Fast Day 329 September 28 2013 The Detroit Symphony: Looking At People Before The Concert Starts

 

Lang Lang Played In Detroit On September 28, 2013

The Detroit Symphony: Looking At People Before The Concert Starts

passionate seating of a hall;
waiting for the symphony;
ticket shuffling and mixing among
bright ladies from Bloomfield,
and a staff of young brothers
support the Botticelli luxury
of their sister, rising from the sea
of Detroit Symphony!

all the jewels of Baudelaire
have become painted statues:
iPhones held by kouroi and kourai,
deep in meditation,
davening over the screens
which glow like alchemical alembics
of  Doctor Pretorius degree:
the totems of their technology!



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notes

kouroi   -  Greek young men
kourai   -  Greek young ladies
davening  -  to pray and gently rock back and forth
Doctor Pretorius  -  A type of Faustian doctor, a character in The Bride of Frankenstein, portrayed by Ernst Thesiger . He delivers a toast, "To a new world of gods and monsters."

Fast Day 285 November 17 2012 {Where's That Jazz?}

Fats Waller

Where's That Jazz?


what is the jazz of the written word?
the poetry
the confabulation
the corrugated language roller-coaster
in the areas of my brain
where is the jazz?

where is the tongue of jazz?
the taste
the silver spit
of my pavlovian laboratory dog desire
in the areas of my mouth.
where is that jazz?

where's the genius of jazz
of the genital?
the intemperate,
the ancient yet modern lingua franca
of the orient seaports...
where's that savvy horn?

where's the fermentation of desire...
the wine of jazz?
the intoxicating
drink of that undiscovered seashore
with messages in bottles...
where's that jazz?

Fast Day 228 October 15 2011 {Drums}

Drums


That drum is Haitian
of African descent,
comes from Danhomey
and Native American
is this drum here
between my legs I play.

It is three days since
I have tasted music;
it is three days gone
I have drunk water,
and I am drawn taut,
like this tight drum skin!

I see fireflies
under your hair
and your teeth as white
as freshly bit apples:
it's for you, it's for you
I play this here drum.

I sleep with you,
the evening star;
I wake with you,
the morning star:
in an old house
down by Wayne State U.

we were billboards,
wearing shades,
selling rum and smokes:
rather drive a rag top
and stand up and dance -
East Grand and Jefferson!

Belle Isle summer days
of war-like birds!
and island summer nights
of preening, dancing
and display... drumming
mischiefs in our dreams!

--
notes

Danhomey  -  a variant of Dahomey

rag top - convertible

East Grand and Jefferson  -  the entrance to the Belle Isle Bridge is there.
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Fast Day 223 September 10 2011 {A Man From New Orleans...}

A Man From New Orleans Playing Music
At The Detroit Ball Park, September 10, 2011

To Thy mansions in the sky…

that raise me up from poverty,

blessed music give me wings

and the longitude of kings,

for that is where my soul shall fly!

I played the cornet-à-piston

from the birth bed and to the tomb:

my sacred language… and profane!...

oppress my music to your shame!

these harps, these pipes of doom and bloom!

They hear flash mob ragtime and jazz;

drowned neighborhoods, dope fiend, and brass;

Sweet Jesus, in dressed-up ease

sets down notes, for when He frees

us poor – the mighty to surpass!

--

notes

cornet-à-piston  = original French name of the trumpet, the "pistons" are the valves the musician fingers.

New Orleans, past and present, music for cradle to the grave.

The Tigers were playing the Twins, and they won in the 9th.
There were many homeless outside on the streets, which is an odd sight in a Christian nation.

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