Picnic on the Moon - Charles Coe

Descriere Picnic on the Moon - Charles Coe

\nKnown for his powerful readings and unusually warm and compassionate voice, Charles Coe's poems speak to the heart and mind as well as the ear. Combining subjects as diverse as Afro-American history, myth, jazz, and family as well as surprising observations of those unexpected moments of joy to be found in a work-a-day inner city life, Coe offers us poems as personal as the tale of a sister who opened his life to literature and closed her own with dope; as quietly momentous as the story of Rosa Parks. Here are poems for Ella Fitzgerald and Charlie Mingus alongside a haunting homage to the 'guests' of a battered women's shelter. Above all, Coe's poems touch upon what is essential in us all and speak of life as a gift that is far from perfect but all we have. \nCharles Coe is the winner of the Massachusetts Cultural Council Poetry Fellowship. A jazz and popular vocalist, he was born in Indianapolis, lives in the Boston area and travels widely to perform and record his work. \n \nGet on Up! \n \nCan anybody else here say that \nin the summer of 1967, \nwhen they were fourteen years old, \ntheir mama took them to a James Brown concert? \nDid you walk alongside her \nThrough the gates of \nA minor-league ballpark \nOn a hot, cloudless Indiana night \nWhen the moon shone like a spotlight \nOn the rough wooden stage? \nWas anybody else here sittin' beside their mama \nOn those hard benches \nWhen James's band, the Famous Flames \nCame out to lay down \nA red carpet of funk \nAnd the announcer whipped that crowd \nLike a bowl of black cream \n'til the Godfather of Soul finally skated onstage \nlike a waterbug, \ntellin; everybody 'bout his brand-new bag? \nIf your mama yelled like everybody else, \nThen let it now be told! \nLet everybody know how \nShe clapped her hands raw \nAs James flew back and forth across the stage, \nSweat and grease from his conked-up hair \nPouring down the front of his ruffled shirt, \nPurple satin jacket ripped off and tossed aside. \nLet everybody know how she stomped her feet \nWhen he grabbed that mike like a dog grabs a bone, \nFell to one knee, \nAnd begged for: just one more chance, \nBaby, baby please, \nAnd then when he fin\n

Detalii

Brand

Leapfrog Press

Categorie

ENSTK

EAN / GTIN

9780965457828

Magazine

1

Disponibilitate

in stock