Sherry Chandler

David Cazden will read from and sign his poetry collection Moving Picture (Word Press, 2005) this Saturday (April 29), 12:00 to 2:00, at Fauntleroy’s Coffeehouse, 600 West Maxwell Street, Lexington.

Original jazz by Hannah Ferguson and a brunch special. Call 859-455-8188 for information.

Sample poems from Moving Picture can be found at this link.

In The Diner

Behind us, flashes of car windshields
off the streets, students
awaiting plates of food.
We float conversation
while the sky encircles us

without a cloud.
Behind the backdrop
of bright blue diner curtains,
stars swerve in daytime arcs.
I sip ice tea. You twirl
your hair in knots and swirls,
punctuating a story with your hands—

Yellow strands, russet,
tell me where to go today
as the traffic hums, and your fingers move
intricate and foreign
as the dances of the summer bees.

— David Cazden

During the Women Writers Conference here in Lexington this last week, I was able to have lunch and a visit with Jane Kretschman, whose poems Cat with Aria and Darling Companions have appeared on my catblogging pages. Jane’s news? She is to be featured on NPR’s Theme and Variations this week.

“Theme and Variations” celebrates the interconnectedness between world literature and classical music. They’ve featured such greats as James Joyce’s The Dubliners and Jimmy Carter’s The Hornet’s Nest. You can listen to some sound clips at this link: I am intrigued by the show on Langston Hughes and one of my all-time favorite short stories: D.H. Lawrence’s “The Rocking Horse Winner.”

The program is heard on some 70 National Public Radio stations. Unfortunately, our local stations here in Kentucky are not among them.

Jane isn’t sure which poems host Will Everett will feature or what music, but she’s betting “Cat with Aria” will be one of them.

You can catch “Theme and Variations” through streaming audio at Yellowstone Public Radio in Billings. The show airs Sunday at 11:00 am Mountain Standard Time, which Jane and I calculate is about 2:00 pm EDT.

By the way, T & V is open to submissions of poetry and music. From their poetry submission guidelines:

The poems that air on Theme and Variations tell a story, paint a portrait, strike a particular emotional chord. We like the deep stuff, but we also like to laugh. We like meaningful poems that aren’t maudlin, funny poems with wit and panache. Erudite, esoteric, obscure poetry (like haiku) doesn’t make the cut. Poems of a strongly religious nature are gently discouraged.

Please keep in mind the nature of the venue. Poetry on the radio must make its point the first time around. If we don’t get it on one read, our listeners aren’t going to get it either.

Okay, here’s Kentucky’s most famous poem, written by James H. Mulligan (1844-1915) in 1902. Mulligan was a Lexington lawyer who served as a state senator and U.S. Consul-General to the Kingdom of Samoa. He wrote several poems in what William S. Ward calls the “local color tradition,” but “In Kentucky” is the only one that is still quoted today. It has been read into the Congressional Record and parodied by most other states. Says Ward, in A Literary History of Kentucky, “…it has been estimated, well over a million souvenir postal cards have been sold with the verses printed on them.”

In Kentucky

The moonlight falls the softest
In Kentucky;
The summer days come oftest
In Kentucky;
Friendship is the strongest,
Love’s light glows the longest;
Yet, wrong is always wrongest
In Kentucky.

Life’s burdens bear the lightest
In Kentucky;
The home fires burn the brightest
In Kentucky;
While players are the keenest,
Cards come out the meanest,
The pocket empties cleanest
In Kentucky.

The sun shines ever brightest
In Kentucky;
The breezes whisper lightest
In Kentucky;
Plain girls are the fewest,
Maiden’s eyes the bluest,
Their little hearts are truest
In Kentucky.

Orators are the grandest
In Kentucky;
Officials are the blandest
In Kentucky;
Boys are all the fliest,
Danger ever nighest,
And taxes are the highest
In Kentucky.

The bluegrass waves the bluest
In Kentucky;
Yet, bluebloods are the fewest ( ?)
In Kentucky;
Moonshine is the clearest,
By no means the dearest,
And yet it acts the queerest
In Kentucky.

The dove-notes are the saddest
In Kentucky;
The streams dance on the gladdest
In Kentucky;
Hip pockets are the thickest,
Pistol hands the slickest,
The cylinder turns quickest
In Kentucky.

The song birds are the sweetest
In Kentucky;
The thoroughbreds are fleetest
In Kentucky;
Mountains tower proudest,
Thunders peal the loudest,
The landscape is the grandest-
And politics—the damnedest
In Kentucky.

— James H. Mulligan, from Kentucky Eloquence. Past and Present. Library of Orations, After-Dinner Speeches, Popular and Classic Lectures Addresses and Poetry, Bennett H. Young, editor (Louisville, Kentucky: Ben LaBree, 1907)