The Irish poet Æ called Jesse Stuart’s The Man with the Bull-Tongue Plow, from 1934, the greatest collection of American poetry since Leaves of Grass. These five songs premiered ten years ago today, at KMAC Contemporary Museum; and the recordings below (recorded at St. Francis in the Fields, Louisville), sensitively sung by Steven Paul Spears and played
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Apropos six years
…since living at Copland House in Cortland Manor, New York (the last residence of Aaron Copland). 2017. Late summer. Three weeks. The world was different — at least mine was. Earth’s curvature hiding what was beyond the horizon. Surrounded by Copland’s (Aaron’s?) earthly treasures, came this “miniature” for Lara Downes: a dialogue between two people
Read on »The Giver of Stars a few years later
I wrote “The Giver of Stars” at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in 2020, just on the eve of pandemic shutdowns and disruptions, confusion and the pervasive smell of hand sanitizer. The text by Amy Lowell, could be read on two levels: a prayer of supplication, and/or an allegorical love poem. Being only one
Read on »Music with Wendell Berry
The Porch Over the River
Wendell Berry’s prophetic words in “The Porch Over the River” describe a pastoral scene which becomes darkly reflective of our human footprint. It’s as though the sounds of the river, frogs, phoebes, and trees are momentarily interrupted by the passing sound of traffic or the distant whine of a jet engine. But our focus returns
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