To those who are reading Freedom's Plow aloud with me, thank you. I've been reading Appleseed again, and these two poems in conjunction are really starting to have a resonance for me. In Praise of Johnny Appleseed is great at evoking the spirit of the land, the spirit of exploring, a Mark Twain, tall tale vibe. If Appleseed calls out the spirit of the land, Freedom's Plow calls out the spirit of America. Bringing the two together really vibrates! Both of these have made me want to dive back into the tall tales, Paul Bunyan and Pecos Bill, but John Henry especially. He feels like a guy who'd stand a chance against technocracy.
P Coyle, you're lucky you have a cat for an audience. When my girls hear me start to read, they always giggle and say "get to the part where he says "booty-seekers"!". I'm trying to lay some tracks and these two want to laugh. Keeps me young though. Reading this is helping me too. I don't know if it will have any effect out there, but it's having one in here. BTW, you can quote Petty any time you want. He's one of the greats.
For anyone who is interested, I was looking for a documentary on Hughes. There is a lot of fragmentary stuff, short videos, out there. I ran across this though, which is pretty good!
The link is to an hour long video about Hughes and his place in Harlem. There is an anecdote about how he was trying to grow a garden in front of his home. The neighborhood kids kept pulling up the plants, so he invited them over to plant the garden, he named each plant after a kid, and he created a sign with their names on it. After that, they took care of the garden for him. How's that for laying tracks in space?!
Langston Hughes thread
P Coyle, you're lucky you have a cat for an audience. When my girls hear me start to read, they always giggle and say "get to the part where he says "booty-seekers"!". I'm trying to lay some tracks and these two want to laugh. Keeps me young though. Reading this is helping me too. I don't know if it will have any effect out there, but it's having one in here. BTW, you can quote Petty any time you want. He's one of the greats.
For anyone who is interested, I was looking for a documentary on Hughes. There is a lot of fragmentary stuff, short videos, out there. I ran across this though, which is pretty good!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxMr46IUlDk
The link is to an hour long video about Hughes and his place in Harlem. There is an anecdote about how he was trying to grow a garden in front of his home. The neighborhood kids kept pulling up the plants, so he invited them over to plant the garden, he named each plant after a kid, and he created a sign with their names on it. After that, they took care of the garden for him. How's that for laying tracks in space?!
Murmuration