Nostalgia may be cheap, but none-the-less, we feel it. Perhaps by “cheap,” we mean “common,” and if so, should artists always flee that, the common experience? Interrogating the common may verge on an obligation in many answers to that question. What is it in our mundane experience that we may share with others, that we … Continue reading Small Iowa Town, after World War Two
In my roundup of World War One War Poets earlier this week for the upcoming centenary of Armistice Day, I only mentioned Edward Thomas in passing. He shares the military service and the battle-related death of the others, but his writing about the war is different. Though he was working on notes that could lead … Continue reading Edward Thomas and World War 1
As we enter the week in which we note the ending of World War One a century ago, I want to call attention to some the ways we’ve shown poets wresting with that war in their own time. It’s a longer post, but each one of these pieces presents something different for Armistice Day. I … Continue reading The Greatest Hits of World War One
A lot of these performances begin somewhat randomly. Oh, Edward Thomas isn’t random, I’ve enjoyed exploring this British writer with you since I first ran into his connection with Robert Frost in the years just before WWI. Was I looking for a poem considering a particular subject or event? One could see today’s piece, “Cock-Crow” … Continue reading Edward Thomas’ “Cock-Crow” cleaves the wood of thoughts that grows by night
Some people live so long as to make time and its boundaried eras seem a foggy measure. Such a man was Lawrence Ferlinghetti, the American poet, painter, and bookstore owner who predates and post-dates the Beat poetry scene — or for that matter the Hippie scene, and our century’s activist eras and its search for … Continue reading In memory of Lawrence Ferlinghetti: The world is a beautiful place
I took yesterday off from the work of this ongoing project. I spent a good portion of it listening to music. I said to my wife that afternoon: “It’s odd, but spending to much time composing music, performing, recording, and mixing it largely keeps me from listening to music I’m not working on. If I … Continue reading A great broken world with eyes gone dim
Today’s post returns to the issue we touched on last month with “Acting.” What is an artist’s proper role regarding politics and social issues? And why do artists who engage in politics draw especial condemnation for doing so? This may be the wrong question. Does anyone ask, what’s the proper role of a lawyer, real … Continue reading On Being Asked for a War Poem
It’s Easter and time to close my short Edward Thomas series for National Poetry Month with a short elegy written by a poet both less and more known than Thomas in the United States. But before I get to that, let me fill in a few spaces in the Edward Thomas story. I ran into … Continue reading Easter Monday (In Memoriam E. T.) for National Poetry Month
We continue today our National Poetry Month series where we re-release some of our favorite performances from the early days of this Project in the hopes that more ears will be able to hear them. Today’s piece steps forward a couple of years from yesterday’s, where in “Adlestrop” British poet Edward Thomas had written with … Continue reading Gone, Gone Again for National Poetry Month
You’ll sometimes find Edward Thomas filed under “War Poets,” but his best-known poem “Adlestrop” is a unique peace poem that emerged from a journal entry written a few days before war broke out in Europe in 1914. In Thomas’ “Adlestrop”, nothing happens — the sweetest nothing. This poem is lesser-known in America than it is … Continue reading Adlestrop for National Poetry Month
Frank Hudson 