"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

"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