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"And,
in the dawn, armed with a burning patience, we shall enter the splendid
cities." -- Arthur Rimbaud
Thursday, November 11, 2010
An old secret promise
This past
Tuesday evening I went to hear poets Timothy Young and Thomas
Smith read from their work. It was, in part, a publication reading for
recent books by each of the poets: Herds of Bears Surround
Us by Timothy Young (Red Dragonfly Press, 2010), and The Foot of the Rainbow
by Thomas R. Smith (Red Dragonfly Press, 2010). It was one of the great
poetry readings I've been to in many years.
I've known Tim Young as
a friend since sometime in the early 1980's. I've known Thomas less well
perhaps, though we've been friendly acquaintances and poet colleagues for
upwards of twenty years. The reading took place at The Loft, a literary
center in downtown Minneapolis, in a large
renovated warehouse space that also houses the Coffee Gallery, the offices
of Milkweed Editions, and the Minnesota
Center for Book Arts.
Whenever I've walked into the building (on a busy truck route on the
northern edge of downtown Minneapolis), the first thing I notice is the
pervasive smell of fresh-sawed wood, which seems never to have left the
place since the renovation was done.
Maybe two dozen people
showed up to hear the reading, a decent turnout for two poets not graced
(or shrouded) with corporate grants and sponsorship. Lively excitement
played around the room. Someone from the Loft staff made some brief
remarks, and then Scott King, publisher of Red Dragonfly Press, introduced
both of the readers. (By way of full disclosure, I should perhaps mention
here that Red Dragonfly Press is also the publisher of several of my books
of poems.) The reading itself took place in the Loft's
main theater, bare brick walls and bare wood floors and free-standing
chairs, well lit, with a podium and mike in front.
Tim Young read first,
for a half hour or so, then Thomas Smith read, again for about a half hour;
then, following the plan they'd devised, they took turns each reading one poem,
a poem rodeo (as Tim called it), trading poems back and forth for 15 or 20
minutes to finish the evening. Tim's style of reading was fairly
straight-from-the-hip, gritty and largely unsentimental though deeply felt.
Thomas's manner was softer, quieter, reflective and touched with sadness. I
felt both of them connecting warmly with the audience.
I'll quote a few
passages from the poems of Tim and Thomas, to give some of the flavor of
their work. All quoted passages here are from the two books noted above.
From the poem "Snow
Has Fallen," by Tim Young:
I watch the chickadees flit
from stem to dead stem.
They pick at weed seeds
and sing against the cold.
A chickadee warrior
is the bravest of all.
He defends his kin
against any large thing.
He is steadfast -- courageous --
And in the worst winter he won't flee.
Gray, white and black, he's beauty
with only three tones of his color. [...]
[...] Even in a blizzard he finds a
refuge.
He tucks himself in and waits
for what is impossible to defy,
to pass.
I've watched the gray day
arrive out of black dawn.
Snow begins again. The lawn's white.
The sky's white, and if it weren't for
the gray trees and chickadees,
I wouldn't know where earth stops
and sky begins.
And from "Darkness
in the Rear View Mirror" by Thomas Smith:
New snow dusts its veil over the freeway.
Moist air diffuses the suburban glow.
Windshield wipers flap their wings,
flightless birds.
A semi studded with carnival bulbs
flashes quickly behind, then showboats
past.
Comforting shadows return, the dashboard
dials brighten, the rear view mirror lays
its black bar across the field of vision.
Ahead of me, safely distant, tail-lights
lantern a faint reddish trail to follow.
Many of the poems that
both poets read were poems of the natural world, infused with the lakes and
streams and fields of the northern plains, the far-reaching trees of the
north woods, living creatures tiny and gargantuan. Poems also of deep human
pain and want, of the great opening and sustaining of love.
Tim Young, from the poem
"The Moment is Near":
Today, Ruth,
who's dying of cancer,
moved into Mary's house --
her hospice for the end. [...]
[...] The snow-field run-off plunges
beneath Mary's driveway bridge
and in minutes that water
will spill into the Big River.
Along the backwater
more than fifty eagles perch,
prepared for a long flight north.
As soon as the last black ice
dissolves on the lake
they'll fly to their high, stick-nests
in the mysterious white pine groves
we've only heard of.
And the moment is near.
And then Thomas Smith,
from "A Rite of Spring," a short poem about a garden club sale
held the Armory building in a small town:
Faces, fresh and airy as the flats of
geraniums and zinnias, a partial
reply to the song of Pete Seeger, ninety
years old last week. Maybe someday,
at least a little because of him, the
armories
of this world "gone to flowers every
one."
Tim Young talked a
little about having worked for several years at the juvenile
prison at Red Wing, Minnesota, helping inmate with learning life skills,
moral judgement, and anger management. It can be easy to forget that these
things have real weight in the world, quite apart from the psychological
and sociological language the prison bureaucracy uses to talk about them.
