Lucille Clifton: Blues in the Night

National Poetry Month seems to have spilled over into May as I'm still getting "Poem-A-Day" emails and it's a good thing, too. Since there was, at best, a handful of poems worth writing home about, it was refreshing to see this powerful, moving, mysterious piece by Lucille Clifton, one of our finest bringers of the word:

sorrows

who would believe them winged
who would believe they could be

beautiful who would believe
they could fall so in love with mortals

that they would attach themselves
as scars attach and ride the skin

sometimes we hear them in our dreams
rattling their skulls clicking

their bony fingers
they have heard me beseeching

as i whispered into my own
cupped hands enough not me again

but who can distinguish
one human voice

amid such choruses
of desire

Lucille Clifton

Here is a video of Clifton reading two poems, "Aunt Jemima" and "Afterblues" at the Geraldine Dodge Poetry Festival:







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Today is the anniversary of the passing of blues harp great, Paul Butterfield. Here he works out on the classic Charles Brown version of "Driftin' Blues."

the night is long
my bottle, empty
my house, set apart

Issa
translated by David Lanoue

best,
Don

Issa's Sunday Service, #2

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Here's a song that puzzled the bejesus out of many a now aged acid head upon it's initial release. Rejoyce, penned by Grace Slick and performed by Jefferson Airplane on their fine After Bathing at Baxter's disc, is this week's contribution to the legacy of LitRock.

For trivia buffs and Joyce aficionados, ReJoyce was also the title of an excellent introduction to the work of James Joyce by Anthony Burgess.

If you didn't get a chance (or want to give it another glorious spin), check out last week's Summertime in England by Van Morrison.

This week's poem comes from issue #2 of Lilliput Review, sometime in 1989. Enjoy.

D. C. Dance Steps

Entering the crowded floor,
You are pulled left
And I am lured right
To travel on my own.
While you seek poetry
Body rocking in the rhythm of meter
--------and soul
I smile and sway, deep in the heart
--------of Borneo.

Laurie Anderson

best,
Don

PS. If anyone has suggestions for future songs in the LitRock category, particularly those dealing with poems/poets, just drop it in the comment section or send me off an email. I've got a nice list of titles so far, but group-think would be great for this little project.