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Tony is always at the top of his game. Great choice, Terence. Terrific photo of the author as well.
Tony Towle: Pick of the Week [ed. Terence Winch]
_______________________________________________________ In Progress We adjust the background so that I am still in a forest, but the traditional kind, not one made of cement and glass, but composed primarily of wood and auxiliary vegetal matter, aerated wi...
Great to read this one again!!
"Lesbian Corn" [by Elaine Equi]
Lesbian Corn In summer I strip away your pale kimono. Your tousled hair too, comes off in my hands leaving you completely naked. All ears and tiny yellow teeth. -- Elaine Equi from the archive; first posted October 1, 2008
Fantastic! Berlin is a genius. Love Sinatra doing Blue Skies.
Cheek to Cheek [by Lewis Saul]
This is dedicated to Leah, who requested it. VARIOUS ARTISTS Cheek to Cheek (1934-35) 7 versions Irving Berlin (pictured above) knew as much about music theory as I knew about refrigerator repair. But he had a natural gift for songwriting that few have ever equaled. This one's a doozy. It bre...
Just read this piece to my dad. When I got to the part about the best pitcher he’d ever faced, I paused before saying his name, gestured to my dad, and he supplied the name, “Sandy Koufax.” I’m a huge McCarver fan. I think I have BASEBALL FOR BRAIN SURGEONS somewhere, and Tim appears (as announcer) in a World Series poem of mine.
Lunch with Tim McCarver in February 1987 [by David Lehman]
Tim McCarver died yesterday at age 81. Back in spring 1987, McCarver, a terrific catcher who caught Bob Gibson with the Cardinals and Steve Carlton with the Phillies, was calling plays for the New York Mets. He made the cover of Esquire and had a book coming out (wotking with professional spor...
I love this poem. It happens simultaneously with what it is about. You have to read it to understand it, unlike many poems, which you can get without reading. I had to look up "shanked" and am glad I did. Thank you BAP & thank you Susan!
"Shanked on the Red Bed" [by Susan Wheeler]
Shanked on the Red Bed The perch was on the roof, and the puck was in the air. The diffident were driving, and the daunted didn't care. When I came out to search for you the lauded hit the breeze On detonated packages the bard had built to please. The century was breaking and the blame was on...
Edwin Denby's writing is always surprising, especially on multiple readings, and it feels intensely accurate. He causes you to see anew, the critic's greatest gift, even something ostensibly from long ago.
"I hadn't expected so intense a pleasure . . . " [by Edwin Denby]
looking at New York again, in the high white February sunlight, the childishly euphoric climate; looking down Second Avenue, where herds of vehicles go charging one way all day long disappearing into the sky at the end like on a prairie; looking up a side of skyscraper, a flat and flat and a ...
La Vita Nuova is a work that endlessly attracts me, and which also inevitably disappoints me. I go to it expecting to find the answer to that timeless question: what is the essence of burning passion? Then I find that Dante's personality is too removed, in more ways than one, from my own, and no doubt from that of many contemporary readers. Montale was right: Dante is not a modern poet. Maybe not a love poet, as we are accustomed to think of them. I would go back in time, or forward, to find the ones that speak to me. Still La Vita Nuova is a remarkable, unique, work by a brilliant poet. I very much appreciated Robert P. Baird's fascinating look at it.
Dante, Near and Far [by Robert P. Baird]
There is much strange in La Vita Nuova, the libello or “little book” that Dante composed fifteen or so years before starting in on the Divine Comedy. Take, for starters, the form of the book, an alternation of prose and poetry that produces effects as dizzying as any in Williams's Spring and A...
Hi Theodore, thank you so much for your very pertinent comment! And also for the link to your interview in BOMB with Kristin Prevallet. It's great to see your work there and to read about your collaborations with Amiri Baraka.
Amiri Baraka Catching Up With Himself [by Vincent Katz]
One day, a year or so ago, Oliver said to me, in passing, “I need to read some Baraka.” When someone, especially someone close to me, says something like that, I leap into action. I leapt to my keyboard and ordered him The LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka Reader, edited by William J. Harris with input f...
