It’s a thrill to once again grace the pages of The Blue Mountain Review.
As someone who runs an exceedingly modest (though sublimely designed — thanks again to 1455 Creative Director Morgan Ryan!) literary e-zine, I’m in absolute awe of Charles Clifford Brooks III and his team for the miracle of The Blue Mountain Review: a thoroughly polished & professional experience, each issue absolutely crammed with first-rate poetry, interviews, art, photography, and shout-outs to other orgs(!!); it’s an experience and your cultural sensibility is augmented every page you read. Highly recommended. Naturally, it’s a great thrill to have two pieces (and an interview about 1455 –you can find it, via the link) included in the new issue, freely available below: an excerpt of my tribute to Richard Pryor (from The Blackened Blues) and some love for Lightnin’ Hopkins (from Rhapsodies in Blue, forthcoming in 2023). Go Lit Mags and GO POETRY!!!
Lightnin’ Hopkins’s Bottle
He was Lightning in a bottle:
that’s how it happened—to him
& so many other unacknowledged
kings of the idiom we know, now
isn’t all the rage, if it ever was.
Maybe they drank excessively
to endure the indignity, or embrace
the fact that they couldn’t survive;
a little medicine to assuage the pain.
Not all of them needed the nectar;
consider Howlin’ Wolf hectoring*
the unrestrained Son House, saying
you had a chance with your life—
and holy hell if that doesn’t hit harder
than white lightning, or anything
that lightens the load, lights up
this world: that’s what art does;
what music is; what the blues are.
*Howlin’ Wolf lighting up Son House:
More Lightnin’
