Tuesday, December 30, 2014

a good thought for whatever your art...

"It's not about perfection, it's about connection." -musician's motto

jack is a morkie, he is my sidekick, this is my favorite sidekick photo...


Monday, December 29, 2014

stars fell on alabama...


Saturday, December 27, 2014

poetry quick...

Poetry
Quick studies of Luncheons on the Grass
In blues and whites and greens
Taupe, blacks and tans
We've talked about this for years

In the wave of paper lanterns

There
I saw
Your painting of a bird,
A perfect bird on a cobblestone hill

Wing and flight, the road the store the night
On
To
A
Star,
On
To
A
Picnic

Thursday, December 25, 2014

sailing home...














Trees and train whistles,
garland and gulls ~
sailing home.

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

later, havana!...

1958
Came out of Georgia
Swamp road
Swamp store
Swamp night
Highway lights like the aurora borealis way off,
Way off
Miami!
Way off!
1958
Miami!
At last, at last and on
To Havana
Well,
Later
After
Driving up the coast to Naples,
I will go to Havana later,
Way off -
Later, Havana!

On my list.

Sunday, December 21, 2014

barry manilow singin' with the big bands...

Barry Manilow singin' with the big bands
Not jazz!
But at the beginning of Christmas week
And a light snow on the ground
And coffee made and drinking
Okay!
Just a dusting on the deck and the deck rails
And the grass
And sticking in the trees
I won't shovel
Or even sweep
I'll put Dave Brubeck and Paul Desmond on now
The Duets 1975
And Miles and Chet and Monk later
?
I wonder if there is snow on the granite seats
And the orange clam boxes
In the sea smoke and the dawn

At the Paramount in forty-three

Thursday, December 18, 2014

the walk...

The walk
Regal with a spring a lilt
A bassline reminiscent of Mingus
Like
A
Song
The perfect float on cobblestone
Avenue
Street
Village
Square
1950s M.O.
Jimmy Ryan's, the Vanguard, Kerouac
And
Killarney,
A willow in the mist
The walk,
The step
Just the slightest;
Beating elegant against the wind out of Oyster Bay.

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

lady agrees 'new pencils' sketch...


Tuesday, December 16, 2014

horses and highways...

Voice
Liquid
Some jazz, guitar,
Story!
Song!
Lyric!

Horses and highways.

the best season twice...

If you write, you do it
Deliberately
Even though only a few words
But
Deliberately
As
52nd Street rings
Furnaces heat, fandangos
&
Airplanes fly
Long songs,
Long plans
!
A Portrait in April
I paint portraits you know
Or are on
?
And the unkind blow to a friend yesterday,
A really good person,

Oh yes,

The best season,
The best season.

Monday, December 15, 2014

redux masai watercolor...


Saturday, December 13, 2014

skies some of my favorites...

Winter sunset
The color of April, lavender and butter
Color
Skies some of my favorites
Those
And the black nights over Johnson Bay
Flowers of light everywhere
Straight up

Straight ahead


*inspired by Kat Gang city photo.

Friday, December 12, 2014

toast too...

A small pad of paper
Yellow lined
Nothing on it!
So
Far
Just sounds, coffee cars furnace
The coffee tastes good
I
Imagine
Toast too

And
Orange
Marmalade

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

birthday art by kimberly...


flyin' home...

Writing cliff walks and high benches
Battalions of
High paths in the snow and rock

Shorelines sun and sea
Water on the breakwater
Water on the clam boxes too

Orange rum and poetry waltzing on the tracks
Flyin' home

the portraits of last summer...


Monday, December 8, 2014

monday a day song...

Monday a day song
painting luncheons on the grass -
A Manet Winter.

Sunday, December 7, 2014

ny lady...


Saturday, December 6, 2014

no mirrors...


a kimberly haiku...

County Line Way Out
Between Now And His Trumpet
Sunsets Marsala

Friday, December 5, 2014

winter...

Coral leaves
Sand
And blue,
A
Breath

Not the winter,
We thought

haiku...

lady gaga at
the newfoundland café blue,
jazz and the lady.

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

biopic ~ something about that atlantic city motel...

The Atlantic City motel
That Atlantic City motel
Trying to remember, not the name of it, can't
I remember the stucco color of it
Orange and green and some red, on the beach
Yellow beach grass, whitish sand
Purple sand
Hot just the air conditioning of the ocean
And all the friendliness of Papa's House
The painting
It is early 4:48 A.M. and I am
Looking at the Atlantic City motel, green curtains blowing
In from the ocean, sunny
Two pictures hanging crooked in the single room
Single bath
Two beds chair and desk, TV rabbit ears, ordinary
And the ocean sounds near, and people sounds, kid sounds...

Old mahogany color radio and music and breezy night
Hackney's seafood
Off the Atlantic ocean
Big bands
She and roast beef sandwiches on the boardwalk
The whole place had a Cuba ring
I missed going there a year or two before
Havana
I've always regretted that
But
That Atlantic City motel
Something about that Atlantic City motel
I was in the Army
Fort Dix

viking crow hommage to city witch's photo...


steamin' with the miles davis quintet...

Viking ships in perfect formation
In the picture on my wall
Smells of old movies
On my street
Gray reeds and coral flowers
Airplanes
Train whistles at the Springdale Crossing
2 A.M.
6 A.M.
A long night at Charlie's Gone By
And tossed
Steamin' With The Miles Davis Quintet

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

happy birthday, michelle...


Sunday, November 30, 2014

listening to the great bebop crowd...

On fire
Burning
Listening to the great bebop crowd
Chan's
Live
Saxophones
Dick Johnson
Bap! Bap!
Greg Abate
Bap!
Bap! Bap!
Todd Baker bass
Greg Wardson piano
Gary Johnson drums
Bap! Bap!
Bap!
Listening to the great bebop crowd
In the car
In the car
Yuh!

behind the movie house marquee...

Behind the movie house marquee
Portraits
Garbo

I
Bacall
Bogie

Facades
Along the Street of Violins

In the movie

i had forgotten...

I had forgotten the train whistle
That whistle
Clack and engine clack on the rail
The crossings
Emily
Paul Desmond makes a go at it at the Monterey Jazz Festival 1975
Clack
Clack

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

moonlights and sonatas...


Friday, November 21, 2014

gina on the air!...


6 o' clock in the morning in jackson...

6 o' clock in the morning
A snow on the movie house marquee across the street
In the rosas in front of my door
A light
Snow morning in November
A snow sky all day?
6 o' clock in the morning in Jackson
A sparrow bumped my door


*written 11/20/14.

michael murphy piano and guitar in my jazz sketchbook...


in a piece of storied black marble...

In a piece of storied black marble
Quarried
In Maine near Paris
Black, veined with white intertwined
Pebbles traveled from lands and worlds
And the still red berries
Pavement
And stuff
The dawn clusters of trees and wreaths
Clouds and fishing people in that told story
In the marble
In Maine
;
Told by sirens and a muse afar

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

jack stevens charcoal by his sister sally stevens...


and the heart...

And the heart
In a snow in a sun
The rails
West
East
And the heart
Clack clack

Spoke
To a wind to a star

in newport...


Tuesday, November 18, 2014

2 circles, owl-esque...




"When the owl sings, the night is silent."
- Charles de Leusse

Thursday, November 13, 2014

classic gerry mulligan...


redux masai watercolor...


herbie hancock in a basquiat mood...


and there are dishes to be done...

It is 5 o'clock in the morning
The moon a dot
Straight up above my head
In a cloud and a star
Another star and another star
Around Orion's belt
On the bay
Along the peak of the movie house roof
Quiet and restful out there
In here the furnace is on
And there are dishes to be done
On the FM station Sinatra sings
All The Way
It is 5 o'clock in the morning
Those stars all the way
Around Orion's belt

tom herbert saxophone in my jazz sketchbook...


Tuesday, November 11, 2014

CDR...


from Gardens of Stone by Nicholas C. Proffitt...

'Goody' Nelson:  Well, here's to us and those like us.

Clell Hazard:  Damn few left.

lake street dive in the studio in a basquiat mood...


yesterday morning...

It is six o' clock in the morning

Seven o'clock now
And there is a moonprint over Davis's Studio,
The bay,
The breakwater,
And the bakery
And the chocolatier's

A blue sky
In Maine

Yesterday morning

Monday, November 10, 2014

Sunday, November 9, 2014

the village...


pat painting the village...


Saturday, November 8, 2014

lady...


splendid things...

The running crows across the marsh
Along,
Along
The sea the sounds of splendid things

Bird
Hawk
Sweets

Running bodies and souls under a tent
Lighted by paper party lamps
And rocking masts on the bay

Splendid things

In our past


*inspired by Kimberly's 'cherish' painting

Friday, November 7, 2014

the art of kimberly ashby, cherish...

the poetry of kimberly ashby, cherish your past...

Sunsets
Off
The
Bay
Lime
And
Argyle
Tones
And
Tunes
To
Dance
Her Raven
Shows
With
A
Ribbon
R
E
D
A Key
To
Unlock Her Dreams
Fly
Fly
My
Raven
Cherish Your Past
Always,

Thursday, November 6, 2014

Monday, November 3, 2014

picasso tree blue...

but gone...

Places
Were
Now
But Gone
In the percolating coffee before dawn

The
Picasso Tree
Blue

The song a silence and a church stare
Sanctuary and a gauzy window there

Felt

Sunday, November 2, 2014

chet williamson blues in green...


nancy wilson 'when october goes'...


Saturday, November 1, 2014

james moody (1925-2010)...


Wednesday, October 29, 2014

deveber...


martha wainwright sketch...


boots mussulli (1915-1967)...


Monday, October 27, 2014

in a matisse mood pencil and eraser painting...



martha wainwright acrylic...



"You know people always ask me how I describe my music.  First of all I tell them that's their job and then that also one day I hope to have things referred to as Martha Wainwright-esque."

Sunday, October 26, 2014

mike renzi plays 'misty' for betty...


richard blanco inaugural poet...



this night in fall...

The bay
This night in fall
The rosas still and dying
Until
April
No great sky like the one over the Hudson
A few days ago
Morning
This night in fall a red red line over the bay
On the horizon
Sunset
Now

image sketched finished...


the calm morning...

The calm morning
Like ago
A wind firing across the bay
In the middle of winter
In the middle of the night

And the world was all right
For now

Friday, October 24, 2014

image sketched...


Thursday, October 23, 2014

painting and poetic have left...

Painting and Poetic have left
Like the sunflower as tall as a tree
Is going to

It is October
After September

Sunday, October 19, 2014

in the morning the house...

In the morning the house
After the rain last night
The light blue sky over it
Breezy
And red streaks
A bay still asleep
And a towering sunflower
Like a tree
There on the corner
Of the hill
Of the meadow
Of the sea

Just waiting for April

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

1957 (the poem)...

1957
Jacket, tie, tux
Oh bow tie solid satin
Jazz
Boats buoys
Cats and a 17 foot Herreshoff
Marion
Falmouth
Bars and Heights
Newport
Tennis and time
Mahalia Jackson Gerry Mulligan
  George Shearing
Tennis and time summertime
Jazz the
Summer of '51 Stan Kenton
And
Machito!
Gone With the Wind, like that Kenton band
And
'57
And that summer of '51

Monday, October 13, 2014

redux 1957...


portrait quixotic...


the hills and halos...

Soft swing

Violins, a piano, keys and notes
Just one of those things...

Peggy Lee! Peggy Lee!

Dark drives under the moon over
  the hills and halos

Long roads in the pages of old books

And a trumpet sings soft
  muted

Harry Edison! Harry Edison!

Sweets

harry 'sweets' edison (1915-1999)...