I should say too that Greg is a drummer himself, adding further depth to his appreciation of the rhythmic complexity.
Greg Masters: Pick of the Week [ed. Terence Winch]
Greg Masters. Photo by Kate Previte ________________________________________ At 20 minutes, 37 seconds At 20 minutes, 37 seconds into track one of a box-set reissue of the Miles Davis Quintet recording “Freedom Jazz Dance,” a previously unissued rehearsal take...
Just checking this out now. Glad it came in on my BAP radar. Listening to the session reel now. I'm at 12:04. I thought I knew everything of Miles, especially the fusion period, which is my favorite. I think it's only in recent years, with many more releases of complete sessions, that a wider audience is coming to appreciate the density and complexity of the fusion work. This rehearsal though is a goldmine! Scholars and fans everywhere will pore over this recording and others like it. Your poem brings all this to light, but that's an ancillary function. In essence, your poem is a miracle, as it transcribes the listening experience. It is really in the moment, a New York School work for sure, and also one of more Black Mountain like investigative poetry. Writing that makes me think of how important Miles was to Robert Creeley, among others. Creeley said he learned a lot from Miles's pauses. So Kudos to Greg! Thanks to Terence. And thank you for alerting me to the egregious lack of a Miles festival at WKCR. I've just written in support of the cause!
Greg Masters: Pick of the Week [ed. Terence Winch]
Greg Masters. Photo by Kate Previte ________________________________________ At 20 minutes, 37 seconds At 20 minutes, 37 seconds into track one of a box-set reissue of the Miles Davis Quintet recording “Freedom Jazz Dance,” a previously unissued rehearsal take...
This is a beautiful poem Michael! It is brave and poignant, like all your work, and at the same, again like all your work, you let your musicality take the guiding role; you turn lament into song. Thanks and bravo!
"I Meant To" [by Michael Lally]
I meant to put those sixty-three names and email addresses in the BCC blind copy space, not the CC copy space. I meant to send it to him, not her. I meant to swallow not drool, on the computer, my lap, your sleeve, my arm, the floor, that first edition, in the drawer. I meant to walk and move...
Thank you for sharing your mother's story David. The challenges people had to face in those times are incomprehensible to me. Your mother was a very kind and strong woman! Xx
On Coming to America [by Anne Lehman (1915-2009), as told to David Lehman]
David and Anne Lehman, in Vienna, 1998 When I was born the third child to my parents, they were not overjoyed, since they already had a daughter and a son. But my mother told me I was so pretty that they didn’t mind too much. We lived in Vienna, in the 16th district. It was not a very Jewish...
Terrific poem!! Congrats Jeff - & thank you to Terence for highlighting it.
Jeffrey Cyphers Wright: Pick of the Week [ed. Terence Winch]
_____________________________________________________________ “Gone” “Irk” was one of my dad’s favorite words. Mom liked to pick up on teen lingo. She said “stuff” was “neat.” She was a real people person. She was chiffon and dad was concrete. I walk in the vall...
Robert and Sarah, thank you for your comments. "The Forgetting" is powerfully complex poem. Thank you for sharing that great recording of it. It mentions Pound and reminds us that he and Eliot, among others, suffered from the same problem Baraka did, and it affected their poetry, and consequently our reactions to it. In regard to "Somebody Blew Up America," I would again suggest that a reading of the entire poem reveals a querulous, maybe paranoid, mind, posing questions regarding any number of tragic abuses, including:
Who put the Jews in ovens,
and who helped them do it
Who said "America First"
and ok'd the yellow stars
Who killed Rosa Luxembourg, Liebneckt
Who murdered the Rosenbergs
And all the good people iced,
tortured, assassinated, vanished
Many tormented questions are asked in this poem, including the passage that most offends people, which I would again note refers not to Jews but to Israeil workers and Sharon.
