Body and Soul — A Poem By Rich Levy, Revisited   6 comments

Rich LevyLone Star College – Montgomery Library, Writers In Performance Series. — Images and video by kenne

Rich LevySeptember 17, 2009, poet Rich Levy was the presenter at the first fall 2009 Writers In Performance at Lone Star College – Montgomery. As I had done for about a year, I recorded his reading, which took place in the college library. Levy earned his MFA at the Iowa Writers Workshop and has been the executive director of Inprint, a nonprofit literary arts organization in Houston, Texas, since 1995.

Several of the poem he read were from his 2009 book of poems, “Why Me?” One of the poems that impressed me was titled, “Body and Soul” after Coleman Hawkins’ recording — “. . . the hurling way in which their talk moves, the way his nostrils flare as he tries with an occasional false shyness to avert his glance makes me think of Coleman Hawkins’ 1939 recording of Body and Soul, the one that took the world’s breath away, . . .  “

This is poetry that possesses the feelings that makes Blues and Jazz the most human of all music, therefore existential.

kenne

(I first posted the video September 19, 2009.)

6 responses to “Body and Soul — A Poem By Rich Levy, Revisited

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  1. Good afternoon! Good post.

    Sent from my MOTOROLA ATRIX™ HD on AT&T

    Becoming is Superior to Being wrote:

    kenneturner posted: “Lone Star College – Montgomery Library, Writers In Performance Series. — Images and video by kenne September 17, 2009, poet Rich Levy was the presenter at the first fall 2009 Writers In Performance at Lone Star College – Montgomery. As I had done for ab”

  2. The spoken word and mellow music – excellent, thank you.

  3. Kenne, thanks for the postings. I got here trying to get some background on Rich Levy, who I will see read tonight at Kaboom Bookstore in the Heights.
    Once here,your slideshow was lagniappe.

  4. Reblogged this on Becoming is Superior to Being and commented:

    Listen to the words and the music. — kenne

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