"Gratitude to Old Teachers," by Robert Bly

A poem in blank verse--not typical of Bly. But it has his characteristic surrealism, offering a striking comparison, to say the least, all in the context of walking across a frozen lake, no doubt in Minnesota. Bly's book about surrealistic poetry, Leaping Poetry, is terrific. 

link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PngPw5xK3Fs

One by Goethe: "I Think of You"

A 50-second reading/video of "I Think of You," by one of the titans of German literature, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe:

link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJ8hdEn40fw

"Loving Some is a Heavy Cross," by Boris Pasternak

A poem about how easy, in this case, it is to live with someone whom you love. From the online book, From the Ends to the Beginning: A Bilingual Anthology of Poetry, russianpoetry.net. It goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway, Pasternak was the author of Doctor Zhivago, led eventually to one of my very favorite films, directed by David Lean.

link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8oaaP68i4s

One Way or Another

We rode the horses
to the top of the hill
where the blond dry grass
shakes in breezes.

We looked down
on the town,
its forever shabbiness,
everyone in it
exhausted and resentful.

We're just visitors here
now. Our cheer
isn't appreciated.
No one here cares
about our lives elsewhere,
and we can't say
why they should.

We thought of letting
the horses run free.
But they live in the town
too. We rode them
back, wiped and combed
them, shoveled out
their stalls, fed and watered
them. I slipped them
the last of the carrots,
bright orange like stove
fires.

We got in the car
and drove out of town,
maybe for the last time,
maybe not. The thing is,
we don't care, one way
or another.


hans ostrom 2020

"Leaving a Task Undone," by Fernando Pessoa

A droll poem dedicated to all responsible people and aspiring drop-outs. The Portuguese writer Pessoa (1888-1935) was the author of The Book of Disquiet, one of the most original and important Modernist books. Video is about a minute.

link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzca5avQZCc

"be kind," by Charles Bukowski

video/reading of a poem by "Hank"--about 50 seconds. Charles passes harsh judgment in this one.

link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCRMp1se6Jw

"I Loved You," by Dino Campana

Short poem by Dino Campana (1885-1932), Italian poet who published one book of poems, Canti Orfici (Orphic Songs); there's at least one English translation of it. Video is about 30 seconds long. Translation by A.S. Kline.

link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvLwNs-2WBg

Plump Skink I Think

I was used to skinks
from the Sierra Nevada--
thin lizards, flashes
of liquid blue and black,
gone to brush in a blink.

So this gray-brown,
blue-tongued skink
I saw draped over
a zoo-keeper's hand
had me staring. Body
like an obese gila monster's.
Chubby back legs. Tiny
forward flailings were
only almost arms. Blue
Tongue had a mock-croc
top of the head, sincere
eyes, and--from an unseen
place of coiling, a long
lingual lariat of blue, a book-mark
in one of Evolution's
favorite volumes.

That tongue, it scares
off predators. Mr. BT
cracked that azure whip
a lot and spun its almost-
arms. Protested in
the zoo-keeper's soft hand.
To no avail. He became morose.
So did we. Empathy.
We moved on and the keeper
returned BT to small
heaven of privacy somewhere
on the grounds, somewhere
in the millions of skink years.


hans ostrom 2020

New York

I lived in New York for two weeks
once. Doing some research in Harlem.
The apartment's sad kitchen
had been in New York quite
a while, had arrived full of
confidence. The cockroaches,
who made me pine for my college
studio hole, belonged to well known
New York cockroach families.
I could tell by the way they
carried themselves. Only years
later did it occur to me
that New York's intensity
must, to lonely people, become
a merciless cruelty.


hans ostrom

Brilliant Plans

It's all right sometimes
to get something wrong
so it makes itself right.
A painter's accident
becomes a superb blue
stroke. A misheard word
makes someone laugh
and her laughter enchants
someone across the room.
So all those mistakes you
made with her, or with him,
when inspected retrospectively,
were part of a brilliant plan.


hans ostrom 2020

"Travel Tickets," by Samih al-Qasim

Terrific poem by the Lebanese Arab-language poet, Samih al-Qasim. Poem is translated by A.Z. Foreman from his great poetry in translation site.

link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_guYEYMbkg

"You Have Closed Your Eyes," by Giuseppe Ungaretti

Nice little poem by Ungaretti, translated by A.S. Kline. Around 40 seconds.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Bxy_soD7ao

Baseball Figures

In honor of baseball returning (well, maybe), a video with just text and music, featuring a poem about different baseball positions and roles. "Baseball Figures."

link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oF8RkFdqb0s

"An Old Song Resung," by William Butler Yeats

A bit longer than most of my poetry vids: 40+ seconds.

link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5Q2L3S872E

Magnetic Resonant Imaging

Although recovering Inquisitors designed
the machine, I'm told it's safe--just as
a member of the Frankenstein team
goes into a sealed control room.

The gizmo's noises range from
from punk-goose-shrieks to
psychotic jackhammers howls.
A magnet orbits my head like a mad
moon, a sadistic satellite. All
for some photos? The total effect

hypnotizes me. That and boredom
put me to sleep like a chicken at dusk.
Thus my head moves, ruining pictures.
The operator's voice intrudes,
imploring me not to nod off, and although
Fuck you forms in my pummeled
brain, I still myself, who has become
a hot-dog stuffed into a plastic bun
at a nightmare country fair.


hans ostrom 2020

"And What Shall You Say?" by Joseph S. Cotter, Jr.

