Lawrence Ferlinghetti; Number 20

The pennycandystore beyond the El
is where I first
fell in love
with unreality
Jellybeans glowed in the semi-gloom
of that september afternoon
A cat upon the counter moved among
the licorice sticks
and tootsie rolls
and Oh Boy Gum

Outside the leaves were falling as they died

A wind had blown away the sun

A girl ran in
Her hair was rainy
Her breasts were breathless in the little room

Outside the leaves were falling
and they cried
Too soon! too soon!

Lawrence Ferlinghetti

4

In Paris in a loud dark winter

when the sun was something in Provence

when I came upon the poetry of Rene Char

I saw Vaucluse again

In a summer of sauterelles

its fountains full of perals

and its river thrown down

through all the burnt places

of that almond world

and the fields full of silence

though the crickets sang

with their legs

And in the poet's plangent dream I saw

no Lorelei upon the Rhone

nor angels debarked at Marseilles

but couples going nude into the sad water

in the profound laciviousness of spring

in an algebra of lyricism

which I am still deciphering.

Lawrence Ferlinghetti, 1919--2021

Here's a link to the entries tagged Lawrence Ferlinghetti in this community.

 

Good Morning

Sunday Morning Selection

Some music to gently stir you from slumber -

Jon Hassell - Last Night the Moon Came (Bzaurie Remix)

on Hasselt - Last Night the Moon Came (Bzaurie Remix)
Remixed by Bzaurie in 2016: https://soundcloud.com/bzaurie/jon-ha...​
Originally from Jon Hasselt's album "Last Night The Moon Came Dropping Its Clothes In The Street" released in 2009 on ECM records.


Laura Mvula - Sing To The Moon

ENJOY

Crippled Symmetry

My latest abstract -



Crippled Symmetry

This abstract colour field painting is inspired by the large colour field paintings of Mark Rothko and the slow undulating music of the 20th-century composer Morton Feldman. The title is based on a composition by Feldman which lasts for around ninety minutes. The Tate Modern has a room dedicated to the large colour field paintings of Mark Rothko.


Morton Feldman - Crippled Symmetry

The IXION Ensemble was formed by Andrew Toovey in 1988 to perform music by young composers alongside established figures. One of the most important composers at that time in the ensemble's repertoire was Morton Feldman whom Toovey had been taught by in 1986 and decided that more of his music needed to be played in the UK. This piece, Crippled Symmetry was featured in the 'Cutting Edge' series of concerts in the Warehouse, Waterloo, London in the early 1990s and recorded by Bob Briggs for his label Terra Nova, but never released. It was assumed lost on the death of Bob Briggs, but a cassette copy was recently found in the IXION Archive and thankfully composer Leo Grant masterfully transferred the cassette making it available for the first time publicly on here. The performers are Rowland Sutherland, flutes, Benjamin Morison - percussion and Michael Finnissy - piano/celesta.

Just Wondering

When was the last time you received an unexpected gift?

Do you sing in the bath or shower?

Have you ever seen a UFO?

Book 17 - Tony Benn "More Time For Politics"

Tony Benn "More Time For Politics: Diaries 2001-2007" (Arrow Books)




In his lifetime, Tony Benn was demonized as a dangerous left field politician but, since his demise, he has become a secular saint. This book probably shows more of the sanctified Tony than the demon, although, the spirit is still in evidence and sparks from time to time.

When one considers that TB was 76 years old at the start of this diary, it is amazing to read the amount of work that he still managed to achieve. He had left parliament by this stage, but pursued his belief in equality and peace to the very end: some weeks he was crisscrossing the country on a daily basis for meetings and always had time to help the less fortunate. This is all very praiseworthy, but the thing that I would most like to take from these pages is his ability to differentiate between the policies and the person of his political opponent. Benn has a good word for almost everybody he met and, those few for whom he struggled to be kind (mainly, Mrs. Thatcher and Tony Blair), he tends to refrain from personal comment, rather than demean.

The diaries also make clear that Benn saw through Tony Blair whilst I, and many more were trying desperately to give him the benefit of the doubt. Benn recognized that Blairism would, eventually, tear the party asunder. Benn had pushed off this mortal coil before the fiasco of Miliband's end and the election for a new leader but his perspective upon the Blair years highlights the inevitability of the depths to which Labour has sunk before Corbyn.

So far, I have concentrated upon the political issues but, as someone who, like us all, is inevitably heading towards later life, Benn provides a wonderful series of vignettes of life as Father Time takes his toll. I much admire the manner in which TB recognizes the passing of the years and regularly writes that he must begin to take life a little more easily. The next entry is, almost inevitably, a list of a dozen or more meetings to be attended in the next month - often with speeches to be written, journeys planned and, in many cases, diplomatic sanction acquired.

This book was a bittersweet read and the knowledge that there will not be a further addition to the series gives much sadness, however, one must be grateful that he had the nouse to leave his story in the compelling immediacy of the diary format.

Book 18 - Edward Dusinberre "Beethoven For A Later Age"

Edward Dusinberre "Beethoven For A Later Age: The Journey Of A String Quartet" (Faber & Faber)





I wasn't really sure what to expect from this book, but overall I thoroughly enjoyed it. Edward Dusinberre, first violin of the originally Hungarian Takács quartet, relates to us his experiences of being part of the quartet, with particular influence on the string quartets of Beethoven.

The book is part chronicle of the day-to-day life of a quartet and part biography of Beethoven. Obviously, there are more comprehensive biographies of Beethoven on the market, and this book doesn't claim to be one, but it was very helpful to have some cultural context when it came to describing different pieces of music.

It's not so much a narrative but it's a series of chapters based around particular Beethoven quartets (Op 18 no 1, Op 59 no 2, Ops 127, 130, 131 and 132), the title coming from a quote about the Opus 59 Quartets by Beethoven himself. It covers their background, composition and performing histories in Beethoven's time as a way of shedding light on the dynamics of the Takács Quartet at particular stages of their career. Each chapter looks at particular aspects of their life - rehearsing, performing, recording, absorbing new members (Dusinberre himself, who joined when the Tacács was 18 years old, Roger Tapping, Geraldine Walter), loss (the death of Gábor Ormai) - and meditations on the works themselves. A delightful and insightful read. I found the final chapter, on the alternative endings to Op 130 and what it said to him about the group itself, particularly affecting.
Conversations are reconstructed from long ago – but it works well. A delightful book, and one that makes you revisit the works discussed with the book in hand, the better to see them from the performer's point of view.