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PAUL E NELSON

Paul Nelson reads a poem w/ the Jim O’Halloran Quintet 
Live at Bradner Gardens 
1730 Bradner Place South 
Seattle, Washington 98144
Sat. August 18    6:30-8:30 PM 
Jim O’Halloran, Flute
With Ben Verdier, bass;
Mark Lilly, vocals, bata, and percussion; 
Denny Stern, bata and percussion;
and Taji Hill, bata and percussion
This is a free outdoor concert (donations are appreciated).
Bring chairs or a blanket to sit on while you enjoy your picnic supper

(bring your own or food will be provided by Catering by Phyllis) along with the music

Mascara Ancestrales

This will be the third year I will have performed at Jim’s annual neighborhood concert. I met Alex Bleecker at this event one year and reconnected with other friends and acquaintances the previous year. Jim is a consummate professional and we have already rehearsed. He was doing a percussion-heavy Cuban thing this year, so when asked to perform with them, I whipped out a poem from my unpublished manuscript Kozer Variations entitled Guanabo Beach. This is a poem written in Cuba after my first visit to the island in 2005. It was part of an ancestral quest and the realizations came to me fast and furious during my visit. (My Mother was born in Holguin in 1937.) And, like all of the Kozer Variations, these poems each have their counterpart in Stet. I used Kozer’s poems as starting points for my own composition, based on his content (or jumping off from it) and then fitting the poem’s form with memories and images form my own experiences. Of course my visit to Cuba was incredibly powerful and life-changing and I hope the poem gets some of this across. Performing it with Jim’s band should be an amazing experience.

I hope to see you Saturday.

 


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American Sentences

N.27.11 – Ma helps me translate Crispy Pimp into Spanish: Chulo Tostado.
2.03.12 – Bumper sticker, W. Irving – Chicago: “Beer & Meat & Rock n Roll.”
2.15.12 – In the dream he’s making my family tree out of skeletons.
3.04.12 – PCC car lot: can’t swing a smudge stick w/o hitting a prius.
4.27.12 – Only Seattle: “Daily cyber deal – milk steaming latté art class.”
5.06.12 – Pop talking about Santiago’s screwball: I guess it just didn’t screw!
5.17.12 – It is not a scene out of Apocalypse Now – it’s our p-patch.
5.20.12 – Translating Deviled Eggs into Spanish harder than “Huevos de Lucifer.”
6.11.12 – One daughter drinks formula, one root beer floats w/ whipped cream-flavored vodka.
6.27.12 – The next guy who asks: “Are you the Grandfather? – gets a cane in the shin.