Amiri Baraka Catching Up With Himself [by Vincent Katz]
One day, a year or so ago, Oliver said to me, in passing, “I need to read some Baraka.” When someone, especially someone close to me, says something like that, I leap into action. I leapt to my keyboard and ordered him The LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka Reader, edited by William J. Harris with input f...
Terrific poem Bill! Kudos! And thanks to you both for including the pic of Beverly!
Bill Zavatsky: Pick of the Week [ed. Terence Winch]
Bill Zavatsky. Photo by Nora Howard ____________________________________________________________ 104 Bus Uptown How bad can it be, dear wacky New York City, when the first twelve lines of The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock blink down at me from a poster...
Thank you for the opportunity, David!
McClure Kick Blues [by Vincent Katz]
Tomorrow, at the California Shakespeare Theater, in Orinda, California, there will be a memorial to poet, playwright and thinker Michael McClure, who passed away in May of 2020. Along with Diane di Prima, of all the great poets we have lost in the past few years, Michael for me defines an era. I...
Kenneth, I did indeed know Frank O'Hara when I was a child. I know some poets and others not so much. I heard Baraka read a number of times but didn't know him personally.
McClure Kick Blues [by Vincent Katz]
Tomorrow, at the California Shakespeare Theater, in Orinda, California, there will be a memorial to poet, playwright and thinker Michael McClure, who passed away in May of 2020. Along with Diane di Prima, of all the great poets we have lost in the past few years, Michael for me defines an era. I...
Thank you for the openness & generosity of this comment Michael & for allowing us to catch up with you for a minute!
Amiri Baraka Catching Up With Himself [by Vincent Katz]
One day, a year or so ago, Oliver said to me, in passing, “I need to read some Baraka.” When someone, especially someone close to me, says something like that, I leap into action. I leapt to my keyboard and ordered him The LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka Reader, edited by William J. Harris with input f...
Thank you for your comment Maria! "Torture" is a word McClure keeps coming back to, and it always has multiple connotations, such as those you suggest.
McClure Kick Blues [by Vincent Katz]
Tomorrow, at the California Shakespeare Theater, in Orinda, California, there will be a memorial to poet, playwright and thinker Michael McClure, who passed away in May of 2020. Along with Diane di Prima, of all the great poets we have lost in the past few years, Michael for me defines an era. I...
Thanks Michael! I've been thinking about you while writing these. Then today I thought, "Michael and Michael."
McClure Kick Blues [by Vincent Katz]
Tomorrow, at the California Shakespeare Theater, in Orinda, California, there will be a memorial to poet, playwright and thinker Michael McClure, who passed away in May of 2020. Along with Diane di Prima, of all the great poets we have lost in the past few years, Michael for me defines an era. I...
Thank you Alan for this very meaningful and heartfelt comment. What you write illuminates something that may not be as well known about Michael as his literary achievements — his generosity and capacity for friendship.
McClure Kick Blues [by Vincent Katz]
Tomorrow, at the California Shakespeare Theater, in Orinda, California, there will be a memorial to poet, playwright and thinker Michael McClure, who passed away in May of 2020. Along with Diane di Prima, of all the great poets we have lost in the past few years, Michael for me defines an era. I...
McClure Kick Blues [by Vincent Katz]
Posted Sep 17, 2021 at The Best American Poetry
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Congrats David! Can’t wait to get a copy!
Now published: "The Morning Line" by David Lehman
September 15, 2021. Pittsburgh, PA. -- The University of Pittsburgh Press announces the publication of David Lehman's new book of poems: <<< The Morning Line is David Lehman’s most ambitious book to date, combining wit, quotidian charm, and off-the-cuff spontaneity in poems that proffer candid ...
Relevant Nature [by Vincent Katz]
Posted Sep 17, 2021 at The Best American Poetry
Comment
0
Thank you for your comment Tony!
Kora Lives! [by Vincent Katz]
WKCR is on, as it often is at this time of day, and they are playing selections from Miles Davis’s fusion period — “Miles Runs the Voodoo Down” and “Splashdown,” to name two. It is providing the right vibe, as the radio often does, to composing thoughts about two books that are on my mind. When ...
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