Tim mentioned that for about five years, most of the teenage boys he worked
with were sex offenders, and had themselves been victims of abuse (sexual
and otherwise). One of the sections of Tim's book is made up of poems
coming out of his experience working at the prison. From the poem "An
Inmate Weeps on His Math Test":
A week into his recidivist sentence,
something's moving inside him,
through his mind,
through the fisty muscle in his throat,
through his tear ducts,
then over his shivering lips.
I slide a box of tissues to him.
My work is to be nearby,
correct his tests, send my words
halfway across his table,
and wait.
I think of the elections
of last week, the hysterical ignorance and repugnant cynical greed
manifesting into precinct maps and vote counts, polyester jackets and
prepared speeches, money changing hands in backrooms and cheerleader smiles
for the cameras. Among the hordes of opportunist hacks and
deal-cutting operatives abroad on the land, could any among them comprehend
a moment of real human vulnerability such as is described in the lines
above?
During the reading
Thomas Smith mentioned, at one point, mentioned the elections, the frequent
conversations he'd had in the past week where people kept talking about the
election results. "The fact is," he said, with deep quiet
sadness, "that as a result of the elections last week, people will
die, around the world and here in this country."
From Thomas's poem
"A Homemade World":
Many people salvage bricks
from their childhood homes.
They nail the old framed
prejudices above the fireplace.
They can't see out their windows
because they've recycled the smoked
glass of fear. Even their
books keep out light.
If you build with only
the things you've made your own,
a friendliness toward living
warms you like a patchwork quilt.
If you build your world-house
with toxic cast-offs, there's some
poison everywhere you turn.
And if you build your country
with bombs and oil instead of
wheat and schools -- you can't help it,
you'll just go on electing
Disaster as your president.
The poems and books of
Tim Young and Thomas Smith include, among their many tunings and textures,
moments and movements of grace and tenderness, intimacy and embracing
light. I'll finish here with passages from one more poem from each poet.
First, from Tim Young's poem "An Evening So Beautiful":
An evening so beautiful even the moon has
envy.
She throws off her see-through gown
and so begins our love affair in the
garden.
Where the rainbow faded at sunset
new stars emerge the way
lavender sprouts from the soil. [...]
[...] then our hearts spin, slowly,
in the shadow of a blooming catalpa.
Its white petals drop
like warm pearls from the lips
of our private goddess.
A wide-eyed doe, slender to her flank,
flicks her tail, flutters her lashes,
then bounds away with the grace of a
swaying lily.
And Thomas Smith, from
the poem "The Return," which begins with a quote from the Koran,
"Unto Him all things return."
Burning clear with all
heat and strength befitting
the day of its longest dominion,
the sun, boiling from that
high nest of foliage,
lit a silver swath
of sparkling, dew-bent
grasses all the way down
the drenched slope.
So brilliant was that carpet
of light the sun unrolled
down the hill to our feet,
we stopped where we were
and sat a while in pure wonder.
And I remembered an old
secret promise, deemed
unwise to speak, though
who could deny it,
seeing these folk, humble
yet adorned, nodding together
on their way back to the sun?
And soon enough we got up
again and wandered on
into whatever we had to do
on that day, though not unchanged,
having accompanied a little distance
on the morning road of their return
those illuminated pilgrims.
***
Tim Young's website is here. Thomas Smith's website is here. The links in the first
paragraph above go to the Red Dragonfly Press webpages for each of the
books quoted from in this blogpost; the main page for the Red Dragonfly
Press website is here. I
invite you to go and look.
# posted by Lyle Daggett @ 9:28 PM 
Comments:
Thank you so much for this
wonderful post. I am not familiar with the work of these poets but given
what you've shared here - and their words are marvelous - I will visit
their sites and look for their books. Theirs is poetry I could read all
day. . . and be deeply moved.
# posted by  Maureen :
1:37 PM, November 12, 2010
I attended the reading and find
that you evoke the setting and tone of the evening with precision, as well
as giving salient examples of each poet's work. Thanks for this fine post.
# posted by Mary F. :
11:24 PM, November 17, 2010
NEW, NEW, NEW, NEW!!!
PULSE on OA2 Jazz Records
Daniel Cavanagh and the Jazz Emporium Big Band
with Timothy Young’s poetry and narration.
Dan
Cavanagh makes his recording debut as a leader with this striking big-band
date. One of the challenges young bandleaders face is tackling a program of
original material with supporting musicians who also aren't widely known,
but Cavanagh quickly makes it apparent that he not only writes challenging
and interesting charts, but his superb players give their all in tackling
them, while the leader takes relatively few solos for himself at the piano.
