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

SPILLANE, KING OF PULP FICTION ~

 

R E A D    M E

THE COMPLETE WORKS OF ALVARO DE CAMPOS (PESSOA) ~

 

Poems

190

I'm beginning to know myself. I don't exist.

I'm the interval between what I want to be and what others made of me,

Or half of that interval, because there's life too . . .

This, ultimately, is what I am . . .

Turn out the light, close the door, and wait for the sound of those

    slippered footsteps in the corridor to go away.

Let me stay in my room alone with just the great peace and quiet of my self.

A cheap universe.

Fernando Pessoa

The Complete Works of Alvaro de Campos

translated by  Margaret Jull Costa & Patricio Ferrari

New Directions, 2023

R E A D

EXCAVATED SHELLAC ~

AN ALTERNATIVE HISTORY OF THE WORLD'S MUSIC:

 

G O    H E R E

Dust-to-Digital

HERO ~

 

M A S H A    G E S S E N

E S S A Y

A.E. STALLINGS ~

 

Momentary

I never glimpse her but she goes

Who had been basking in the sun,

Her links of chain mail one by one

A glint with pewter, bronze and rose.

I never see her lying coiled

Atop the garden step, or under

A dark leaf, unless I blunder

And by some motion she is foiled.

Too late I notice as she passes

Zither of chromatic scale —

I only ever see her tail

Quicksilver into tall grasses.

I know her only by her flowing,

By her glamour disappearing

Into shadow as I'm nearing —

I only recognize her going.

________________

A. E. Stallings

This Afterlife

Selected Poems

Farrar, 2022

LYDIA DAVIS ~

 

R E A D    M E

ADA BLACKJACK ~

 

A D A     B L A C K J A C K

HOMERO ARIDJIS ~

 

The Dreaming Body

The day will come

when an unfamiliar voice

will call you by your name,

and your eyes will comb the street

searching for nobody.

The day will come

in which your hands want

to trap your ghost

only to catch

the heartbeat of a stranger.

The day will come,

on the street, when your

double appears in person

and on its becoming one with you,

you disappear.

The First Dream

Against political harassment,

against criminal violence,

against fear

I built a wall of poetry.

Not All

                  For Norman Manea

Not all the stars are angels in flames

not all the rivers reach the sea

not all rains are crystal clear

not all hunger is the best sauce in the world

not all things that have teeth hunt down someone to eat

not all wombs are the door to paradise

not all dreams have an awakening

not all that I say is for sure

The Tree

                  For Chloe and Eva Sophia

Then the tree had a dream

it dreamed it was in a wood

and its branches that leaned out

onto my window were full of birds

it dreamed its seeds fell to the ground

and turned into other trees

into other dreams that grew

inside and outside us

it dreamed there were two roads

one which went down to the underworld

and the other which rose up to the Horizon

where evening never fell

it had to stay in the same place

staring through a thousand green eyes at man

who came in trucks with chainsaws

to cut it in two

at that moment the tree awoke

saw itself with shoes on its roots

and like an uprooted angel

took to the road

____________________________

Homero Aridjis

Self-portrait in the zone of silence

New Directions, 2023

translated from the Spanish by George McWhirter

ANATOMY OF A JERUSALEM TRAGEDY ~

R E A D    M E

Very well told but a

 tragedy bounded by more tragedy

 — better catastrophe —

in that none of the life of

this text since

October 7, 2023

 any longer exists

JAMES KOLLER'S B O N E S H O W ~

COYOTE

I keep coming back —

born again, born again,

Like the Blue Sky.

I know what comes before

& after, what will be.

I know all about it, ask me.

It's all going to happen.

Everything in its time.

Everything like it's supposed to be.

Just watch how I do it.

Keep at it, keep your head straight.

Day after day, Blue Sky.

Just watch. Do it like me.

WOLF WOMAN

What is thought will happen —

first you must think of it

& then you must do it.

The timing must be right.

What is done must be right

for the time, suit the time —

summer's work in the summer

One foot must follow the other —

they cannot go their own ways.

First there is the pattern

& then it's unfolding.

She who takes the seed with love

gives birth with love.

BABA YAGA

Rain & rain & rain & rain.

There is water everywhere!

Everything is afloat!

This is the beginning.

You can't stand still.

Where will you go?

What can we do?

Make the right choice.

HOMBRE

Tie the right knot

at the right time.

You know what it has to do.

Know how to untie

what you tie.

JACK

I won't stand & wait

until all becomes clear.

A spring bubbles up,

fills what space it can,

& flows as it has to,

makes its own way.

I must move on,

find my own way.

BABA YAGA

I'll answer your questions

when you can ask them.

Do you really want to know?

Does it matter

what you're told?

COYOTE

Sometimes you can smell trouble,

you know it's waiting to happen.

You don't have to help it along,

it'll come looking for you.

It'll come in its own time.

Don't get too curious.

Don't rush into it.

Maybe it won't find you.

BABA YAGA

I don't worry. Not me.

I know how strong I am.

I see things the way they are.

I always take time

to treat myself well.

BABA YAGA

I know what I want.

Things will go my way.

I will do anything

to make things go my way.

Don't doubt me.

I can do it.

I will do it.

I know what I want.

COYOTE

I'm not always right —

usually, but not always.

Even I know that.

Sometimes it pays

not to be right.

WOLF WOMAN

Know where you stand.

Know where you move to.

Know who goes with you.

