Lisa Stice Returns

For some of us, tonight truly is a rainy night.  What an odd coincidence that I am publishing Lisa Stice's poems tonight.

Rock ‘n’ Roll Paddy

for Shane MacGowan

On a rainy night, slur

those lyrics rough, like

heavy feet shuffling gravel,

like this could be the last

night. 

         Slur those lyrics

rough on this rainy night,

real, like a bed with middle

slack, like far away from home,

like a dying streetlight blinking

outside a window.

                               This rainy

night, slur those lyrics, like

blood pumping through tired

veins, like a child walking home

alone.

            Slur those lyrics with

dark water falling on your face,

like whiskey spilled from a shaky

glass, like a kiss so light it’s 

hardly felt.

* Shane MacGowan (born 25 December 1957) of The Nips (1976-81), The Pogues (1982-96), The Popes (1992-98), and solo.

Caught Up In Circles

The hour is late—I hear the clock 

tick and think of you under those

white street lamps—it’s all in the past 

now—when you were mine, you were

kinda sorta my best friend—hey,

they say a stitch in time saves nine

and you’ll change somehow—you know

lately I ain’t feeling so great—I want

some lovin, but we’re not the fortunate ones.

* This cento is made up of lyrics from each of the songs on Cyndi Lauper’s She’s So Unusual Album. (This was the very first cassette I ever owned.)

** Cyndi Lauper (born 22 June 1953)

Today, I Am

words moved from paper

to hard drive—originally

in pen—it is not a cursive

kind of morning with this

Southern heat—I am sloppy

print still in pajamas and

my hair unbrushed, no

breakfast in my stomach—

no need for loops and swirls

Sibilance

Morning stretches across windows,

illuminates napping spots, awakens

terrier to lumber into sleep again.

Teapot and teacups wait for filling

for the whistle for bergamot steeping

for teaspoons of sugar stirred in.

Poetry whispers from closed covers—

open, why hasten the minutes,

shuffle our pages, discover quiet.

If Ciaran Carson Were to Visit my Hypothetical Bookstore

he would remove his hat

and nod his head hello

I would be unable to move

but think I nodded in reply

and in my head I would hear

him say, let us go then

hand in hand

undaunted

* Italicized lines are borrowed from from Ciaran Carson's "Let Us Go Then."

I think I've posted Miles Davis' version of Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time," but let's listen to it again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6w73qxCtPNk

Michael Jackson is another musician born in the 1950s, and Miles Davis covered him as well.  This is "Human Nature."  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NvLieJFjh8

I'm going to switch gears a little.  While I was looking up videos of Randy Weston, I learned that he worked with Melba Liston, a trombone player and later an arranger.  Here are two videos of her work.

The first is "Insomnia": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qwFmRzEbcM

The second is "My Reverie," her arrangement of Debussy's "Reverie."  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdwjhN6ZgRs

Enjoy!