I'm pleased to see that I can squeeze one more set of poems into January! Tonight I'm posting Gary Glauber's poems that he sent me...I'm afraid to say when he sent them to me...but they are right on time for you to enjoy tonight!
Sound Advice
Neko’s voice is the only cure.
He plays music loud
through too obvious headphones,
seeking solace the only way
his body knows (through rhythmic vibration).
He is bruised & burned
from transient episodic nightmares,
freezing in muffled cries,
remembering times when dreams
provided extended silent rest.
Letters arrive, addressed to
unknown brothers, phantom sons.
Windows frame picturesque tableaus
of neon yellow & couched feeling blue.
Everyone cried when they learned
the moon was stolen
by so-called romantics
& you stood on your head
until bills flowed like autographs
out of tall black speakers.
It’s all broken glass & static feelings.
The needle drops & you sing along
to a foreign city’s soundtrack.
The laws have changed
& what is revealed
in the face of the meantime
is the true nature of the unknown.
Recon figured
Hearing the glory of the Royal Scam,
searching for phrase to put toe into water.
But such fragile creation falls away, dissipating
like elusive muskrat, hiding out of plain sight.
World travel never quite conjured muse,
searching Budapest alleys for the anapest,
the trochaic that might stress, then relieve me,
in that distant world of labored wonder.
These longings propel me to dark corners of soul,
where lies & laughter trigger fevered light,
illuminating nothing & no one, exposing aches
of poetic possibility, the demon of discovery,
& a reversal of the organic process, hats blown
askew in zigzag wind, serpentine suggestions
occurring in hot pursuit of the slow assemblage
of crafted beauty, words that soften harsh edges
into a dynamic awareness, phrases that flow
like memories that sadly never were,
the double negative that lifts your spirit
to a heaven of perfected expression.
 |
| Photograph by Elliot Billings |
Opus 110
Every sound
pins down a center of memory,
a household command,
the wind through the tulip tree,
the reflex of putting that lipstick on.
He is held fast by any of these aural triggers,
even the long afternoon practice sessions,
soothing showers of deft glissando,
never getting all the notes quite right,
but a strange comfort in the repetition.
He knows now
that all time signatures are irregular.
No professional studio can capture
what his mind conveys here,
when a weekend return
becomes a concert hall of echoes,
a long program of le fugue reminiscence.
First published in Foliate Oak Literary Journal
Conductivity
The recital hall crowds with expectation;
hushed silence as shared heartbeat.
Cog in the orchestral wheel, he prepares to roll,
traversing each careful note to confidently
convey the composer’s original intention.
White shirt starched to crisp attention
provides necessary camouflage
to achieve strategic means.
She walks front and center
through heavy applause,
formal black gown elegant and suggestive,
opaque on smooth shoulders.
She comes to tame the pressure,
to harness and guide intensity into art.
Her beauty strikes him yet again,
tempered by years, but still viable.
This former actress remains
calm under duress as maestro,
smiling while wielding the thin baton,
as intimate with the piece
as if she had penned it herself.
She summons orchestra to readiness,
bows raised, breaths taken awaiting
her signal to launch the volley of notes
that starts this musical journey.
Like a Von Karajan or Toscanini,
she manages a distinctive individuality,
gestures carrying the music that carries her,
a reciprocal arrangement culling
notes to life through performance.
He is servant to her master’s wand;
required phrasings and accents
coaxed from seasoned professionals
with sweeps of the arm, a well-timed glare,
one he likes to pretend is meant
for him as her favorite.
Yet he is a bit player,
no chances for a star turn,
retained month-to-month ‘til the contracted one
returns from maternity leave.
Playing his heart out, following the spirit
of each score to his best abilities,
dreaming that this maestro’s smooth legato
might someday summon a romantic sweep
of rising strings from within, a love shared
beyond performance, beyond the
love of music that unites them now.
From the chapbook Memory Marries Desire (Finishing Line Press)
Artifice
The smoked glass
is polarized,
guaranteed to protect
in ways the naked
eye could never.
Soon the show begins,
moon incrementally
overtaking shining red sun
for the momentary victory.
But before the darkness
worries the local birds
into frightful screeching,
I pretend to read an article
that might enlighten me
about the private life
of a renowned filmmaker
whose dark strange works
inspire me. He is strange
and controlling and ruinous
in his choices, something
of a bellicose tyrant,
and as unpredictable.
This is not surprising.
You have to boil water
to make rice,he says.
He is quite demanding,
even in his domestic tasks.
Thinking back to some
of the more harrowing scenes,
the unspoken terror
mastered through
camera’s eye
is mesmerizing.
Iron-clad principles
run rampant
through rusty lives
of weaker types.
Such people cannot
hide, overtaken by
the wild’s vim and vigor,
unmasked with each
raspy breath, exposed
in their hiding spots,
disturbed and about
to be forever changed.
Darkness prevents
me from reading more,
yet the sun will be back
and the world will continue,
red blood pumping hard
through four chambers,
much as it has before,
world revealed as
no different than
a good hearty
bowl of rice
served well.
Life as simple
as the salvation
of using chopsticks
properly.
I think that tonight is a good night for piano.
I don't know if I've posted Jason Moran's version of "Crepuscle with Nellie" yet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUjMi1TiA7o&index=9&list=PLYtl6WGFaWsM2g_B2c5nU6LdtAK7egG0Z
This is a live version of the Robert Glasper Experiment's "Smells Like Teen Spirit": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdgWiWrtMZo
Here Vijay Iyer performs "Far From Over": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmffaHFHMms
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