what’s new
Asterids (alto saxophonists Charlotte Greve, Caroline Davis, Caleb Curtis, Oscar Noriega [l-r]), live, New York (Bushwick Public House, Brooklyn), 3/12/2018
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The two plum trees—
I love their blooming!
one early, one later.—Yosa Buson, 1716-1784 (translated from Japanese by Robert Hass)
spring!
Blossom Dearie (1924-2009; vocals, piano), “They Say It’s Spring” (M. Clark, B. Haymes), 1958
*****
Bob Dorough (1923-; vocals, piano), “Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most” (T. Wolf, F. Landesman), 1997
*****
Sun Ra Arkestra (SR, 1914-1993, piano; June Tyson, vocals; John Gilmore, tenor saxophone, et al.), “Springtime Again” (S. Ra), live, Rome, 1980
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First day of spring—
I keep thinking about
the end of autumn.—Matsuo Basho, 1644-1694 (translated from Japanese by Robert Hass)
The lights are going out
in the doll shops—
spring rain.—Yosa Buson, 1716-1784 (translated from Japanese by Robert Hass)
Not very anxious
to bloom,
my plum tree.—Kobayashi Issa, 1763-1827 (translated from Japanese byRobert Hass)
what’s new
Big K.R.I.T. (aka Rodney Carmichael), live, Washington, D.C., 3/5/18
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father and son
go their separate ways…
blossom viewing—Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827), 1820 (translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue)
two takes
“My Back Pages” (B. Dylan)
Bob Dylan, live
*****
Bob Dylan, Roger McGuinn, Tom Petty, Neil Young, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, et al., live, New York, 1992
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watching the downpour
from under a temple
bell—Kobayashi Issa, 1763-1827 (translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue)
old school
Rev. Campbell and His Wonder Boys, “Home Don’t Seem Like Home No More”
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my dead mother—
every time I see the ocean,
every time . . .—Kobayashi Issa, 1763-1827 (translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue)
two takes
“Things Have Changed” (B. Dylan)
Bob Dylan, live
*****
Bettye LaVette, 2018
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An Entertainment for W.S. Graham for Him
Having Reached Sixty-Five
by W.S. Graham (1918-1986)
What are you going to do
With what is left of yourself
Now among the rustling
Of your maybe best years?
This is not an auto-elegy
With me pouring my heart
Out into where you
Differently stand or sit
On the Epidaurus steps.
What shall I say to myself
Having put myself down
On to a public page?
Where am I going now?
And where are you going
Tricked into reading
Words of my later life?
Let me pretend you are
Roughly of my age.
Are you a boy or a girl?
And what has happened to you?
Look at the chirping various
Leaves of Mr Graham’s
Spanking summer. Where are
You at? I know my face
Has changed. My hair has blanched
Into a wrong disguise
Sitting on top of my head.
Beside each other perched
On the Epidaurus steps.
Where am I going to go?
Shall I rise to follow
The thin sound of the goats
Tinkling their bells?
what’s new
John Prine, “Summer’s End” (J. Prine), 2/8/18
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This road—
no one goes down it,
autumn evening.—Matsuo Basho, 1644-1694 (translated from Japanese by Robert Hass)
two takes
“In My Secret Life” (L. Cohen, S. Robinson)
Bettye LaVette, live, Montreal, 2017
*****
Leonard Cohen (1934-2016), live
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Could live – did live –
Could die – did die –—Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), 59 (Franklin; excerpt)
another take
Once I enter this world I never want to leave.
Morton Feldman (1926-1987; MCOTD Hall of Fame), Piano and String Quartet (1985); Musica Nova Consort, live, Israel (Tel Aviv), 2017
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Going home,
the horse stumbles
in the winter wind.—Yosa Buson, 1716-1784 (translated from Japanese by Robert Hass)
never enough
If I could play like this, I’d never stand up.
Johann Sebastian Bach, Cello Suite No. 2 in D minor, Prelude; Eva Lymenstull (baroque cello), 2017
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I like this story from the N.Y. Times—a composition by a child in the third grade: ‘I told my little brother that when you die you cannot breathe and he did not say a word. He just kept on playing.’
—Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979), Letter to Robert Lowell, September 8, 1948
