Monday, September 12, 2016

The DC Poetry Spot



This evening I would like to feature another collaboration, an exquisite corpse poem that the members of the DC Poetry Spot created on June 12.  If you are in the DC area and would like to learn more about this wonderful group, please email me at thesongis@gmail.com .  We meet on the second Saturday of the month from 10:30 to 12:30 at the William O. Lockridge Library in DC.

I wish that I could post a picture of the library as it is a charming place.  Instead, here are some pictures from various meetings of the DC Poetry Spot.  The first is from our haiku workshop .  The second is from the August meeting on personification in poetry.






A collective effort...

Strong...TALL
Amazingly calm
Peace flowing from within
SON and FATHER
He’s not in the crooked houses I wander through.


There’s a breeze sweeping through the room
A warm gentleness that comforts
even the angriest of us all
Proud I palmed my son’s head like a Spalding
Knowing that he would escape the curse
He’s not in the crooked houses I wander through

Bless the Lord for bringing him through
bypassing the ups and downs
I myself fell victim to
When Daddy wasn’t  around
-- nowhere to be found
Nowhere to be seen
Bless the lord for this son of mine
-- my joy, my everything
No crooked paths  for you,  my son
Oh No-- no such thing
Only college degrees and victories -- if it ends
up being my last dream
my last will and testament
I’ll proclaim ‘til the day I die
This breeze that sweeps through this empty house
will be the last time we seem..
Because the strengths of ancestors will
prevail
albeit, life will present ups and downs, failures and triumphs, joys and sorrows
the victory is in persistence, it is in
fortitude, it is in courage, it is in
resilience
[no this will not be the last time]
of the breeze that beckons us
to stand tall and soar.


Because the strength of ancestors
                                    will prevail
we wander through
yet are not lost.

Because the strength of ancestors
                                    will prevail

We return home,
We build our lives.
so different from theirs
yet the same.
We wonder what lives
they would have chosen
if they had lived in our times
of travel and technology,
of triumph and danger,
of want and worry.

We do not live for them, though.
                                    K~K~M~me

DC Poetry Spot ~ 2016 June 12

I'll finish with some music on the theme of ancestors.  Let's start with bassist Derrick Hodge's 
"Dances with Ancestors."  He has played with the Robert Glasper Experiment, but this piece is from his solo album.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOC8ToQJyVw

I want to add his version of "Solitude" from a tribute to the late pianist Mulgrew Miller:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHj5sOcG0qU

Here is the Yellowjackets' "Ancestors":  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YK5lSh-lTg8

Shabaka and the Ancestors is a collaboration between a British musician (Shabaka) and a group from South Africa.  The song is "Joyous": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwjWrrYQFoQ

I'll finish with their song "The Observer": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lkq_CZhLrII

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