30-second video/reading of a poem by Joseph S. Cotter, Jr., that was published in James Weldon Johnson's celebrated anthology The Book of American Negro Poetry (1922).

link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBZZx6YNSPA

"A Proud Lady," by Elinor Wylie

Video/reading of a poem by Elinor Wylie (1885-1928), American poet.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2ecUgkU3rI

"Written at Scarborough," by Mary Tighe

One-minute reading/video of a poem written by Mary Tighe (1772-1810), an Anglo-Irish poet known mainly for her long poem, Psyche, which retells the Pysche/Cupid myth. I like the modern tone of this poem.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DKyYzZyIPI

She Looks Good

30-second reading/video of a poem I posted in 2017, "She Looks Good."  On the lighter side.

link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_KKj2h1jMk

"A Nereid," by Alexander Pushkin

30-second video/reading of a poem by Pushkin about the mythological Nereid, a goddess of the sea.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dv73eoxmdo

"We Will Sleep Together," by Louis Aragon

A whimsical love poem, translated, by Louis Aragon; readig/video. About a minute.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ovct3m_4sZU

"A Dream Girl," by Carl Sandburg

One-minute video/reading of a nice little poem--in my opinion--by Carl Sandburg.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYj5NbZMCW0

"Marriage," by William Carlos Williams

Reading/video of 4-line poem by Williams. I think he about covers it.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8CU5M25HLk

"Venice," by Arthur Symons

35-second reading/video of a poem by the Modern Welsh poet, Symons.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IzxyGUDdkQ

"Lesbia," by Richard Aldington

Short reading/video of a poem about Lesbia, with whom the poet Catullus was in love and about/to whom he wrote poems. Here real name may have been Clodia, and she was apparently both learned and beautiful and wrote a satire of Caesar. Aldington alludes to the gods Hermes (Greek), Thoth (Egyptian), and Bel (Mesopotamian), as well as to a Renaissance philosopher, Pico Della Mirandola, who wrote a book of 90 theses, which the Catholic church banned.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJAii3Zync4

"Absent Sister," by Hans Ostrom

Short (30 seconds) reading/video of a poem, "Absent Sister," which I published here in 2017. I don't know much about anti-matter.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4VGaWcPXaA

"The Evening Light," Roger Illsley, Hans Ostrom

A mellow love song featuring Roger Illsley (singing; guitar) and Hans Ostrom (thumping on the Chickering piano), and a video by Roger set in lovely Santa Rosa, California. Roger and I wrote the lyrics. 

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4f7PyJqU6iM

From a Diary of the Plague Year (16)

And so it came to pass

That in the midst of plague,

The plague of white supremacy

Again rose to kill. A tide

Of no: no-more swelled

And swamped the shore.

We hope this won’t turn out

As it has before, waters

Retreating, the chalk beach

Bright white again.

Hans Ostrom

June 2020

"On Entering the Sea," by Nizar Qabbani

40 second video/recording of a poem by the renowned Syrian poet. 

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Md7beFPm01I

Translated by Lena Jayyusi, Sharif Elmusa, Jack Collum, from On Entering the Sea: The Erotic and Other Poetry of Nizar Qabbani, Interlink Books 1996 (buy this book!). Images from public domain sources. Video clips from Pixabay, Moshe Harosh, Andre Mouton, Matvey Doomchev, and Free Footage, by permission, and thank you. Recording is mine. Qabbani: 1923-1998, a renowned Syrian poet, writer, and publisher. He was born and grew up in Damascus. Later he lived in Geneva, Paris, and London, where he died. His numerous books include The Lover's Dictionary; To Beirut the Feminine, With My Love; Poems Inciting Anger; and Alphabet of Jasmine.

"Song (We Don't Know)," by Jacques Prévert

A 25 second reading/video of the Jacques Prévert poem, translated by A.S. Kline, used by permission.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1M5Qn-9ny80

Read and See

I decided to do a recorded reading/video of "Read and See," which responds to Aaron Douglas's famous painting/mural (in oil), "Aspiration" (1936).

link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGe5QCQBaKU

Read and See

re-posting one from 2017

("Aspiration," painted by Aaron Douglas, 1936, oil on canvas, 60" x 60", Fine Arts Museum of
San Francisco)


Black chained hands rise. They have
become the shears of history and cut
through evil. Tilting, layered stars
share a central point that rests
on the right shoulder of a reading,
seeing Black woman. Read and see.

Two Black men stand on an indestructible
foundation. It goes by many names.
Read and see. The men's broad
shoulders defy the past and square
up with the future. Their jaw-lines
assert. One man points through
a spectral sun at pale green towers
and 36 lit windows on a mountain.

The lightning bolt is permanent in purple
skies. It portends the death of White
Supremacy, the Master Depravity.
The men carry necessary tools,
the most necessary of which
are spirit, body, mind. Read
and see. Aspiration is a prophecy.


hans ostrom 2017