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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
Comment
10
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 ...
Jill, that is a good question. My short answer is no, I think Baraka is interesting throughout. I recommend getting hold of a copy of SOS: POEMS 1961-2013 and reading it all the way through. I think Baraka evolved as a poet, adapting different techniques and modes to changing situations. His gift as a verbal wizard remains throughout. That gift is also palpable in much of his prose writing. Check out the story "The Screamers" among others. And yes, he and O'Hara were very good friends: "[Personism] was founded by me after lunch with LeRoi Jones on August 27, 1959, a day in which I was in love with someone (not Roi, by the way, a blond)." He also features in O'Hara's "Personal Poem" in LUNCH POEMS.
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...
Kora Lives! [by Vincent Katz]
Posted Sep 15, 2021 at The Best American Poetry
Comment
2
Also keep in mind, the stanza referred to "Israeli workers" not "Jews".
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...
Tony, thank you for your comment. I too have difficulty with some of Baraka's statements, in poetry and prose. The most glaring of those was in the poem you refer to, "Somebody Blew Up America." I would only recommend, as in all other cases, reading (or re-reading) the original text in its entirety before deciding. Gerald Stern, one of the poets who nominated Baraka to be NJ Poet Laureate, said about the stanza in question, "I am sensitive to what appears to be the anti-Semitic utterance, which reflects that Jews knew in advance [about the Sept. 11 attacks]. I'm sensitive as a Jew. However, a man is allowed to be paranoid." And Robert Pinsky noted, "Poets are people; their works are human works. We all likely know, or can easily imagine, people capable of saying stupid, vicious things who also sometimes say beautiful or wise things... In other words, each of us, and each of our works, is to be judged on the merits. Moral viewpoint is among the merits, I think."
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 will try to oblige Peggy!
Is Shakespeare Still Readable? [by Vincent Katz]
I am excited to be back at the B.A.P. post desk! This week I plan to riff on things I’m reading and see where that takes me. I usually read a mix of favorites and new work, often going back to things that have affected me powerfully in the past. I like the way books come to litter a place, divin...
Amiri Baraka Catching Up With Himself [by Vincent Katz]
Posted Sep 14, 2021 at The Best American Poetry
Comment
10
It's good to be back!
Is Shakespeare Still Readable? [by Vincent Katz]
I am excited to be back at the B.A.P. post desk! This week I plan to riff on things I’m reading and see where that takes me. I usually read a mix of favorites and new work, often going back to things that have affected me powerfully in the past. I like the way books come to litter a place, divin...
Is Shakespeare Still Readable? [by Vincent Katz]
Posted Sep 13, 2021 at The Best American Poetry
Comment
4
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