If I were a drifter in town on foot or off some old Trailways, free of the lifelines and buoys that attach to lives like mine, I’d head for the bar, for the lonely woman dropping back a shaft of vodka for lunch, sword-swallowing 100 proof sadness—her reflection in the mirror smiling as […]
Ancestor.mp3
Love_Poem.mp3
Near the end of Bill Evans’ “Porgy (I Loves You, Porgy)” played live at the Village Vanguard and added as an extra track on Waltz for Debby (a session made famous by the death of the trio’s young bassist in a car crash) a woman laughs. There’s been background babble bubbling up the whole set. […]
When Sonny Rollins walked onto that bridge to play his saxophone to the wind he was stepping off the stage and into the woodshed. It wasn’t a failure of nerve, of course, nor was it only a deepening of his craft. He was breaking a voice apart and refashioning it. He was undressing his muse. […]
Sebastian Matthews discusses the genesis of his poem Coming Into Lexington, Virginia.
Sebastian Matthews discusses his composition process.