Blue Bonnet Poetry Slam Winner, Conroe, Texas, April 2004 — Image by kenne
Archive for the ‘Conroe Texas’ Tag
The Power Of The Spoken Word Leave a comment
“Keep’n the Blues Alive” — Ten Years Out Leave a comment
Member of Bryan Lee’s Band Taking A Break Outside the Corner Pub (June 2, 2007), Conroe, Texas — Image by kenne
Computer Art by kenne
“I always thought that one man, the lone balladeer
with a guitar, could blow a whole army off the stage,
if he knew what he was doing. I’ve seen it happen.”
— Bob Dylan
Share this:
Conroe, Texas Leave a comment
(March 2004) — Image by kenne
A damp gulf coast night
on a slow Tuesday evening —
Rover on the move.
— kenne
Share this:
“Snodgrass Is Walking Through the Universe” Leave a comment
David Parsons, W.D. Snodgrass and Kenne Turner (Conroe, Texas, 1999)
In 1999 I had the honor of spending an evening with the poet, W.D. Snodgrass, first at a reading at the Conroe library, finishing off the evening at the Hofbrau Steaks. Since then I have continued to enjoy reading the personal nature of his poems, and he will forever remain in my heart — “Snodgrass is walking through the universe.”
kenne
THESE TREES STAND . . .
These trees stand very tall under the heavens.
While they stand, if I walk, all stars traverse
This steep celestial gulf their branches chart.
Though lovers stand at sixes and at sevens
While civilizations come down with the curse,
Snodgrass is walking through the universe.
I can’t make any world go around your house.
But note this moon. Recall how the night nurse
Goes ward-rounds, by the mild, reflective art
Of focusing her flashlight on her blouse.
Your name’s safe conduct into love or verse;
Snodgrass is walking through the universe.
Your name’s absurd, miraculous as sperm
And as decisive. If you can’t coerce
One thing outside yourself, why you’re the poet!
What irrefrangible atoms whirl, affirm
Their destiny and form Lucinda’s skirts!
She can’t make up your mind. Soon as you know it,
Your firmament grows touchable and firm.
If all this world runs battlefield or worse,
Come, let us wipe our glasses on our shirts:
Snodgrass is walking through the universe.
—W.D. Snodgrass
Share this:
Poetry Slam Winner 2 comments
s
Bluebonnet Poetry Slam Winner (April 24, 2004) — Grunge Art by kenne
Based on the premise that a good poem deserves a good performance, in November 1984 a Chicago construction worker, Marc (Slam Papi) Smith, started an open mic night at the Get Me High lounge called the “Monday Night Poetry Reading.” This was the beginning of the Poetry Slam movement. The signature of Mark’s led slams was the audience yelling,”SO WHAT?!” It was his way of declaring that everyone in the room was just as important for participating as he was for starting the movement.
In the early 2000’s, Carol and Stan Schneider started the Bluebonnet Poetry Slam in Conroe, Texas. Like in Chicago, in the beginning the Bluebonnet Poetry Slam took place in saloons in the Conroe area, and yes, we brought in Marc to conduct the slams. The slams became so popular, the organizers began to work in conjunction with the Friends of Conroe to schedule the annual event at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds where 300-400 attended the event, which attracted some of the best slam poets from around the country. In 2001 & 2002 the Bluebonnet Slam winner was National Poetry Slam champion, Taylor Mali. (See Taylor preform in video below.)
In time the Bluebonnet Poetry Slam died as a result of it’s popularity and moving out of a more intimate saloon setting. Poetry slams must have that “SO WHAT?” element where it can give poetry a stage to say what poets say is valuable, even when we don’t reach the complete potential of a given poem. Slams bring poetry back to its origins, an art experienced through oration and performance, rather than strictly in print.
In a true sense of the word, poetry slams are grunge poetry.
kenne
Share this:
Just A Little Country Blues 1 comment
Hayes Carll, Heritage Place, Conroe, Texas (August 2, 2007) — Computer art by kenne
“I’m gonna holler and I’m gonna scream
I’m gonna get me some mescaline
She brings me roses and a place to lean
A drunken poets dream”
— Hayes Carll
Share this:
We All Need The Blues 1 comment
Good Things Come And Go Leave a comment
Texas Art Gallery in Conroe, Texas (December 2002) — Image by kenne
An art gallery
On the corner in Conroe —
Joy to eyes and ears.
Photos on the walls,
Lights softens listener’s mood —
Music captured once.
Good things come and go,
So say minstrels’ melodies —
Sometimes I move on.
— kenne
Share this:
Corner Pub Still Life 4 comments
Corner Pub Still Life (2008)– Image by kenne
“The secret of a good old age is simply an honorable pact with solitude.”
. . . from One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel García Márquez
Share this:
My Tongue Is My Choir Singing To My Heart And Soul — Robert Pinsky’s Samurai Song 4 comments
Poetry lovers at a Walt Whitman Reading, the Corner Pub, Conroe, Texas — Image by kenne
That which eludes this verse and any verse,
Unheard by sharpest ear, unform’d in clearest eye or cunningest mind,
Nor lore nor fame, nor happiness nor wealth,
And yet the pulse of every heart and life throughout the world
incessantly,
Which you and I and all pursuing ever ever miss,
Open but still a secret, the real of the real, an illusion,
Costless, vouchsafed to each, yet never man the owner,
Which poets vainly seek to put in rhyme, historians in prose,
Which sculptor never chisel’d yet, nor painter painted,
Which vocalist never sung, nor orator nor actor ever utter’d, 10
Invoking here and now I challenge for my song.
