A Commentary About My Music (Saxophone) Poems My poetry is a method of renewal both for my soul and the mythological sub references I throw at you. I get a kick out of reinventing and modernizing old metaphors and symbols. But, there's a limbo between those intellects who get it all too quickly and veg's like myself who read no classical literature after the '70's. On the other hand, I watch Discovery Channels, History, Science, and all the mythical and archeological Mysteries of the Bible documentaries. All those late night videos and 4AM off-world messages make me wax poetic. |
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Lightheaded Gig 1996 |
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| Flashlight Gig | It's not really about
what was the cardboard box for! ( a metaphor for imagination,
ingenuity, and resourcefulness.) If you must know the answer it's
the same as I have repeated endlessly about echoing receptacles-
waste cans for clarinets, etc. The echo returns immortal qualities,
in this case group awareness. Venus preserves the soul inside
echoing tombs. (i.e. her son Echo) Keeping personal integrity alive
is sometimes costlier than risking a bad impression, i.e. the golden
apple contest, or the Hippodrome opening.
Print version: Volume 6, J W
Design |
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Thru the Kitchen with Gypsies |
Musicians usually
enter and exit thru the kitchen, along with the help and deliveries. My own urbanized myth if you will, says that you CAN change, but at great cost to others around you; there is no right way to do this unless you are very wealthy. I claim mental duress and the call of the wild, no excuses. The myth is something your friends and colleagues create after you vacate the building or previous lifestyle. Actually, it was a story I heard while working as a temp draftsman. Print version: Volume 6, J W Design |
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Darkness Fades to Hope |
A true story,
actually happened, and I've been able to access actual photos of
the incident from mom's hoard of clippings (The Record, Oct '64), though the Boston Herald has a different story. The poem, as always, is not so much about what actually happened as what does the role of religion play in our lives. Do we stop what we are doing or is it ok just to reflect on experience, even if it takes until later on in life to reach enlightenment? The expression on my 19 year old face says it all. The Chubby Checker reference is about the success of Civil Rights Reform and the awareness of our culture. Issues of color have faded. Print version: Volume 6, J W Design |
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Mass Grave That Lies Beneath |
A sequel
to the Darkness Fades poem: an unexpected trip to hell is necessary for spiritual death, rebirth, and rejuvenation. However, unless you come back and are not fooled by the phantoms you encounter, your death may be permanent. The poet takes this plunge instinctively, hoping to push on thru to the other side, find great enlightenment and wisdom, but, the pitfalls, vices and delights, excesses and addictions could delay you till the end of life. I was there for 30 years before returning. Of course, I came back weird. We all do, if we come back at all. Print version: Volume 6, J W Design |
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Miradlo Por Donde Va - 1969 |
One of my earliest
Boston poems includes memories of Mexico and references to my first
wife - a Sagittarius, and to De Lorca whose symbolic struggle
between Seville and Cordoba is a night display of fiery arrows.
There were no jobs in 1970 and could not believe how many college
grads were gathered there at the unemployment building, all of us
crowding the streets. I probably had more faith in the future than I
did in myself - but look where it went. Print version: Volume 6, J W Design |
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Lightheaded Gig Near Death |
A gig at JMU started
out warm and sunny but changed back and forth to drizzle and cold.
