Let's talk music, no genre boundaries

@stuartk 

Bream plays those pieces with more emotion than anyone else I’ve heard, including John Williams and Pepe Romero. 

So, if it’s emotion you’re looking for in classical music, you might start with Wagner. Not his operas themselves, but the preludes and overtures. Parsifal, Tristan and Isolde, Tannhauser, and Lohengrin. One of my favorites is his Magic Fire Music.

I ran into Snyder a few times in the 70's and 80's when I went to hear him read. He was much admired for his Zen schtick, but as I look back on it, I think it was kind of ruse socially. Not that he didn't feel it in his poems. But I think he was a misogynist, like most men, and he used the Zen thing to excuse it. I went in to talk to him with my very pretty sister, and after that he was much more interested in taking her on motorcycle rides than talking about my poetry. Although, in his own sparse way, I thought he was an excellent teacher.

Not my cup of tea.  I like to understand the words and it ruins it for me whether they be obscured by a language barrier, or a breathy voice.

This is more to my liking.

https://youtu.be/ApS2wScgU44

@stuartk 

In regards to poetry being upfront with its meaning, I think that is not poetry. It's an essay or something else. Poetry, like jazz, must light a spark between listener (& reader) who must give something of themselves. But it's not that hard. You just need to think a bit and then the spark ignites. 

I'm going to repost the Villa Lobos poem and then comment upon it, and you should feel that spark as a musician.

illa Lobos

in shady corners

along walls

where mud meets mud

& old men in tatters

sleep cool

in the dusty air

a lover tiptoes

from the softness

of lips

to the cold

precision of strings

I begin with an everyday lazy scene of old men dressed in taters sleeping in the shade. That's where art comes from, the streets. I say it more clearly in my Coltrane poem.

Could there be a larger contrast between these old men and a lover tiptoeing from soft lips. This is where music comes from too. From flesh and passion. But, it must somehow be magically translated into an art form--in this case music--by the cold precision of strings. Isn't that what music is for you? A lot of sweat and callus on your fingers translating the passion of a lover and the secret the lover carries down the dusty street past the old men to the instrument that translates it for other humans.

I'm going to repost the Coltrane poem later. Because I was disappointed that nobody commented on it. It's not super-duper obvious, but it doesn't take a lot of thought for it to become apparent. If I tried to sum it up in a one-line theme, well then it wouldn't require the music and language of poetry to bring it alive.

@audio-b-dog 

In regards to poetry being upfront with its meaning, I think that is not poetry. It's an essay or something else. Poetry, like jazz, must light a spark between listener (& reader) who must give something of themselves. But it's not that hard. You just need to think a bit and then the spark ignites. 

There've been US poets laureate and poets who've won the Pulitzer whose poems are not difficult to understand. 

@stuartk 

Can you name a few poet laureats or any famous poets who you don't think are difficult to understand? I need to know what you're talking about. Thanks.

And, do you think the poems I've posted are difficult to understand? Do you think Snyder is difficult to understand, because that's who I learned from.