Welcome to Lisa Stice!

This evening I would like to post some poems by Lisa Stice, a fellow poet from the anthology Resurrection of a Sunflower.   The first poem made me stop and think about the price that the military and their families pay as well as the difficult lives that many women lead.

A Funeral for Our Own

And there we were

all together for the first time

with one of us in an open casket

and a husband grieving for

the three months not shared.

Our hearts beat a cadence.

How little we help each other.

The life in slides looks like any

of us who smile for a camera,

hug near-strangers in times of public grief,

and in the end we embrace each other,

say This is a sign, we need to be there

but one honest wife says

with car keys in her hand

In the sixteen years

I have been married to the Corps,

this is the first time

I have gotten together with other wives.

I don’t think it will happen again.

originally published in Lisa Stice’s Uniform (Aldrich Press, 2016)

Lisa also sent me a tribute to Joan Baez, another of the musicians born in the 1940s and a key figure in the 1960s for her music and politics.

Happy Birthday, Joan Baez

high notes and scratchy static

from my record player

like diamonds and rust

like an old car that still starts

and rumbles down

dusty roads to a familiar

place        here’s to you

a love song to a stranger

a memory of slower days

when I could sit under a tree—

maybe cherry or dogwood—

and read or do nothing at all

rooted as a wildwood flower

like you on the album cover

smiling and forever young

* Italicized words are song titles.

bio:

Lisa Stice is a poet/mother/military spouse who received a BA in English literature from Mesa State College (now Colorado Mesa University) and an MFA in creative writing and literary arts from the University of Alaska Anchorage. While it is difficult to say where home is, she currently lives in North Carolina with her husband, daughter and dog. She is a Pushcart Prize nominee and the author of a poetry collection, Uniform (Aldrich Press, 2016). You can find out more about her and her publications at lisastice.wordpress.com and facebook.com/LisaSticePoet.

I'll start off the music with Joan Baez's version of "There But for Fortune," a song written by Phil Ochs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4BYOJ1tc-k

Here she sings "Gracias a la Vida" with Mercedes Sosa:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMuTXcf3-6A

Sergio Ortiz wrote a tribute to Mercedes Sosa that I published last spring: http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2016/05/welcome-to-sergio-ortiz.html

I'm going to switch gears and play some music by Jerry Gonzalez, a jazz musician born in 1949.  Here is his version of Monk's "Jackie-ing": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZDuPegslHk

I'll add his version of "Misterioso": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCQx8DZY7cY

This last song is his witty version of "Parisian Thoroughfare":  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WJV-HeXCW0

Enjoy!