella Jenkins has passed away in Chicago

at age 100

THE LAST ICE MERCHANT OF ECUADOR ~

 

R E A D   M E

    New York Times

World Library of Folk and Primitive Music, Vol.1 - England (Alan Lomax) ~

 

SHANE McCRAE ~

 

In the Event of

Officer how you know I'm dancing is the body

-cam. Look, I'm riding centuries of whips, the first half

Of the ghost, arms out the window up, the second half

Arms flat on the pavement, palms down, now the ghost is whole

My arms stretched forward, like I'm bowing, but if I

Were standing, stretched above my head. Officer how

you know I'm dead is that I seem to bow to you

________________________

Shane McCrae

The Many Hundreds of the Scent

Farrar, 2023

BAYARD RUSTIN ~

R E A D   M E 

New York University Press

2024

PRESTON STURGES by STUART KLAWANS ~

 

      Columbia University Press

    2023

GOODBYE ~

 

     The Albert Camus quote was chalked at 7 PM

     election night with a good pal holding

      a flashlight to guide the guiding words

      BACKROAD CHALKIE NOV 6 '24

PHILIP GUSTON: I Paint What I Want To See ~

 

R E A D   M E

   Penguin Books, 2022

DJ SHADOW ~

 

    Mass Appeal 2019

FROG IN BOILING WATER (diiv) ~

 

Fantasy 2024

INDIGENOUS RESISTANCE ~

 

R E A D   M E

     Haymarket, 2023

GOLDBERG VARIATIONS ~

 

Vikingur Olafsson

NOTHING EVER JUST DISAPPEARS ~

 

R E A D   M E

    Pegasus Books

   2024