A break in the influences as memoir series here, that theme that I’ve fallen into doing for National Poetry Month? Maybe. I’m going to present a new performance of a Carl Sandburg poem — but before that I’m going to talk about another writer, Rod Serling. Serling wrote a variety of things, but he’s best … Continue reading Carl Sandburg’s Band Concert
A great many countries have holidays honoring their nation’s soldiers, often with an emphasis on memorializing the dead of past wars. The United States has two such holidays, a Veteran’s Day on the date of the WWI Armistice and the one that arrives this weekend, Memorial Day. Long time readers here will know I’ve presented … Continue reading Complexities of Memorial: Kevin FitzPatrick’s “Survivor” & Carl Sandburg’s “Grass”
Here’s a poem written by a second-generation immigrant about immigrants, and about Chicago in 1916, or my present city neighborhood of immigrants, or summer, summer nights — and it’s about love and affection, and about the moon that we’re all immigrants from when we fall in love. The child of an immigrant who wrote this … Continue reading Carl Sandburg’s “Back Yard” for National Poetry Month
I wrote a short piece a few years ago, which goes like this: The Temple of Summer is guarded by two pillars: Memorial Day for those who gave up their lives in war, And Labor Day for those who gave up their lives in peacetime. This Monday is American Labor Day.* What constitutes a laborer, … Continue reading Working Girls, Happiness, and Muckers: three Carl Sandburg poems about workers
I’ll admit I rushed to complete today’s audio piece because I wanted to make note of a birthday anniversary of an important contributor to the American wing of the Modernist movement of the early 20th century. I’m going to get to it in a roundabout way. Have patience, valued reader, I think this abbreviated story … Continue reading An Immigrant American Dream Girl
Aha! I have a plan for National Poetry Month. You might think we’d need do nothing but what we usually do — after all, we’re always celebrating poetry here. We have over 600 pieces you can find in our archives, performances that combine words (mostly poetry) with original music we compose and record ourselves. But … Continue reading Kicking off our celebration of National Poetry Month: Stars Songs Faces
It’s that time again when I present our quarterly countdown of the pieces most liked and listened to here at the Parlando Project during the past season. We’ll proceed from the 10th most popular and move up to number 1 in the next few posts. The bold-faced heading for each piece are links back to … Continue reading Fall 2021 Parlando Project Top Ten, numbers 10-8
Within the limited time I can find for it, I’ve been informally surveying what others online are doing for National Poetry Month. I’ll make one casual observation, unbacked by rigor or focused study: a great deal I’ve seen this April is aimed solely at the supply side for poetry. I’ve got nothing against urging more … Continue reading Letters to Dead Imagists and A Pact for National Poetry Month
Tonight is Jazz Night here at the Parlando Project Top 10 countdown. I’m going to ask the folks who come here for the talk about words to murmur down quietly today as I speak about the music. Funny how these quarterly counts sometimes become nice little “sets.” Both today and tomorrow’s segments as we countdown … Continue reading May Music Find a Way. Spring 2022 Parlando Top Ten numbers 7-5
It’s time for our every-quarter look back at what pieces you, my valued and appreciated listeners and readers listened to and liked most during the past Spring. This one turned out to be a tight bunch over the past three months, with only a little over a dozen listens and likes between the 1st and … Continue reading Spring 2021 Parlando Project Top Ten, numbers 10-8
Frank Hudson 