Sunday, January 16, 2011

Everyday I Write the Book: Issa's Sunday Service, #86







Welcome Elvis Costello, that most literate rockers of the punk movement, to his first appearance on the Sunday Service with "Everyday I Write the Book," a song I initially hated but, via an insistent hook and a couple of intervening decades, have grown to love.  Certainly, it's place on the Litrock list is well-deserved.

Here's EC and his mates, showing how to write and perform pop music with a lit flavor, complete with cheesy BBC-4 captions:










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This week Norb Blei, over at Bashō's Road, spotlighted the 2nd Annual Bashō Haiku Challenge Chapbook, printing 5 haiku from the collection, plus one found haiku by the mercurial Monsieur K.

As most of you know, I spend more time giving away free poetry than shilling what I have for sale, but if you are interested in this chapbook, which contains 53 haiku, by the likes of Ed Baker, Roberta Beary, Ruth Holzer, Ed Markowski, Gary Hotham, John Stevenson, Patrick Sweeney and more, at the incredibly low price of $3.00 (postpaid), just click on the Paypal button at the top of the page and I'll wend it your way.  Alternately, a check via snail mail also works just fine.


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Check out Red Dragonfly, Melissa Allen's fine haiku blog - celebrating her 400th post, she invited her readers to provide the content in the form of their own haiku.   34 interesting pages of Sribd work, with one humble two liner by yours truly, and lots of other work very much worth reading.


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This week, two poems are featured from Lilliput Review #115.  They both dazzle in a way you won't need your reading glasses for.  Enjoy.



Myriad of Heavens, #43
   A word says what it can
   In the way that an inch
   Says it's on a path
   to the sun.
Tim Scannell






on the Conan Doyle shelf
my lost reading glasses
wiped clean
LeRoy Gorman






on the river back home too
no doubt...
moon gazing
Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue







best,
Don


Go to the LitRock web site for a list of all 86 songs
Hear all 86 at once on the the LitRock Jukebox


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5 comments:

  1. Poet HoundJanuary 16, 2011 at 9:53 AM

    Don,
    Thanks for sharing Melissa Allen's blog, I clicked the link and enjoyed it very much. I'll be sharing her blog with my own readers in a couple of weeks.
    As always, I love the poems you share from previous issues, especially Tim Scannell's
    Sincerely,
    Paula

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  2. Issa's Untidy HutJanuary 16, 2011 at 9:57 AM

    Thanks very much, Paula - good to hear you'll be featuring Melissa's fine Red Dragonfly ... great that you pass the word along about so much great work.

    Don

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  3. Charles GramlichJanuary 16, 2011 at 11:15 AM

    Weird in that I was watching a show yesterday when Elvis Costello came up in conversation. that's not a very usual thing at our house.

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  4. Melissa AllenJanuary 16, 2011 at 10:32 PM

    Wow ... I got mentioned in Issa's Sunday Service! This has been a longtime goal of mine, only I was hoping I would get there via my rock star career. :) Oh, well,maybe in my next life...

    Thanks, Don. But what do you mean, you didn't use to like "Every Day I Write the Book"? I'm glad you changed your mind, otherwise we might not be able to be friends anymore.

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  5. Issa's Untidy HutJanuary 17, 2011 at 7:29 AM

    Melissa,

    I think I was one of those people who wasn't happy when EC started moving away from the literate bad boy persona, but that was a long time ago when I was in change denial. He is a talented songsmith and, though he may never be the next generation's Burt Bacharach that he aspires to be, he is damn good.

    I have a database of now over 500 songs, so there is still a lot of time for you to make it via the Rock Star Way.

    Don

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