ANDREW HILL

Here is a poem that didn’t make the cut for my upcoming book. It just felt a little too obscure, but I still love it… and thats what blogs are for, the things that are not good enough for books.

The poem is based on this excerpt from the liner notes to Andrew Hill’s album point of departure.

“For the past year or so, Hill has not listend to jazz on the radio and he has retired his record player for the time being. “in listening to other people” Hill explains, “you absorb their thoughts, however unconsciously, and as I said, right now I have to concentrate on finding my own way””

I thought this was a really interesting, both for its musical implications, but even more so for every thing else in life. Its this idea that we are influenced by all the things we surround our selfs with, wether we want it to or not. This awareness brings a greater level of intentionality to what we let in our world.

Andrew Hill said

His record player is sleeping for now

Because he is building

his own world

And he knew

What you let in

Will change you

And start to build its own world

Inside of you

He didn’t trust his ability

To control a constricted sponge

In water

He didn’t trust his ability

To control an ocean storm

So he did his best

To navigate it

Every thing you let in

Will change you

Every thing has a cost

Every thing will take something from you

So he stayed home

With his books

with his piano and tape recorder

Alone

Suggested listening (Andrew Hill Albums)

Point of Departure

Dance With Death

Black Fire

Passing Ships

AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY (A POEM)

Stravinsky, T. S. Elliot, and Bach were Christians

John Coltrane lost a parent when he was young

Annie Dillards first name begins with A

Charlie Parker was from Kansas City

Steve Reich is American

Ornette Colemans parents were from Texas

John Coltrane was a late starter

Dubbusy found school suffocating

Stravinsky, Copland, and Bach did not go to collage

Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock loved the music of Stravinsky

Stravinsky loved Bach

John Muir was of Scottish decent

C.S. Lewis was a teacher

Ornette Coleman was self taught

THOUGHTS ON THE POETS I HAVE BEEN READING

Billy Collins - He is currently one of the most famous and most read living American poets. He poetry is highly accessible and easy to read. Its often filled with humor and he writes lots of poems about writing poems (which can get a little old). His poetry is extremely conversational and even challenges the definition of what a poem means.

Mary Oliver - Is one of the other most read American poets. All of her works focus on nature and it is rare for a human (other than the observer) to be in her poetry, and is fairly accessible. American Primitive won a Pulitzer which is a book I found to be a little stronger than a lot of her other books but also darker in tone. She had a lot of years of writing poetry and I found little change in her topic or style from book to book, but I would recommend dream work and thirst.

Luci Shaw - Slightly less transparent than collins or Oliver but still not so coded as to lose its meaning. Topics of her poetry generally include God, and nature. Normally I can’t stand the endorsements on books by other authors (it feels like advertising) but she does have one from Annie Dillard so…. theres that. Angels of light is my favorite book of hers.

Denise Levertov - I find the balance between between poetry and clarity to my taste in her books. Her style and topics have a nice variety which I can find lacking on other poets. I am reading her collected works and her early poetry is defiantly more challenging than her later works. I would recommend her book evening train.

T.S. Elliot - When I read four quartets or waste land I feel like I am beholding the work of a master (not an experience I have very often (its like listening to Bach)). It feels so well crafted every sound and word feel like they were meticulously and painstakingly knit together. Its so well done we can all forgive him if the meaning is not always super clear. And we can all be forgiven for googling “what is four quartets about"? Another thing that really stands out about his work is the dramatic nature of his poems (dramatic has in drama, not dramatic as in overly emotional). Its like he creates these slices of stories in poetic form, and his poems are filled with characters he created, not him self. This stands in stark contrast to the works of all the other poets I have talked about, which feel predominately like autobiographic works.

A POEM FOR THE FIRST DAY OF WINTER

The secret

Is to learn to love

All kinds of weather

Because they say there is no bad weather

Just bad perspective

And my perspectives have been poor

On this broken world

With its broken inhabitants

And I was the worst

And I was the offended

And I was the one

Who dreamed of living my days

In climate controlled environments

Of isolating my self

From any days

Who weren’t a mirror

To my perceptions

To my opinions

To my dry sense of humor

But this year

For the first year

I celebrate the bone cold

Of winter

And the secret is

I am not really talking about

the weather