Original Poem: Charles Mingus’s Memento
Sean MurphyIt remains a blessing for this writer to find publications that “get” him –and what I’m attempting with my ongoing project (the first installment, of course, being The Blackened Blues, released…
Original Poem: Imagined Conversations with People I Love about Trauma
van Gogh, Vincent; Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear; The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust); http://www.artuk.org/artworks/self-portrait-with-bandaged-ear-207202 I appreciate that this one got picked up by Humans of the World, as trauma (experiencing…
Original Poem: Pharoah Sanders Donating Blood to Buy Food, 1962
A young Sanders with his mentor and bandmate John Coltrane Huge gratitude to the team at Decolonial Passage for including my work in their "Food, Power, and Powerlessness" issue. (It's…
Original Poem: St. James’s Place
I've only been to Atlantic City one time (friend's bachelor party, obvi) and, admittedly, not being a gambler or fan of rooms thick with cigarette smoke (circa 2002), and loathing…
Original Poem: In the Unlikely Event of a Water Landing
It continues to be a joy and honor to have my work appear –alongside so many excellent writers– in Exterminating Angel Press. The theme of the Winter 2023 issue is All…
Kurt Vonnegut at 100
So It Goes: Reflections on Kurt Vonnegut (written after his death in 2007 and included in my first collection of non-fiction, Murphy's Law Vol. One). Kurt Vonnegut would say in…
Original Poem: RICHARD PRYOR ON THE SUNSET STRIP, 1982: AN EXEGESIS
I consider Richard Pryor's Live in Concert ('79) the single best stand up special in history. But Live on the Sunset Strip is possibly more important (maybe even better, if…
Sy Johnson: RIP
Let's face it. There were few human beings who could give Charles Mingus what he needed (what he wanted? the universe can't contain such multitudes and appetites); there were a…
Original Poem: Chet Baker’s Smog
It remains a blessing for this writer to find publications that “get” him --and what I'm attempting with my ongoing project (the first installment, of course, being The Blackened Blues,…
Original Poem: Ghost Poem
A night image of train tracks heading towards the Milky Way Galaxy in the USA. I'm always appreciative of the great work Washington Writers' Publishing House does, and if you're…