Summer finally vanquished cool breeze of fall welcomed through the bedroom window a bit chilly all night under warm weather sheets. As the black lightens into gray, two distinct chirps awake me, sharing news of the coming sun. The short cheerful rhythms help disperse the darkness along with my fading slumber. “It’s a new day,” […]
Scene – After clearing spider webs away, a Human is sitting on a dock looking over a suburban lake, drone of Interstate traffic too far away to intrude. Warmth of the summer’s day is gradually dispersed by a Northerly breeze. Backstory – Two men I have made music with have, or are about to, breathe […]
Sitting alone in Preservation Hall such an unexpected gift. Echoes of jazz men past, and women like Sweet Emma, over 50 years of sweat and swing too many artists to name and the walls untouched, an unscrubbed shrine – stained pegboard, cracked floor boards, old tour posters, original paintings, the big bass drum illuminated from […]
What is a riff? Jazz swing distilled to an absolute coolness short repeatable ‘nuff said!
Dis here is Nawlins in all its funk and jive and stink and rhythm, pulsing endlessly from bars, cafes and corner joints, calling without cease to seduce you, my underprivileged out of towner, into the den of Easy. Every smile, every come-on every to-go cup bids you throw your societal prudishness to the gutter and […]
Brilliant white floats amid dusky reflections, grays billowing above, darkest green of lake below. The last orange fixes one cloud in nature’s spotlight, the last throbbing color of the day. And still the swan moves silently with no apparent effort, neck in a perfect curve. A dozen geese form a line like an escort and […]
The shock of birds of prey came home to roost this week on our suburban lake. The still patience of the Great Blue Heron has been superceded by the instantaneous swoop of the osprey, and that a hawk that has discovered our Purple Martin house as an easy meal. Noticing that we only have seen […]
In the 1960’s, my father would take me to visit his workplace, which, as an air traffic controller at Philadelphia International Airport, was pretty cool to a young kid. In the darkness of the Radar Room, I was fascinated by the blips representing airplanes with many passengers, which were briefly illuminated as the green line […]
This poem was sparked by an interviewer asking a guy beside me at the Moral Monday protest, “What is the issue that brings you here?” Blaise Kielar, 30 June 2013 Requiem for Democracy The forefathers did not foresee this Gerrymandering with such precise computer-gleaned data that a party in power can rig elections to remain […]
I have never felt attracted to political protest. There is some feeling of tilting at windmills – lots of activity for little tangible result. What I came to understand after the Moral Monday protest at the NC Legislature is that, just by showing up, you are sending a message of solidarity with the millions of […]