Recuerdo, or we celebrate Joni Mitchell’s Blue with some Edna St. Vincent Millay

A longish one this time. I’ll try to make it worth your while. In the places I go it has been hard to escape Joni Mitchell and the 50-year anniversary of her breakthrough record album Blue  this month. Mitchell is one of those artists like Emily Dickinson* or Thelonious Monk who people contemporaneously recognized as … Continue reading Recuerdo, or we celebrate Joni Mitchell’s Blue with some Edna St. Vincent Millay

Millay’s “Rosemary” for National Poetry Month

It’s my hope that some of you are newer people reading this as a result of my increased posting frequency and other activity during April’s National Poetry Month. If you’ve just found this: welcome! What we do here is combine words (usually poetry) with original music in varied styles, and then write about our encounters … Continue reading Millay’s “Rosemary” for National Poetry Month

The Most Popular Parlando Project Piece of Spring 2021

1 A High-Toned Old Christian Woman  and First Fig  by Wallace Stevens and Edna St. Vincent Millay   It seemed like an odd pairing. So much so that I wondered why I thought it might work. Wallace Stevens, who looked like what he was, an insurance executive; and Edna St. Vincent Millay, the beautiful bohemian New … Continue reading The Most Popular Parlando Project Piece of Spring 2021

Summer 2021 Parlando Project Top Ten, numbers 7-5

Let’s continue or count-down to the most listened to and liked Parlando Project piece over the last summer. Today we move to the half-way point, numbers 7 through 5. Wait, maybe you’re new here. Parlando Project — what’s that? Well, for a little over five years I’ve been presenting combinations of various words (mostly poetry) … Continue reading Summer 2021 Parlando Project Top Ten, numbers 7-5

The Singing Woman from the Wood’s Edge

I’m thinking lately of the magic of consciousness, of how we exist as distinct limited illuminations of this world for a certain time, and how strange and inexplicable that is.*  Is that funny? Tragic? Is that choice just a matter of emotional weather and sensibility? Today’s poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay is several things. … Continue reading The Singing Woman from the Wood’s Edge

Sonnet To Beauty — Two Women Who Wrote Poetry While Working with the Economically Desperate

I’m posting a bit late in the day, but it’s International Women’s Day, and so today’s audio piece uses as a text a poem by a very international woman, Lola Ridge. Ridge’s poetry is perhaps best known for a fierce commitment to social justice and the situation of the poor in early 20th century America; … Continue reading Sonnet To Beauty — Two Women Who Wrote Poetry While Working with the Economically Desperate