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Poetry of Issue # 61
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G. M. FOSTER (d. 2008) 3 POEMS Greg Foster was an old friend of mine since the 60s. We co-founded the Moorish Science Monitor and belonged to the Moorish Orthodox Church. Greg read his poetry to jazz (incl. Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers). A decade ago he married a Greek (Athena) and moved to the island oflkaria (where Icarus fell to earth). He died in May '08, shortly after publishing Renditions, which I reviewed in the last issue of HPN. -P. L Wilson | |||
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BREMSER BREAKS JAIL Bremser in Bordentown lockup writing Drive Suite Buhaina in his head teasing the snare and skinning the ride cymbal At Monty Montgomery's interzone studio washing down peyote buttons with tequila "Hey Ray remember Rita the rose poet of Philadelphia?" (She was my first wild passion--and how we cut each other's hearts in slices) Says Ray a toothless grin flashes pink gums puckering under his whiskers "Did ya fuck her * in that troll house of her ma's with the old man nested in the attic like a bat and grandma snatching a grab at her long loose locks?" WHAM rappadoom jing-jing I sure did Ray we made the two-backed beast up and down the stairs and in the hall from rug to roof Ray sees Egypt on the East River and Ecbataba in Jersey City Back in State Prison tilted on his metal bed digging Monk KLONG Coltrane WHEEDUP WOE UH-OH Ornette SKROOBA BRATTLE ATL ZOOGAH remembering childhood dreams of his sister's breasts and dank green hallways that reeked of drains and rats and dogs ("Suffering grants no rights"-- you were born knowing that) or blitzed in the parkor blitzed in the park playing phenomenoes and goofing on the whole mad scene or reading in the stuffed church-- we were all cold and wet from tramping crosstown through the pluviation-- and you took out your jailhouse teeth to get those plosives in placebos plus and some square asks "Are you high Mr. Bremser?" "Yes, my friend, I am-- and I intend to stay that way." Those burning poems for Bonnie "Poetry saved me, and god gave me Bonnie" ________________________________ |
Emphysema got you and you huffed your last riff but I remember Blues for Harold, Blues for an Old Shirt, Back on Black Blues Drive Suite, Frankenstein Ray-- the poet who swings Nellie Lutcher into the poem is all right with me ________________________________ KOSTAS KOUVIDIS [Greek jazz drummer in the Andreas Thermos Quartet, died in a tragic accident in the spring of 2007] I did not know him we traded not words but glimpses and grunts as he spoke through his skin his punctuation was all stops split pauses dashes semi colons ellipses and elisions apostrophes commas and questions exclamations brief and rare his brushwork was precise and clean taut as a whisper in a thicket light as a cats moustache glancing glinting cymbals highlights on the shimmering surface of music rolls and shuffles rimsnaps drumthumps sang support living volumes of space for bass to build his columns in piano his arches open doors for tenor to pass through his accidental absence dyes the silence another color ___________________________________ OUR FRIENDS a wave rises and takes a step before falling flat on its face pulled by the heels it's dragged back where it came from the sea is rubbed by the skin of bare boys and girls who thresh the air with cries and barks of laughter their summery curves sprawl in the sun dusk is saffron salmon and bronze night rises with a slow restless turn stridulation of the motorbikes begins and cyclopean lights crawl the mountain roads autumn stars advance out of blackness and the risen Pleiades announce the danger season when we harvest the black fruit when the dead our friends speak in their sleep and ours |
Weight Weight Only starting point possible for a poem that's to be on Sam Exler-- one of the so-called Great Generation; one of those slog-through Gl's who came home to McCarthyism (he was a bespectacled Jew, & earner of many medals). A witness to darkness, he was a survivor: a funny and patient man; a serious, triumphant poet. Ok. Enough about Sam. I want to examine where I am. Sam would understand. Donald Lev ____________________________ |
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