Day 94

"...one ought every day at least to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words." -Goethe

An excerpt for today from Henry David Thoreau's Walden:

The life in us is like the water in the river. It may rise this year higher than man has ever known it, and flood the parched uplands ; even this may be the eventful year, which will drown out all our muskrats. It was not always dry land where we dwell. I see far inland the banks which the stream anciently washed, before science began to record its freshets. Every one has heard the story which has gone the rounds of New England, of a strong and beautiful bug which came out of the dry leaf of an old table of apple-tree wood, which had stood in a farmer's kitchen for sixty years, first in Connecticut, and afterward in -Massachusetts, - from an egg deposited in the living tree many years earlier still, as appeared by counting the annual layers beyond it ; which was heard gnawing out for several weeks, hatched perchance by the heat of an urn. Who does not feel his faith in a resurrection and immortality strengthened by hearing of this? Who knows what beautiful and winged life, whose egg has been buried for ages under many concentric layers of woodenness in the dead dry life of society, deposited at first in the alburnum of the green and living tree, which has been gradually converted into the semblance of its well-scasoned tomb, - heard perchance gnawing out now for years by the astonished family of man, as they sat round the festive board, -may unexpectedly come forth from amidst society's most trivial and handselled furniture, to enjoy its perfect summer life at last!

I do not say that John or Jonathan will realize all this ; but such is the character of that morrow which mere lapse of time can never make to dawn. The light which puts out our eyes is darkness to us. Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star .

A song for today: "A Change is Gonna Come" by Sam Cooke

Works Cited

Cooke, Sam (1931-1964). "A Change is Gonna Come." Ain't That Good News, RCA Victor, 1964.

Thoreau, Henry David (1817-1862). "Conclusion. Walden. https://www.walden.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Walden18Conclusion.pdf. Accessed 15 June 2020.

Day 87

Daily Assignment Chart for Week of 6/8

"...one ought every day at least to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words." -Goethe

A poem for my dad's birthday: "Of the Threads that Connect the Stars" by Martin Espada

Of the Threads that Connect the Stars

Did you ever see stars?  asked my father with a cackle. He was not
speaking of the heavens, but the white flash in his head when a fist burst
between his eyes. In Brooklyn, this would cause men and boys to slap
the table with glee; this might be the only heavenly light we'd ever see.

I never saw stars. The sky in Brooklyn was a tide of smoke rolling over us
from the factory across the avenue, the mattresses burning in the junkyard,
the ruins where squatters would sleep, the riots of 1966 that kept me
locked in my room like a suspect. My father talked truce on the streets.

My son can see the stars through the tall barrel of a telescope.
He names the galaxies with the numbers and letters of astronomy.
I cannot see what he sees in the telescope, no matter how many eyes I shut.
I understand a smoking mattress better than the language of galaxies.

My father saw stars. My son sees stars. The earth rolls beneath
our feet. We lurch ahead, and one day we have walked this far.

A song for my dad's birthday: "We Can Work it Out" by the Beatles and by Stevie Wonder

Works Cited

The Beatles. "We Can Work it Out." "Day Tripper" (double A-side), Capitol, 1965.

Espada, Martin. "" Poets.org. https://poets.org/poem/threads-connect-stars. Accessed 8 June 2020.

Wonder, Stevie. "We Can Work it Out." Signed, Sealed & Delivered, Motown, 1970.

Day 86

Daily Assignment Chart for Week of 6/8

"...one ought every day at least to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words." -Goethe

Two songs for today: "Fight the Power" by the Isley Brothers and "Fight the Power" by Public Enemy

A poem for today from the Terrance Hayes collection American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin

American Sonnet for My Past and Future Assassin [When James Baldwin & Audre Lorde each lend]

When James Baldwin & Audre Lorde each lend
Stevie Wonder an eyeball, he immediately contends
With gravity, falling either to his knees or flat on
His luminous face. I’ve heard several versions
Of the story. In this one Audre Lorde dons
Immaculate French loafers, turtlenecked ballgown,
And afro halo. An eye-sized ruby glimmers on
A pinky ring that’s a hair too big for Jimmy Baldwin’s
Pinky. He’s blue with beauty. They’re accustomed
To being followed, but now, the eye-patch twins
Will be especially scary to white people. Looking upon
Them, Wonder’s head purples with plural visions
Of blackness, gavels, grapples, purrs, pens. Ten to one
Odds God also prefers to be referred to as They & Them.

Works Cited

Hayes, Terrance. "When James Baldwin & Audre Lord each lend." American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin, 2018. 

Isley Brothers. "Fight the Power." The Heat is On, T-neck Records, 1975.

Public Enemy. "Fight the Power." Fear of a Black Planet, CBS Records, 1990.

Day 83

"...one ought every day at least to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words." -Goethe

A poem for today: "Declaration" by Tracy K. Smith

Declaration 

 

BY TRACY K. SMITH

He has

              sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people

He has plundered our—

                                           ravaged our—

                                                                         destroyed the lives of our—

taking away our­—

                                  abolishing our most valuable—

and altering fundamentally the Forms of our—

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for

Redress in the most humble terms:

                                                                Our repeated

Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury.

