testify!
Vernard Johnson (1948-, alto saxophone), “I Won’t Complain,” live, Kansas City, Mo. (58th Women’s International Convention, Church of God in Christ), 2008
**********
lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
The Locust Tree in Flower (second version)
by William Carlos Williams (1883-1963)Among
of
greenstiff
old
brightbroken
branch
comewhite
sweet
Mayagain
more
Vernard Johnson (alto saxophone), “Grateful,” live, Los Angeles (COGIC International Women’s Convention), 2010
**********
lagniappe
random sights
a while ago, Maine (Monhegan Island)
like nobody else
Vernard Johnson (alto saxophone), live (COGIC International Women’s Convention), 2013
**********
lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
[E]verything returns, but what returns is not
what went away——Louise Glück (1943-), from “The Denial of Death” (Winter Recipes from the Collective, 2021)
testify!
Vernard Johnson (1948-, alto saxophone), “Only What You Do for Christ Will Last,” live, published 2014
**********
lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
back to church
Vernard Johnson (alto saxophone), live, Texas (Roanoke), 2008
**********
lagniappe
random sights
this morning, Chicago (Columbus Park)
*****
reading table
At the ancient pond
a frog jumps into
the sound of water—Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), translated from Japanese by Sam Hamill
testify!
Vernard Johnson (alto saxophone, vocals), live, Fort Worth, Tx.
**********
lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill
two takes
“Never Grow Old,” AKA “Where We’ll Never Grow Old” (James C. Moore)
Aretha Franklin, live, Detroit, 1996
***
Vernard Johnson, live, 1973
More of Vernard Johnson.
Live, Roanoke, Tx.
*****
“What Is This,” live (Something’s Got a Hold on Me), Little Rock, Ark., 1981
*****
“I’ve Decided To Make Jesus My Choice,” The Gospel Saxophone of Vernard Johnson, 1974
In forty years this guy has let me down not once.
Vernard Johnson, “Only What You Do for Christ Will Last,” live
**********
lagniappe
random thoughts
Blessed to be awakened, again, by birds.
Nearly forty years have passed since I first heard him; still I can’t get enough.
Vernard Johnson, “Amazing Grace,” live, Memphis, 1988
**********
lagniappe
reading table
Life tears us apart, but through those wounds, if we have tended them, love may enter us.
—Christian Wiman, “Mortify Our Wolves,” The American Scholar, Autumn, 2012
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