Part of the ongoing adventure of doing this project over the years has been the performance of a section of the English Modernist poetic landmark “The Waste Land” each April as part of our celebration of National Poetry Month. So far I’ve done three large sections, one each year. My first preference in this has … Continue reading The Entire “The Fire Sermon” from T. S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land”
We left “The Waste Land” last time in certainty and doubt. For one of the few times the narrating voice of a part of “The Waste Land” has given its name. Yet despite the male pronoun I used throughout our last post, that narrator, Tiresias, is noted in mythology as having lived as both a … Continue reading The (Play with) Fire Sermon
Today we’re going to commemorate something we did to celebrate National Poetry Month during the earlier years of this Project. In a series of posts and performances each April over five years we serially presented the entire “The Waste Land” here. Eliot’s Modernist masterpiece famously begins “April is the cruelest month…” — a line that … Continue reading “Sweet Thames” from Eliot’s “The Waste Land” for National Poetry Month
I sort of meant to do this last month as I wrapped up my five year serial presentation of Eliot’s Modernist landmark. This will not be a wrap-up of all the discoveries and feeling that living with this poem each April brought forward for me, but instead a single post that allows one to find … Continue reading T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, an eclectic musical performance
It’s time for the seasonal tallying of the pieces presented here that received the most listens and likes from you during the past three months. We presented 36 or 37 pieces in that time, including our increased posting activity during April’s National Poetry Month, but the most notable event for me during this interval was … Continue reading The Parlando Spring 2019 Top Ten Part 1
It’s been quite the April here as we ramped up activity to celebrate U. S. National Poetry Month. A lot of effort and time on my part, but since this project is based on the joy one finds in looking and listening to something and seeing what the encounter brings out, it’s been fun for … Continue reading Wrapping Up National Poetry Month 2019
Here’s my performance of the concluding segment of “The Fire Sermon” portion of “The Waste Land” which I presented for this year’s National Poetry Month celebration. If you want to hear the earlier sections, they’re all here along with over 300 other audio pieces presenting a variety of poetry combined with original music. The middle … Continue reading To Carthage then I Came
It seems like a long way back to the beginning of National Poetry Month this April. One long tradition I’ve followed here for Poetry Month is to perform parts of T. S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land” accompanied by original music I write myself. I started doing this back in 2017, performing just two and a … Continue reading The River Sweats
Each April, as part of National Poetry Month I’ve been recording a performance of T. S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land” and presenting it here in serial fashion. This year we’re performing the third section of the poem, “The Fire Sermon.” When we last left “The Fire Sermon” we were by the not-so-sweet Thames river where … Continue reading Tiresias
Was I being audacious when I compared Eliot’s “The Waste Land” to a modern hip hop/rap production sampling various parts and levels of the world’s culture? I don’t think so (though maybe I should be worried). I’m not going to get into a rap battle between T. S. Eliot vs. Missy Elliot, or a discussion … Continue reading Sweet Thames
Frank Hudson 