We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration

and settlement here.

                                    —taken Captive

                                              

                                                                    on the high Seas

                                                                                                     to bear—

A song for today: D'Angelo "Prayer"

Works Cited

D'Angelo. "Prayer." Black Messiah, RCA, 2014.

Smith, Tracy K. "Declaration." Poetryfoundation.org. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/147468/declaration-5b5a286052461. Accessed 4 June 2020.

Day 82

Daily Assignments Chart for Week of 6/1

A poem for today: An excerpt from Claudia Rankine's Don't Let Me Be Lonely

Don't Let Me Be Lonely [Mahalia Jackson is a genius.]

Mahalia Jackson is a genius. Or Mahalia Jackson has genius. The man I am with is trying to make a distinction. I am uncomfortable with his need to make this distinction because his inquiry begins to approach subtle shades of racism, classism, or sexism. It is hard to know which. Mahalia Jackson never finished the eighth grade, or Mahalia's genius is based on the collision of her voice with her spirituality. True spirituality is its own force. I am not sure how to respond to all this. I change the subject instead.

We have just seen George Wein's documentary, Louis Armstrong at Newport, 1971. In the auditorium a room full of strangers listened to Mahalia Jackson sing "Let There Be Peace on Earth" and stood up and gave a standing ovation to a movie screen. Her clarity of vision crosses thirty years to address intimately each of us. It is as if her voice has always been dormant within us, waiting to be awakened, even though "it had to go through its own lack of answers, through terrifying silence, (and) through the thousand darknesses of murderous speech."

Perhaps Mahalia, like Paul Celan, has already lived all our lives for us. Perhaps that is the definition of genius. Hegel says, "Each man hopes and believes he is better than the world which is his, but the man who is better merely expresses this same world better than the others." Mahalia Jackson sings as if it is the last thing she intends to do. And even though the lyrics of the song are, "Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me," I am hearing, Let it begin in me.

A song for today: Mahalia Jackson "Let There Be Peace on Earth"

Works Cited

Jackson, Mahalia (1911-1972). "Let There Be Peace on Earth." Good Evening Ev'rybody: In Celebration With Louis Armstrong, 2010.

Rankine, Claudia. "[Mahalia Jackson is a genius]" Don't Let Me Be Lonely, https://poets.org/lesson-plan/teach-poem-dont-let-me-be-lonely-mahalia-jackson-genius-claudia-rankine. Accessed 2 June 2020.

Day 81

Daily Assignments Chart for Week of 6/1
"...one ought every day at least to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words." -Goethe

A poem for today: 

Making Peace

BY DENISE LEVERTOV

A voice from the dark called out,

             ‘The poets must give us

imagination of peace, to oust the intense, familiar

imagination of disaster. Peace, not only

the absence of war.’

                                   But peace, like a poem,

is not there ahead of itself,

can’t be imagined before it is made,

can’t be known except

in the words of its making,

grammar of justice,

syntax of mutual aid.

                                       A feeling towards it,

dimly sensing a rhythm, is all we have

until we begin to utter its metaphors,

learning them as we speak.

                                              A line of peace might appear

if we restructured the sentence our lives are making,

revoked its reaffirmation of profit and power,

questioned our needs, allowed

long pauses . . .

                        A cadence of peace might balance its weight

on that different fulcrum; peace, a presence,

an energy field more intense than war,

might pulse then,

stanza by stanza into the world,

each act of living

one of its words, each word

a vibration of light—facets

of the forming crystal.

A song for today: "Many Rivers to Cross" by Jimmy Cliff, from one of the all-time greatest soundtracks The Harder They Come.

Works Cited

Cliff, Jimmy. "Many Rivers to Cross." The Harder They Come, Island, 1972.

Levertov, Denise (1923-1997). "Making Peace." Poetryfoundation.org. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/53900/making-peace. Accessed 2 June 2020.

Day 80

"...one ought every day at least to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words." -Goethe

A poem for 1 June: "When people say, 'we have made it through worse before'" by Clint Smith

When people say,“we have made itthrough worse before”

— Clint Smith

all I hear is the wind slapping against the gravestones
of those who did not make it, those who did not
survive to see the confetti fall from the sky, those who

did not live to watch the parade roll down the street.
I have grown accustomed to a lifetime of aphorisms
meant to assuage my fears, pithy sayings meant to

convey that everything ends up fine in the end. There is no
solace in rearranging language to make a different word
tell the same lie. Sometimes the moral arc of the universe

does not bend in a direction that will comfort us.
Sometimes it bends in ways we don’t expect & there are
people who fall off in the process. Please, dear reader,

do not say I am hopeless, I believe there is a better future
to fight for, I simply accept the possibility that I may not
live to see it. I have grown weary of telling myself lies

that I might one day begin to believe. We are not all left
standing after the war has ended. Some of us have
become ghosts by the time the dust has settled.

A song for 1 June: Kamasi Washington "Truth"

Works Cited

Smith, Clint. "When people say, 'we have made it through worse before.'" wildness. https://readwildness.com/19/smith-people. Accessed 1 June 2020.

Washington, Kamasi. "Truth." Harmony of Difference, Young Turks, 2017.