I had a kid who used to cry as a baby play Howlin Wolf Mommie play Howlin
Wolf...great listen.  Thanks for the thoughtful read.

kol tuv, Ryfkah
In a message dated 3/4/02 3:43:52 PM, [log in to unmask] writes:

<< Hi Ryfkah,
How is it I can be baffled by one poem and then utterly charmed by the next
(and, instead, say it's ... complexingly amazing)?
I baffle myself, I guess.
So, even tho I'm puzzled by the line breaks, I'm not rejecting anything of
what's going on. (I do wonder, tho, if "Michael-//angelo cafe to re-//
create genesis" is a bit jerky...). (I guess I can't yet find my body, as
well as my mouth, swaying/moving... so I've messed with the line breaks down
below!). And "strums Wailin Willy tune" shouldn't be tunes (plural)?
I also found the line "the sea parted again" a fine (yet startling)moment!
(and is the "I am" line is also a reference to Exodus - and the burning bush
- and, if it is, then it's - very, very -subtle...) (and then there's
Bethlehem...). If, however, the whole poem is working through a theology of
creation and redemption... then isn't "genesis" (as a single word) a too
vague a concept word to use (I mean it could mean "Adam & Eve and The Fall,"
but how many other stories are there in that book? And it might be
understood as a hint at any of them...)
But Howlin Wolf... Yeh! I want to be there with you!!!! (Somewhere in my
head - remembering the crackle and hiss of my old vynil, the rhythm, the
beat, the sound of the voice, the wail of that guitar - I'm on that pavement
too!!!!)
(guess I'm going to plug in the headphones, let the big black disk slide
slowly out of the sleeve, and finger-pick the dust from the stylus in a few
minutes...)
The final two lines (with their line-break) is jaw-dropping too.
And the title, for reasons I can't get to, also seems intuitively just
right.
Bob >>