What poetry means is open to interpretation, but those lines suggest to me that memory possesses what the hand does not hold, and that there are different ways of gaining the world, a spiritual way beyond the material. That is also the realm of art, a form of beauty, craft, emotion, idea, memory, spirit, and thought.
Author:
Nature, Spirit, Love, and Protest: Wild Songs, classical soprano Polly Butler Cornelius’s performance of songs by Steve Heitzeg and Lori Laitman
On Polly Butler Cornelius’s album Wild Songs, the use by composer Lori Laitman of Emily Dickinson’s “Will there really be a morning?” becomes an expression of more than spiritual doubt, but a recognition of the possibility of real world cataclysm. The high long notes can be beautiful but nearly blur the sense of the words.
The Dreams and Rage of Manhood: Bruce Springsteen, Darkness on the Edge of Town
Bruce Springsteen’s focus and intensity remain connected to recognizable characters and situations; and that is what makes his work more than self-indulgent feeling and mythmaking.
A Musician’s Musician and a Pervert’s Pervert: Here’s Little Richard
A man who wears glass suits would not throw stones, but he sure can throw light and plenty of shade. Little Richard has been a legend for decades; and there is no one who speaks or sings like him. Little Richard had to be a force of nature: he had a lot of terrain to conquer and there was no established social infrastructure to help him; and he had only his charisma, energy, talent, and will.
An interview with Ceri Radford
The author of Constance Harding’s (Rather) Startling Year talks about her new book, about the blog that gave rise to it, about the relationship between journalism and fiction, between fact and fiction, about future plans, and more.
After Sade’s Soldier of Love comes Lianne La Havas’s Is Your Love Big Enough?
Lianne La Havas, with her song collection Is Your Love Big Enough?, presents a sensibility that is feminine, thoughtful, jazzily soulful, independent and individual. La Havas, a singer and a guitarist, with the participation of multi-instrumentalist Matt Hales, creates a bohemian atmosphere in which the personally sincere and the cosmopolitan are both at home.
A Conversation with Danielle Trussoni
The author of Angelopolis talks about her new book, her favourite characters in the book, her writing schedule, her dream book club, her hobbies, her research, her relationship to Russia and Eastern Europe, her ideal reader, and lots more. Which of…
A review of Opportunity: Optimizing Life’s Chances by Donald Morris
These are opportunities which alter the present and shape the future. The author further contends that if one is trained to recognize opportunities in a timely fashion, one can then recognize rich and productive opportunities while dismissing the trivial, short-lived…
A review of The Book by Jessica Bell
The Book reads very quickly. This is not just because it’s only 154 pages of reasonably spaced text, but also because Bonnie’s voice drives the story along as we try to understand, from her perspective, the multiple relationships that surround her…
A review of By the Book: A Reader’s Guide to Life by Ramona Koval
By the Book brings the reader into the story right from the start, and envelopes us in a kind of shared conversation about ourselves. By the Book is all about conversation – and as we ‘converse’ with Koval through her own history, and…