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

"Under Cover of Night," by Robert Desnos

Short poem from the French surrealist who knew Breton, Aragon, and Eluard. Desnos also worked in radio, and he knew Hemingway and Dos Passos. He joined the French Resistance and eventually was capture by the Nazis and sent to concentration camps. He died in one, having suffered from typhoid.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZY14Et6Gn4

"On Our Way, Golden One," Roger Illsley

And the hits . . . just keep on comin', as they used to say on KFRC San Francisco. Music by Roger Illsley, lyrics by moi, performance and recording by Roger. California's in such rough shape that I thought it deserved an upbeat approach.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfWR7eC-2JI

"We Two," by Paul Éluard

Reading/video of 44 seconds of a poem by the French surrealist Paul Éluard, who was associated with Max Ernst, Andre Breton, Pablo Picasso, and Louis Aragon. 

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xN2RgX6FIA

"Sandpipers," by Carl Sandburg

Here's a reading/video of a short poem by Carl Sandburg, "Sandpipers." I'm partial to bird poems. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8QrZ4BbiBM

"Unsuspecting," by Jean Toomer

Six-line poem by the author of Cane (1923). Toomer: 1894-1967

reading/video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNQHIdef6Ts

"America," by Robert Creeley

Recording/video of short poem by Robert Creeley. From Selected Poems by Robert Creeley. Copyright © 1991 by The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved Originally published in Pieces (1969).


Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5JXmxeUBkU

"Phantom Blues"

A couple years ago I posted a short poem called "Phantom Blues," and I made a recording/video of it. So there's that.  Apologies to Taj Mahal, who has an album called Phantom Blues. And apparently there's a Phantom Blues Band.

a link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xT9EzML0zhY

"What Is Poetry?" by Amy Lowell

I ran across this poem in a book of Lowell's on the gutenberg project site. It was titled simply "Fragment." Lowell, as you no doubt know, was among the Imagist poets of the early 20th century. 

link to short video/reading:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ph2-2aOTlHo