Longer ago than I care to admit Alan Britt sent me some poems that I'd like to post tonight. I'm happy to see that his first poem references various bluesmen born in the 1940s, most of whom are new to the contest. Alan, by the way, was also in Resurrection of a Sunflower. I am always thrilled to publish someone from Catfish and Marc's anthology!
USING THE BLUES AS A MEAT TENDERIZER
Sprinkle in
Eric’s falsetto and you’ve really got
something—a
sprig of Mayall, Jack Bruce, Stevie
Winwood—rolling
rock on its ear, as if rock’n’roll
had an ear
according to swingsters cartwheeling
their way
across Nazi ballrooms.
A pinch of
Derek Trucks for good measure,
just enough
to tenderize what many preachers
call
porterhouse love affairs on the verge,
on the
verge, on the verge of what some poor
exhausted
praying bastard might say if only
he had a
love affair.
So, forget
the verge; better he doesn’t know;
easier that
way. & with your alchemical harp,
Mick, take
us out . . . take us out.
This next poem is surprisingly timely!
LEAVES
Leaves fall
through hard black shadows.
Banana-bitten
leaves
with ink
stains of infant green
& brown
spots tattooing
their oval
bodies.
November
wind, with a walnut walking
stick,
churns their chilly graves.
WINTER BREAK
I've already
forgotten which day
it was I've forgotten!
CREVASSE
I understand how it feels to be tangled in monofilament line
cast from a corporate yacht by its captain donning a white
fabric black-brimmed cap that features a braided yellow trim
slip-knotted at both ends with gold embroidered ships wheel
& anchor on a black background.
Wrapped in monofilament line beneath irrational undertow.
I understand that certain sentiments when threatened
erupt like Mount Tambora.
But like Helen Keller lost in a blizzard, I developed tentacles
disguised as Spanish dancer sea slugs trawling a reef off
East Timor while performing flamenco among cauliflower
coral that’s survived seventy zillion evolutions.
Enough or too much, William poses the eternal question?
So, how much is enough?
AS APRIL YAWNS, I ENTER
Crow squawks
resemble high heels scraping
a sidewalk between
two clapboard houses framed
by budding
birches, elderly elms, & Japanese maples.
Mail truck over
blue gravel rattles like ice
cubes
clattering an icemaker’s throat.
Butterfly
wings of radiant rust clip the clover,
braise wild
onion, & tumble like flakes of amber
over
forsythia singeing a split-rail fence.
Algae, like
waves staining beach sand, bruises
the torso
of a whitewashed shed.
Palomino
dog beside wrought iron railing pants
on patio
steps that eviscerate TV voices revealing
windows in
the flesh, daffodil’s wilted yellow star,
tomato
vines reduced to shoestrings by a renegade
winter,
& catbird cries like russet gears inside magnolia
blossoms
that resemble artichoke leaves dipped
below
garlic & melted butter dreams.
* *
Like lava,
pollen migrates from barbaric verbs
to feral
nouns one breath at a time.
Tyger
dragonflies—her hair after
a gust
during 3rd grade recess.
Then in bed
dreaming of rescuing preschool
crush’s
hair like wet tobacco while riding
a bareback
granite stallion
that
requires no maintenance,
no oats, no
hay, no excuses.
Initial
commands sketchy
when
nuclear weapons
entered the
conversation,
head
beneath Florida desktop,
body curled
like armadillo
scale by
scale, link by link,
into the
vault, a dream of sorts,
but vault
all the same,
accountants
disappearing in quicksand,
rulers on
roller skates behind Plexiglas,
behind the
advertising cartel all smiles
ripe for
orthodontic ads—reminds
me of
lavender-dipped-in-opium
perfume
intoxicating the rail-splitter
in me—I had
two cows, maybe,
six goats,
& three mangy dogs,
for sure—I
had some chickens
won in a
euchre contest—feathers
flew, eggs
hard to come by—but
I inherited
something cherished
by
primordial DNA—I found love,
or it found
me—either way, from
this day
forward I’ll spread
poetry like
Johnny Apple
spread his
seeds.
Alan Britt has published over 3,000 poems nationally and internationally in such places as Agni, Bitter Oleander, Bloomsbury Review, Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, Christian Science Monitor, Confrontation, English Journal, Epoch, Flint Hills Review, Gallerie International (India), Kansas Quarterly, Letras (Chile), Magyar Naplo (Hungary), Minnesota Review, Missouri Review, New Letters, Northwest Review, Osiris, Pedrada Zurda (Ecuador), Poet’s Market, Queen’s Quarterly (Canada), Revista/Review Interamericana (Puerto Rico), Revista Solar (Mexico), Roanoke Review, Steaua (Romania), Sunstone, Tulane Review, Wasafiri (UK), and The Writer’s Journal. His interview at The Library of Congress for The Poet and the Poem aired on Pacifica Radio, January 2013. He has published 16 books of poetry. He teaches English/Creative Writing at Towson University.
ALAN BRITT: Library of Congress Interview:
I hope that the link to the interview with Grace Cavalieri works!
Tonight I'd like to post some videos of Michael Brecker, another musician born in the 1940s. His Don't Try This at Home was the first jazz CD I bought. "Itsbynne Reel" started off the CD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NL_DoqyKXJQ
"Suspone" is another song from that CD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hTvej7KRiU It sounds like a song from another place and time.
Let's add to my collection of "Night in Tunisia" with Chaka Khan on vocals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZMIQMw3F2E
Here is Michael and Randy Brecker's "Some Skunk Funk": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLEv8w1QwAA
I'll finish with their "Strap-Hangin'": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6o_GiajAzVQ
Enjoy!
Let's add to my collection of "Night in Tunisia" with Chaka Khan on vocals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZMIQMw3F2E
Here is Michael and Randy Brecker's "Some Skunk Funk": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLEv8w1QwAA
I'll finish with their "Strap-Hangin'": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6o_GiajAzVQ
Enjoy!
I see you like Michael Brecker so much that you bought a copy of "Don't Try This at Home!" I still have my copy. He left us all too soon. He also worked with Carly Simon, as on the DVD of the concert Carly did at her home town on Martha's Vineyard. (http://www.carlysimon.com/store/live-from-marthas-vineyard) Also available at most music stores and on line merchants.
ReplyDelete