Ground Beneath Her Feet: Issa's Sunday Service, #176

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Today's selection on the Sunday Service is "The Ground Beneath Her Feet" by U2, after the novel by Salman Rushdie of the same title. If you are so inclined, here is a great, laudatory review from the UKs Guardian of the Rushdie book.

For those who simply wish to imagine a way to follow Orpheus (Orphee) into the underworld, sans Mr. Rushdie's opus, one of my favorite scenes from modern cinema (which I'm sure I've cited before) might do the trick:


Another cinematic re-imagining of the Orpheus and Eurydice story that captures the viewer and won't let go is Black Orpheus (&, from that movie, a Paul Desmond rendition of the song Samba de Orpheu, which I can listen to anytime, night and day):


In an older Sunday post, T-Rex referenced the same myth. There has been a seeming infinity number poems and cultural references to Orpheus over the years: a brief, neat overview may be found here.

Of course, for poets and poetry lovers, Rainer Maria Rilke's Sonnets to Orpheus holds a special place. There are many translations available online and many more for purchase in the great wide tactile universe. For the curious, here are translations by Robert Hunter, Robert Temple, Howard A. Landman, and Ed Alexander (a pdf), 

Thanks so much to John Burroughs for suggesting "Ground Beneath Her Feet" for the Sunday Service ...

-----

Stereoscope by R. L. Young

temple grounds--
a snake too sheds
his worldly robe

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,

Don

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Go to the LitRock web site for a list of all 176 songs

40: Issa's Sunday Service, #91

Today's song, "40" by U2, is based on the Psalm 40, lifting a great deal of the lyric directly from the Bible.   Here's U2's rendering:

40
I waited patiently for the Lord
He inclined and heard my cry
He brought me up out of the pit
Out of the miry clay

I will sing, sing a new song
I will sing, sing a new song

How long to sing this song?
How long to sing this song?
How long...how long...how long...
How long...to sing this song

He set my feet upon a rock
And made my footsteps firm
Many will see
Many will see and fear

I will sing, sing a new song
I will sing, sing a new song
I will sing, sing a new song
I will sing, sing a new song

How long to sing this song?
How long to sing this song?
How long...how long...how long..

"40" comes from the album War, the most famous song from which is "Sunday Bloody Sunday," a song which dealt with the Bloody Sunday massacre in Northern Ireland.  The reason I mention it is that, injected into the lines from Psalm 40 in U2's rendition, you'll find the refrain "How long, how long to sing this song," which it shares with "Sunday Bloody Sunday."  "Sunday" opens the album, "40" closes it; the refrain they share book ends the theme of how long, how long must this go on (and on and on).

Something we continue to ask about Iraq and Afghanistan. 






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This week's featured poems come from Lilliput Review #108, the broadside entitled "Selected Wu Songs" by the poet Linda Joan Zeiser.  Two other poems from this broadside have been previously posted here.  Enjoy:




Long, black cat stalks a crooked path,
a hint of anguish fill the dawn.
Violet smoke lifts from the incense stone,
as the duckweed bobs on the still, green pond.

Red strawberry bursts across my tongue,
her juices fan my woman-lust.
These crimson reds in a violet dusk,
move my heart into her ecstasy.

Linda Joan Zeiser

loneliness--
whichever way I turn...
violets!

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,
Don

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Bullet the Blue Sky: Issa's Sunday Service, #46

I noticed earlier this week that Saturday was Adam Clayton's birthday, Adam of U2 fame that is, and I thought, well, I'll check the list of potential LitRock songs and grab one of it in his honor.

Imagine my surprise when I found I had nothing.

So, I dug in and took a poke around and I was surprised again when I found a whole site devoted to just the topic: U2Literary. Don't know if it is still an active site but the archive is up and its got quite an impressive list of allusions. Not all fit the criteria for Issa's Sunday Service - a song must contain a direct allusion, either in the lyrics or title etc., to something literary - and so many are Biblical in nature, but no matter. I've got some future numbers to share from the best band from the 80's.

Today's selection is one of their best: "Bullet the Blue Sky."

In the locust wind
Comes a rattle and hum.
Jacob wrestled the angel
And the angel was overcome.

For those who've never had the opportunity to see U2 live, here is an extraordinary performance of "Bullet the Blue Sky," from Paris, 1987.






Last week, I mentioned that anyone with suggestions for future "Issa's Sunday Service" posts that were accepted would receive the current two issues of Lilliput Review free. Two folks took me up on it and they already have received their issues. The offer stands, so if you have any suggestions for LitRock songs (songs with direct reference to something literary: an author, title, quote, genre etc.) send 'em along and I'll send you some poetry that rocks.


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This week's poem comes from Lilliput Review, #71, from August 1995. 5 poems, plus the cover, from #71 were featured in this previous post.

salt in good
black earth of
carthage sherman
to the sea ghost
towns of chernobyl
fiddleheads unrolling
under pineshade turned
to find my footsteps

darkening

-----------------------------------------------John Perlman

And last word to the guy who sweeps up around here, Master Issa:

a mountain where
no foot has stepped...
cherry blossoms

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,
Don




PS A complete list of all 45 songs is available on the stand alone LitRock website, along with a jukebox to listen to songs separately or altogether. Of course, the Jukebox is also available on the sidebar of this page.