A.J. Huffman's "Souvenirs of Music" and "Final Movement"

Photograph by John Spade

Tonight I'd like to welcome poet, editor, and publisher A.J. Huffman back to The Song Is...  Enjoy her concise, gem-like poems!

Souvenirs of Music

a trailing whisper

a ribbon of melody

the ancient rhythmic poundings

of a soul’s twilight mood

a moon’s spotlight

two sips of mellow wine

the heavenly breath of fire

flames giving way to the sky

Final Movement

            after Moonlight Sonata by Vladimir Kush

Constellations crawl like cosmic cockroaches

across an empty sky.  My mind reads their trails

as music, moves to the backward rhythm

of their percussionless drum.  I am the only stick

in this particular beating.  I echo in pulses, losing light

years in the reflection of a blink.  This world has shed

me like a tear, crystal and liquid, but unnecessary as air.

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A.J. Huffman has published thirteen full-length poetry collections, fourteen solo poetry chapbooks and one joint poetry chapbook through various small presses.  Her most recent releases, Degeneration (Pink Girl Ink), A Bizarre Burning of Bees (Transcendent Zero Press), and Familiar Illusions (Flutter Press) are now available from their respective publishers.  She is a five-time Pushcart Prize nominee, a two-time Best of Net nominee, and has published over 2500 poems in various national and international journals, including Labletter, The James Dickey Review, The Bookends Review, Bone Orchard, Corvus Review, EgoPHobia, and Kritya.  She is also the founding editor of Kind of a Hurricane Press.  www.kindofahurricanepress.com.

As it turns out, Mr. Kush is a painter, not a composer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1f9stpbCmJ4

Here is the first movement of Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" for those of you who were expecting this piece:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nT7_IZPHHb0

Let's also include a version of Debussy's "Clair de Lune": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlvUepMa31o

I'll finish with two more pieces.  The first is Marcus Miller's version of "Moonlight Sonata":  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lto9LAUd8HI

The second is Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong's "Moonlight in Vermont":  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esynsha53A8