Know that they know

where you stand, where you move.

Know that they know

why you stand, why you move.

Know that you are right in what you do.

BABA YAGA

You're not alone,

you just think you are.

The others will help.

Treat them well

& they'll treat you well.

BABA YAGA

The rivers will run to the sea.

That's the way it is.

Sometimes more, sometimes less.

They do it in their own time.

No one will stop them.

WOLF WOMAN

The time is right.

Everyone is known.

Things have been done together.

They will be done again & again.

Be yourself, as the others are.

What you do together

brings you together

& holds you together.

KWAN YIN

Being here is enough.

That you are here.

However gentle

you might be.

The wind must pass around you.

COYOTE

You have to know when it's time to wait.

You have to take it all into account.

Sometimes you have to wait.

Twiddle your thumbs.

Watch the clouds go by.

Practice your smile.

It isn't easy, but sometimes

there is no other way.

COYOTE

When I think about what I'm doing

everything turns out as it should.

I have to pay attention

or things just don't work

the way they're supposed to work.

To get things in order

I have to do them in order.

It's just the way my mind works.

FREYA

He knows what he knows

& I know what I know.

Only when I tell him

what I know

does he know.

WOLF WOMAN

We work together.

We know what we want.

We do what it's time to do.

Things get done.

What more can we ask?

COYOTE

It doesn't get any better

than this —

everything is where it belongs.

Everything has a name,

everything has a place.

There is a time for everything.

I could put it all together again

if I had to.

COYOTE

You can't talk me into anything.

I listen to my own mind.

I know what I want to do.

I don't take advice.

I decide if I'm right.

I decide if I'm wrong.

I do things my way

when I can get away with it.

WOLF WOMAN

When you're working alone

you can only do so much.

It all takes a long time,

but if you keep at it

what needs to be done gets done.

COYOTE

In the beginning

we gathered

around

& nobody knew

who anybody was.

I figured it out.

We needed names

if we wanted to talk

about one another.

SPRING

Sometimes someone

who is strong & clear

sees more of it all

& makes happen

more than we knew was needed.

SPRING

I have to know enough

to keep things straight.

I have to know enough

to keep my mind

where it belongs.

COYOTE

I didn't see it coming

but I can't let it go by.

There's a place for her,

all she has to do is remember

what it is —

why she's here.

If she can remember

we'll both remember.

WOLF WOMAN

Try to keep things in balance.

Try to keep things equal.

If a cup is too full it will spill.

If a cup is empty it can only be filled.

Give away what you don't need.

Be thankful for what was given to you.

Be sure to finish what you start —

don't get ahead of yourself.

JACK

A mother teaches her son

more than she knows.

It all goes through her hands.

She knows what to do with it.

She passes it all along.

HOMBRE

The rite of first thunder —

earth opens for the rain.

It has always been that way.

The old ones show the way.

These who believe in what must be done

are happy to be part of it.

Nothing holds back

what must be done.

WOLF WOMAN

If you believe in him

what he does is right.

You know he is right

& open doors for him

& sing to him.

___________________________________

I type out these poems from the opening pages of

James Koller's The Bone Show on the day he passed

away 10 December (2014). Hey there, Jim.

____________________________________

The folk literature of the world speaks from the accumulated traditions of its own diverse beginnings. Common to all these traditions are the desires to understand and to participate in both the known and the still-to-be-known worlds. It all adds up, the folk tell us, will all make sense, someday, to somebody.

THE BONE SHOW is a ghost dance, a chronicle of characters and ideas that, because of their folk origins are able to interact in and with the Present. They remain able to move beyond the known, are able to recreate from the Past, a Now and Future.

The inspiration and focus of the dance, the I CHING, first appeared as an outgrowth of folk traditions in ancient China. We know the eight characters who move through the dance from European and North American traditions as well as Asian. We know that what was done before will be done again. We too, have watched it happen. We know, even as we watch the dancers change, that it's all the same dance.

JAMES KOLLER

THE BONE SHOW

James Koller

Coyote Books

Rete Bioregionale Italiana

2004

THE GENOCIDE IN GAZA ~

 

   Chris Hedges

IN THE BEGINNING ~

 

                                                                D I A N E    A R B U S

Photograph by Tod Papageorge, 1967

The Met, 2016

FRANCOISE MOULY ~

 

R E A D    M E

Coach House Press

2013

ANNA BADKHEN ~

 

R E A D    M E

SEA CHANGE ~

 

R E A D    M E

University of California Press

2023

VILE DAYS ~

 

R E A D   M E

      SEMIOTEXT(E), 2018

YIELD ~

 

Anne Truitt

  R E A D    M E

THE PILGRIM TRAVELERS ~

 

RUSSELL ATKINS ~

 

TRAINYARD AT NIGHT

TH  UN  DER  TH  UN  DER

the huge bold blasts black

hiss insists upon hissing insists

on insisting on hissing hiss

his s sss ss sss sss ssss s

ss sssss ssss

when whoosh!

the sharp scrap making its fourth lap

with a lot of rattletrap

and slap rap and crap —

I listen in time to hearing coming on

the great Limited

it rolls scrolls of fold of fold

like one traditionally old

coldly, meanwhile hiss hiss

hiss insists upon hissing insists

on insisting on hissing hiss

his s ss ss sss sss s

sss s s

s

___________________________

Russell Atkins

World'd Too Much

The Selected Poetry

CSU, 2019