— from “A Riddle Song” by Walt Whitman
If you are one of those who think poetry is boring and you can’t relate to it, I suggest you read Robert Pinski’s poem, “Samural Song.” Then watch Akron/Family‘s performance of Pinski’s beautiful poem.
I love poetry. It sings to me — my tongue is my choir singing to my heart and soul.
kenne
Samurai Song
When I had no roof I made
Audacity my roof. When I had
No supper my eyes dined.
When I had no eyes I listened.
When I had no ears I thought.
When I had no thought I waited.
When I had no father I made
Care my father. When I had
No mother I embraced order.
When I had no friend I made
Quiet my friend. When I had no
Enemy I opposed my body.
When I had no temple I made
My voice my temple. I have
No priest, my tongue is my choir.
When I have no means fortune
Is my means. When I have
Nothing, death will be my fortune.
Need is my tactic, detachment
Is my strategy. When I had
No lover I courted my sleep.
Related articles
- Robert Pinsky: Selected Poems (3quarksdaily.com)
- Robert Pinsky on Poems that Inspire and Endure (radioboston.wbur.org)
- Pinsky’s ‘Singing School’: Poetry For The Verse Averse : NPR (joshuakeiter.com)
- Pinsky’s ‘Singing School’: Poetry For The Verse Averse (wnyc.org)
- Pinsky’s ‘Singing School’: Poetry For The Verse Averse (npr.org)
- Poetry Sounds: Robert Pinsky, “The Shirt” (tatestreethighsociety.com)
- So Much Good Stuff (melissawiley.com)
- Contacting Poets and Choosing (Tuesing) Blues (mnemerica.wordpress.com)
Share this:
Body and Soul — A Poem By Rich Levy, Revisited 6 comments
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 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.)
Share this:
Capturing the Word — Christmas Eve Alone 1 comment
Image by kenne
The original photo was taken at the Corner Pub in Conroe, Texas during the Christmas season. It was a merry time, but this image of one of the band members out of Austin, on his cell phone gave a different image.
Christmas Eve Alone
In the shadows of street lights
Outside the courthouse walls
Mused as they access the night
Leaning against the door’s edge
Not sure if I should go in
Or stay out and take the pledge
Gazing into the dark pub
Not penetrating the door
Peppered with eyes in the club
My shadow touching each eye
Knowing only my dark image
Masked in a fear of reply
So, lonely are the shadows
Confined by all nearby objects
Blurring in with all that glows
kenne
Share this:
Ruffin & Parsons Texas Poetry Shoot-Out — Revisited Leave a comment
Now that Montgomery County has two Texas poet laureates (Paul Ruffin, 2009 & Dave Parsons, 2011), I share again a video I produced and posted on this blog, August 7, 2009, of the Texas Poetry Shoot-Out at “Good Books In The Woods,” Spring, Texas.
The event, a poetic shoot-out , paired two Montgomery County poets, good friends and mutual supporters, which carries even more significance now that Parsons has become the most recent poet laureate of Texas. Southeast Texas is the new hub of poetry in Texas.
And on that note. . .
the event Dave Parsons began eighteen years ago, The Annual Walt Whitman Birthday Celebration will be at Lone Star College – Montgomery, is Thursday, May 12th, featuring Pulitzer winner and iconic American author, C. K. Williams. As always, the afternoon campus event will be followed by “The Gathering of Poets,” 7:00 p.m. at the Corner Pub in Conroe.
kenne
Images & video by kenne
Share this:
Mean Gene Kelton @ The Corner Pub — August 2008 7 comments
Joni, Joy and Gene December 31, 2008 — Image by kenne
On an August, 2008, Saturday evening, at the Corner Pub in Conroe, Texas, I was photographing and videoing Mean Gene Kelton and The Die Hards. I had several video clips, from which I put two in the first video I ever edited. After making one movie, my inexperience caused me to lose all the clips. On several occasions since then, I have tried to find the old clips. Meanwhile, I misfiled the movie. But as fate would have it, yesterday while looking for some other video files, I found this 2 1/2-year old video.
Since the passing of Gene in late December, this video is dedicated to the memory of Mean Gene Kelton, one of Houston’s great blues & rock singer/songwriters, and all the Die Hards everywhere. We miss you, Gene!
kenne
Share this:
They Call It Stormy Monday — Mr. V with Mean Gene Kelton & The Die Hards — Revisited 4 comments
Corner Pub In Conroe, TX — Image by kenne
(First Posted, January 2009)
Anyone that is a Blues lover in Houston, Texas knows about KPFT’s “Blues On The Move” Sunday morning show, hosted by “The Love Doctor,” Mr. V (James Vaughn) and his lovely wife, Mrs. “V” (Jo). wherever live Blues is happening in Houston, it’s not uncommon to see the “V’s” in the house, and Saturday night at the Corner Pub in Conroe was no exception. This time the “V’s” were there to see Mean Gene Kelton and the Diehards, along with many of the original “Friends of The Blues — Montgomery County.” (FOBulous!)
As usual, I was taking some photos and when Mr. V went on stage, I pulled out my little video camera. (I’m still working on the best way to upload my HD video to YouTube, so I’m still not pleased with the quality.) This was a reunion, of sorts, from last year Mr. V’ 69th birthday and in Memphis.
The song Mr. V does is Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday’s Just As Bad) by legendary and great, T. Bone Walker.
kenne
P.S. We miss you Gene!
![Ebo Pepinensis [Philodromidae] 30x](https://i0.wp.com/live.staticflickr.com/65535/55416272699_ed6c9abbf5_s.jpg?w=1000&ssl=1 "Ebo Pepinensis [Philodromidae] 30x")
We all need the blues
To better understand life
All its ups and downs.
— kenne
Share this:
Like this: