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Frank Hudson @frankhudson.bsky.social · 11h

I’m working on a song version of a Eluard poem today, & here come these versions of a great Surrealist song written by an American arising in my feed. Then I think too of this one, written by another American before the 1st Surrealist Manifesto—it might be the greatest Surrealist love song:

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Frank Hudson @frankhudson.bsky.social · 14h

Here’s someone’s poem performed with music. The Parlando Project does that all the time—but this time the poem was written by my late wife around 50 years ago when she was in her 20s. frankhudson.org/2025/10/14/i...

In Another Language

I mentioned last time that I’m cleaning out things I can no longer reasonably expect to use, and found a box which included poems by my late wife. Perhaps such things are past the use test, but I a…

frankhudson.org

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Frank Hudson @frankhudson.bsky.social · 1d

That’s a sweet poem. Love the sound of “Twin iron tones.”

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Frank Hudson @frankhudson.bsky.social · 2d

Mid20th century paperback green-tinted cover of a James Joyce classic Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. To lure the reader we see a large sailing ship, a many-spired church, and a young woman just slightly hiking her skirt up as she wades in water—and all these things are observed by a tall chiseled young man looking sideways from the smithy of his soul.

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Frank Hudson @frankhudson.bsky.social · 2d

This seems to me to be a sensible overview peppered with useful detail & options.

I come to poetry from my musical composition practice often. Just as I am there, I’m resistant to rules—but I welcome ideas. You are doing the same here.

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Frank Hudson @frankhudson.bsky.social · 3d

Here's an English translation of the whole poem. It says "words by" as I'm working on music to sing Éluard's words (in English) to. One translator's note: I chose to change the gendered language ("hommes" as "men" etc) in my version partially for inclusion & partly for more echoing sounds.

Beautiful Justice (Bonne Justice)
by Paul Éluard – English translation: Frank Hudson

This is the warmest law of mankind:
from grapes we make wine,
from coal we make fire,
from kisses we make mankind.

This is the harshest law of mankind:
to remain intact – despite
wars and misery, despite
the dangers of death.

This is the sweetest law of mankind:
to change water into light,
the dream into reality,
and enemies into family.

It’s an old and new law –
one always perfecting itself
from the depths of a child’s heart
to the highest reason.

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Frank Hudson @frankhudson.bsky.social · 3d

A remarkable, questing piece.

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Reposted by Frank Hudson

poemakontsa @poemakontsa.bsky.social · 3d

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Reposted by Frank Hudson

Han VanderHart @hanvanderhart.bsky.social · 6d

A poem is an anti-capitalist machine

yes, it is broken if you try to produce with it

no, it doesn’t produce on command

the factory is closed

the worker is sleeping

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Frank Hudson @frankhudson.bsky.social · 7d

The experience of finding a cache of my late wife’s poetry & short stories while doing my own “death cleaning” yields this account, a poem, & a 2-minute musical piece. frankhudson.org/2025/10/07/e...

Exhumation

I’ve already mentioned that I’ve been dispensing with a lot of stuff, the kind of winnowing that I like to refer to as “Death Cleaning.”* This has included going through a series of stored-away box…

frankhudson.org

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Frank Hudson @frankhudson.bsky.social · 9d

I’ve now listened to the whole album—alas, this cut is the only one to raise such chills. The rest is competent, interesting at times—but not as powerful. The orchestral parts elsewhere add little—but here, along with J B Lenoir’s lyrics, your skin’s hairs stand up. Here’s Lenior’s own version:

Alabama March

YouTube video by J.B. Lenoir - Topic

youtu.be

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Frank Hudson @frankhudson.bsky.social · 9d

Whew! That’s some stuff right there.

Ethan Hein @ethanhein.bsky.social · 9d

How many blues and jazz guys studied with Iannis Xenakis? youtu.be/c7nZXMJUw0c?...

Alabama March

YouTube video by McHouston Baker - Topic

youtu.be

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Frank Hudson @frankhudson.bsky.social · 9d

Despite knowing “Love Is Strange” & the instructional books, I don’t think I’d ever heard Mickey Baker play. Thanks.

Frank Hudson @frankhudson.bsky.social · 9d

Amen from me. With a lot of the 60s-70s stuff I listen to him like it was said folks read small-town newspapers in my youth—to see if they missed anything . 😉 But even there he usually has stories I’ve never heard, & useful correctives to common myths. But with the 50s acts: so much I didn’t know.

Frank Hudson @frankhudson.bsky.social · 9d

Knowing how thorough Hickey is, I’m sure he covers everything I could say. I’m currently going through a “death cleaning” of stuff I accumulated while in my 20s & learning what little I know about music, & so Mickey Baker means this to me & to many in my generation:

Cover of one edition of a series of Mickey Baker instructional books on how to play guitar, first published in the late 1950s. Given that they were Jazz oriented, they likely puzzled many young Rock-oriented kids with their just bought catalog store guitars.

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Frank Hudson @frankhudson.bsky.social · 9d

A movie of strange effects. I saw it once on TV years ago. As the other responses here write, the film’s music has effective pop hooks. As I recall, it’s half sexy-ladies-unrealistic-adventures and half feminist saga.

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Frank Hudson @frankhudson.bsky.social · 10d

Margaret Widdemer! Once a prize-winning poet—now not even of academic interest. Since my Parlando Project deals a lot with the early Modernist era I ran into her poems—I’ve even set 3 of them to music. Here’s one: frankhudson.org/2023/12/13/t...

The Dark Cavalier

Long time readers here will know I’ve referred several times to an observation by former US Poet Laureate Donald Hall that I’ve called Donald Hall’s Law. Here’s how I’ve recorded what Hall wrote: T…

frankhudson.org

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Frank Hudson @frankhudson.bsky.social · 10d

I didn’t bring this up in the linked essay with musical performance, but I wonder if Emily Dickinson was punning “apotheosis” with “hypnosis” in this poem. frankhudson.org/2025/09/24/t...

'Tis whiter than an Indian Pipe
by Emily Dickinson

'T is whiter than an Indian pipe,
'Tis dimmer than a lace;
No stature has it, like a fog, When you approach the place.

Not any voice denotes it here, Or intimates it there;
A spirit, how doth it accost?
What customs hath the air?

This limitless hyperbole
Each one of us shall be;
'T is drama, if (hypothesis)
It be not tragedy!

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Frank Hudson @frankhudson.bsky.social · 11d

I know, but I ain’t gonna rat him out…

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Frank Hudson @frankhudson.bsky.social · 11d

I believe few read links here, but I did read the link. This dense examination of the work reviewed yields some insights—and it leads me to wonder what gym shoes Charles Taylor wears.

I accept that this joke is likely old & tired in some small circles I don’t hoop in.

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Frank Hudson @frankhudson.bsky.social · 12d

Liked this. Even I am not old enough to remember Edgar Bergen on the radio—was there another, perhaps British, famed radio-show ventriloquist?

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Frank Hudson @frankhudson.bsky.social · 12d

I thought you meant Cohen’s “Teachers” John—but on 2nd reading you meant the Stones look-at-me-I’m-a-naughty-boy “Some Girls.” With the Stones it can be hard to tell what’s a Brechtian portrait & what’s edgelord swagger.

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Frank Hudson @frankhudson.bsky.social · 12d

Reading on a tablet that makes quoting examples difficult—but you’re able to make your language strong by making your images of nouns & verbs largely unadorned with adjectives. Other poets: look at this poem & consider if your lines lean on modifiers too often, hoping it makes things more unique.

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Frank Hudson @frankhudson.bsky.social · 12d

Audacious to start with a L Cohen quote, & from his earlier more troubled work too—but your poem reaches that level when I read it. On 1st reading I took the cutting images as images of self-harm—harrowing.

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Frank Hudson @frankhudson.bsky.social · 12d

Not sure what’s up in south Minneapolis. Saw 4 police cars L&S on going down 3rd toward Lake St. earlier this hr. Then an ambulance, fire truck, & circling helicopter. Other police cruisers are driving down alleys between 3rd & Park Ave.

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