Monday, June 22, 2020
Thursday, June 4, 2020
poetry: A FALLOUT UNSPOKEN
This piece was published in the international anthology Poems from the Lockdown (UK: Willowdown) in April 2020.
A Fallout Unspoken
The air about us in
The coming of Spring
Feels a little more still now.
A bit more static,
Almost solid.
Gray, it hangs low, this
Concrete sky.
Impenetrable,
It casts silence over
The city that can’t seem to wake.
Sullen city
Doesn’t know where to turn.
Living herein,
Standing afar, it’s
Whispers lie dormant.
And the pall that holds us
We thought would arrive with
Howling boom and argent glow
Carries instead
A fallout unspoken.
-John
Pietaro
April
4, 2020, 2:35am
End
of week two, the quarantine
video/collaboration: Days of Rage
DAYS OF RAGE: video
photo by Sherry Rubel
"Days of Rage" is a
collaborative vision in every sense. When photographer/filmmaker Sherry Rubel asked me to add some
poetry, very late one night, to this project--before I'd seen or heard any of this film--I dug into
it rapidly, feeling deeply moved by the news reports of George Floyd's horrible, tragic
death. It inspired me to write two brand new works that night, both directly inspired by the
struggle; she still has the other one on hold, but for very real reasons, I hope we never need to use it.
Seeing my poem "Still Winds" close this piece as Chris
Forbes' music pushes the last ounce of fight-back into the skirmish, left me
feeling a vital part of this. Sherry and I are collaborators on two current
book projects; she is a singularly gifted photographer with a sight all her
own. And Chris, I'm proud to say I've worked with in a few ensembles. As a
music journalist, he is the pianist I vote for as most woefully under-recorded.
The woe, however, is in the ears of the listener who has not heard him. “Days
of Rage” is music of tomorrow, words of everlasting radicalism and imagery of
the never-ending battle for equity.
Visuals, concept, choreography by Sherry Rubel
Music by Chris Forbes
Poetry by John Pietaro
#justiceforgeorgefloyd #blacklivesmatter #resistance
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