"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

"Length of Moon," by Arna Bontemps

Short reading/video of poem by Arna Bontemps, Harlem Renaissance poet, professor, editor, novelist, and librarian. His historical novel, Black Thunder, based on an actual slave uprising, is terrific.

link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVau0JZ9CHY

Life Is A Breath

Very short reading/video of a poem by moi:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AmEtmRs0p0

Happy Breathing

"Heraclitus," by William Conroy

Two-stanza poem about the philosopher (c. 535-475 B.C.) who believed the universe was made of fire and changed constantly. He's also given credit for the admonition, "You can't step in the same river twice" [because the river constantly changes form]. Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote a poem called "That Nature Is a Heraclitan Fire," managing both to agree with Heraclitus and to assert the Judeo-Christian God's supremacy. Heraclitus lived in area called "Caria," so the speaker of the poem calls him "my Carian guest." The area was in what is now Turkey, and it was controlled by Persians at the time. This poem is very pro-bird.

link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ARAfSswCGk

Poreville

I host a small city
of mites in my face-pores,
and so do you in yours.
Nature abhors
empty cellular suburbs.

I'm told it's one mite
per pore. No mite
bowling leagues
or metropolitan clubs,
it seems. Just a quiet
city of solitary dining
and solipsistic dreams.

I never hear mite-screams.



hans ostrom 2019

Ponca City Poem

Centuries later I'd learn
that Ponca refers to a subgroup
of Sioux and their language.

At the time, the car had broken
down in tornado heat,
vomiting oil. On our way

to OKC, we found a mechanic--
a biker with seasoned tattoos
who lit cigarettes with a blowtorch.

His wife ran the place. She was
stylish, wry, and composed
among the invoices, racket,

and grease. We weren't the first
to wonder how she and the sinewed
man came to meet and marry.

None of our business, her smile
assured us, before we could ask
out loud. I'd bet anything,

except the car, they were happy
in Ponca City, which repaired our means
of transport and gave us an anomaly

to ponder down the years.