never enough
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), Rondo in D Major (K. 485), Fantasia in C Minor (K. 475); Leif Ove Andsnes (1970-, piano), live, Vienna (Austria), published 4/8/22
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For you I have emptied the meaning
Leaving the song—Louis Zukofsky (1904-1978), from “Anew” (section 9)
sounds of Chicago
Progressive Church of God in Christ Radio Choir (Maywood, Ill.), live (TV show [Jubilee Showcase]), 1975
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
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reading table
Spring and All
by William Carlos Williams (1883-1963)
By the road to the contagious hospital
under the surge of the blue
mottled clouds driven from the
northeast—a cold wind. Beyond, the
waste of broad, muddy fields
brown with dried weeds, standing and fallen
patches of standing water
the scattering of tall trees
All along the road the reddish
purplish, forked, upstanding, twiggy
stuff of bushes and small trees
with dead, brown leaves under them
leafless vines—
Lifeless in appearance,
sluggish dazed spring approaches—
They enter the new world naked,
cold, uncertain of all
save that they enter. All about them
the cold, familiar wind—
Now the grass, tomorrow
the stiff curl of wildcarrot leaf
One by one objects are defined—
It quickens: clarity, outline of leaf
But now the stark dignity of
entrance—Still, the profound change
has come upon them: rooted, they
grip down and begin to awaken
spring: another take
Sun Ra Arkestra (SR, 1914-1993, piano, composition; June Tyson, vocals; John Gilmore, tenor saxophone, et al.), “Springtime Again,” live, Rome, 1980
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Thus spring begins: old
stupidities repeated,
new errors invented.—Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827), translated from the Japanese by Sam Hamill
voices I miss
Billy Bang Quintet (BB, 1947-2011, violin, compositions; James Zollar, trumpet; Andrew Bemkey, piano; Todd Nicholson, bass; Newman Taylor Baker, drums), live, New York, 2006
(clip plays)
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Look at your past, how it’s grown.
—Karen Solie (1966-), from “All That Is Certain Is Night Lasts Longer Than the Day”
back to church
“Until I Die,” Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 2001
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
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reading table
On the first day, we hid in the Mins’ka metro station with our dog, Zlata. The entire platform was covered with people. We found a little gap next to a large family with lots of children and a sick grandad who was getting sicker and sicker. Their cat kept peeing from fear and the smell was everywhere. Some people were better prepared than others: they had brought fold-up chairs, blankets, flasks of hot tea. We came with nothing, though I had started packing a bag as soon as the sound of explosions woke me up. I couldn’t solve the puzzle of what exactly you’re supposed to take with you if you might never go back to your home, or if you might die at any moment. I tried to pack my things several times, but in the end we left with our hands almost empty.
—Sofia Andrukhovych (translated by Uilleam Blacker), from “Day 5, Day 9, Day 16 / Responses to the Invasion of Ukraine,” London Review of Books (3/24/22)
sounds of Ukraine
Valentin Silvestrov (1937-, composer, pianist), Kyiv (Ukraine), 4/18/21, playing Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750, from The Well-Tempered Clavier), Robert Schumann (1810-1856, from Op. 99)
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Hard on the land wears the strong sea / and empty grows every bed.
—John Berryman (1914-1972, MCOTD Hall of Fame), from “Dream Song 1”
sounds of Ukraine
Alyona Alyona (1991-), “Open,” 2018
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Any fence maintains the other / side is “without form.”
—Rae Armantrout (1947-), from “As We’re Told”
sounds of Ukraine
Alyona Alyona (1991-)
“Рими на бітах,” 12/6/21
*****
“Стержень” (feat. KALUSH, et al.), 2020
*****
“Голови,” 2018
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. . . all news feels foreign today . . .
—Mike McCormack, Solar Bones (2016)
sounds of Paris
Ensemble Intercontemporain (Matthias Pintscher, direction), live, Paris, 2015: Helmut Lachenmann (1935-), Mouvement (-Vor der Erstarrung), 1984
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A dry riverbed
glimpsed
by lightning.—Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827), translated from the Japanese by Robert Hass
basement jukebox
Sonny Boy Williamson (AKA Aleck [or Alex] “Rice” Miller, 1912[?]-1965), “Nine Below Zero” (S. B. Williamson), 1951
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Drooping
in this upside-down world,
a bamboo in the snow.—Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), translated from the Japanese by Tom Lowenstein
music clip of the day 