Sometimes when you are sick with fever and flu you get lightheaded
and even euphoric as though death seems like a pleasant way out of a
tough gig. Almost patriotic perhaps, having but one life to give for
my gig. Curfew is a simplistic answer to those who don't know any
better than to play in the rain. Print version: Volume 6, J W Design |
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| Improvisation 7 | It is hard for me to
imagine how fake music and musicians can inspire anyone to pursue a
music career. My teachers all said you had to struggle, get in trouble with your art forms and projects, find solutions that are both personal and cosmically profound. I know that's allot to ask of the average student, but I prefer that path to any other. Honest music can take any form - fake music has too many constraints, dress codes, business principles and commercial structures. It's always in bed with something else. Also, it tends to be programmatic, literal and or sentimental. The EZ listening elevator won't take you there, but because it is so redundant you can practice thousands of overlapping patterns by playing along. Best of all, you can always revive old music and make it more wondrous by your own hand. Print version: Volume 6, J W Design |
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Long Cosmic Cry of the Saxophone 1a & b, 2- 6 |
I
started out writing Improv # 8 and I just couldn't stop myself - I
was looking for my masterwork. The print version of this comes with
notes for some of my sub references. See the Print Version for footnotes such as:
I want there to be as much on the
surface of |
| Improvisation 9 | I suppose if Robert
Pinsky inspired me with anything it was this poem, the short list of
correlatives and abbreviated profundities ending in my this, my
that, my everything and not all that original. I asked him if he had
written other saxophone poems to which he answered that he had
written only the one and
had moved on. I could no more move on than stop breathing - the sax is
such a
huge part of my spiritual existence that I have become shamanistic about the sax -
lived and died there and come back on the Sunken truth of vaporized
tears. Print version: Volume 6, J W Design |
| Improvisation 10 | New Years is my
constant reference because in the old days time was believed to
recycle and start over - it was always the same ole calendar
chiseled in stone. Holidays were for various gods, their feasts and
their orgies.
The things we celebrate on today's New Years are vain, trifle and
boring, except for the orgies. We have no purpose beyond making fun of ourselves (a good thing but...) Too much of it will make you sick. I use sax case mold and ref. to foxfire (mold) to suggest Elysian drinks of maddening potions to cause spiritual death and rebirth. But, I'm the only one holding the moldy brass vessel. The reborn man is ready for all the new gimmicks invented for new age consumers. See the printed version of New Years Gig for more. |
| Improvisation 11 | Murderous
booth diving is something I witnessed on the job and not something I would actually do. It fills the raging metaphor with resentment over what sometimes feels like prostituting one's music. I do not condone it but I understand the urge to do that. My music is as it suggests, my muse. One does not make fun of her anymore than to make fun of the sacred rights and practices of others. Do not humiliate the hundred-fifty breasted goddess that sustains me. Print version: Volume 6, J W Design |
| Improvisation 12 | The
metaphor is steam driven, pneumatic, hydraulic, poolside, late night motel, perfect opportunity for one to dissolve, reinvent, resurrect, and start life all over again, especially if life has flogged everything out of you from the beginning. Call it the Elysian Mystery of life, but this is what everyone must do in order to stay sane. Take a break, go wild, start over the next day. At 14 I took my pinecone, walked thru the swords and torches and confronted dualities and the devil. All you need is a party. Print version: Volume 6, J W Design |
| Looking for Angel 2000 | Looking
for a new encounter for the new year or the same familiar muse who never disappoints you. It's not so much that she's so into you, but that she feels that you will be really into her. She's the one making the choice, not you. The caution is about what is important, the tinsel, the alcohol or the music. You are less likely to find a spiritual soul mate who understands the music or the musician. Print version: 0602 Shockoe Reader |
| Saxmos | Plural of Saxmo, a
stage name. |
| Girl in 1st Chair | True, but she
is a composite of many, their real names never to be revealed. Print version: Volume 6, J W Design |
| Playing in the Dark |
| Sirens | A vague parody of the
Odyssey chapter |
| Hell is Within | Was reprinted by my
friend Paul Rattabaugh in his high school anthology, wow. If hell is what you are looking for it is easy to find. In mythology it is the best place to start, no matter who or what you're looking for. Reduced to a symbol, a fable, that search could appear to be pointless and vain. Not everyone will appreciate the enormity of your epic undertaking. Thus, the fallacy of mythos. Only those who live it can understand it, or give it the elegant word, art and song it deserves. Print version in 0601 Wild Moon Transit |
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DEPARTURE 2011 |
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Storm Watching
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Print Version Vol. 25 Departure |
| Cafe Noir |
Print Version Vol. 25 Departure |
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Destiny Was
Always You |
Print Version Vol. 25 Departure |
| Delta Window |
Print Version Vol. 25 Departure |
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