"Having Built in Deeper Water" is a majestic opener, a modern
mini-suite with superb solos by soprano saxophonist Randy Hamm and
trumpeter Scott Harrell. The tense "Tunnel Vision" is full of
rich color=, while the ominous "Black Rattle" showcases drummer Stockton Helbing and
Harrell. The three-part "Mississippi Ecstasy" is a valiant effort
to blend jazz with Timothy Young's poetry, though spoken words mixed with
jazz remain an acquired taste, at least Young is speaking rather than
screaming, while his poetry is well above what passes for it on other jazz
CDs. This auspicious debut should open doors for Dan Cavanagh………… ALLMUSIC.COM
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:wxfuxzukldfe<=a>
Tracks:
1 HAVING BUILT IN DEEPER WATER 7:22
2 PULSE 5:15
3 MISSISSIPPI ECSTASY, Movement 1 3:10
4 MISSISSIPPI ECSTASY, Movement 2 5:40
5 MISSISSIPPI ECSTASY, Movement 3 5:57
6 TUNNEL VISION 6:00
7 NORTH SOUTH 7:12
8 BLACK RATTLE 8:30
9 A TIME OF RECKONING 7:33
Dan Cavanagh Jazz Emporium Big Band
(saxes)
Tim Ishii Randy Hamm
Ed Peterson Steve Owen Glenn Kostur
(trumpets)
John Adler Scott Harrell Ken Edwards
Alcedrick Todd Rick Stitzel
(trombones)
Steve Wiest Jonathan Woodrow Steven Dunn Matt Ingman
Dan Cavanagh (conducting and piano/B3)
James Miley (conducting and piano) Dave Hagedorn (vibes)
Brian Mulholland (bass) Stockton Helbing
(drums) Jim Yakas (percussion)
Timothy Young (poetry and narration)
Composer and arranger Dan Cavanagh pulls together
a creative ensemble of musicians from around the country for his new
release, "Pulse." A runner up in the 2005 ASCAP Young Jazz
Composer's Competition, Cavanagh's writing & arranging covers wide expanses
through this big band concept album, often interspersed by the readings and
poetry of Timothy Young. With shades of Jim McNeely, and hints of Bob
Florence, Cavanagh's writing is engaging from the very beginning as he
captures the spirit of the music with a patience and maturity that fits
neatly in the continuum of modern large ensemble composers, from Gil Evans
through Maria Schneider. Cavanagh is currently Assistant Professor of Music
at the University of Texas at Arlington.
A NEW RELEASE—Now Available—SPOKEN WORD WITH MUSIC
SNOW HAS FALLEN by YOUNG & YATA
Sample now at http://cdbaby.com/cd/youngandyata
Early Praise for SNOW HAS FALLEN
In a truly artistic fashion, Yata
and Young weave a musi-poetic fabric in which the combined whole is greater
than the sum of its parts. Unlike other's attempts at the melding of poetry
and music, neither artists' material takes overwhelming precedence,
resulting in a beautiful unity of purpose and intent which seeps through on
many levels. This is a wonderful recording, and The "Musician
Married" is very touching. You should listen with wide-open ears.
…..Dan Cavanagh, jazz composer, pianist, big band
leader, Arlington, Texas
Sea Breeze Jazz label recording artist of Pulse, 2008
For decades Timothy Young has pursued
the music of poetry, while Yata Peinovich’s songwriting has consistently
showcased a poet's sensibility. What luck for us listeners that these two
heart-minstrels should meet and combine their talents in this deeply felt
and richly modulated collection of poem-songs. Their unique delivery, equal
parts rocksalt and honey, is as refreshing and joyful as a drive through Wisconsin's Mississippi River
bluff country in late spring.
…..Thomas R. Smith, poet & musician, River Falls, Wisconsin
author
of Waking
before Dawn, 2007
We know that Timothy Young is
some kind of rare Irish Tiger, semi-mythical, with a fondness for kindling
and heading out of town before dawn. His poetry has the sharpened tips of a
hunter, but he laces the stalk of his arrows with honeysuckle and brandy,
so that we make ourselves willing targets. He is an emerging and brilliant
performer of the spoken word, and carries something very ancient with him.
SNOW HAS FALLEN is a raw, deep and precious thing. Its
top branches are singed by firebirds wings and its roots are in ancient
clay. Sell the car, make love by rivers, befriend impossible odds-its
messages take hold like a heavy wine your grandmother warned you about.
Young and Yata are soulful
outlaws giving away treasure from the Temple. This CD is absolutely superb-My Heart is Your Home is going to
become the anthem of some kind of new movement just stirring in the land.
There is something new happening here, I sense trouble. Best record of 2008
I'll wager.
….Martin Shaw,
mythologist, storyteller
& musician, Devon, UK
author
of A Branch from the
Lightning Tree, 2008
These are poems rooted in the
realities of life; poems that do not flinch from the truth, but look deeply
into it to find nourishment and joy. The best work here has both grit and
shine, and recklessly seeks beauty among the scars. I love Pilgrimage especially, a terrific
piece.
….Jay Leeming, poet & musician, Ithaca,
New York
author
of Dynamite on a China Plate, 2006
The best of Tim Young's poems
read as though they have been written by a geographer who has just emerged
from mapping the interior bones of the earth…..His words are set off
brightly by the soulful and sparkling music of Yata Peinovich…….. Take a
walk on the bright side of the moon with the poems and music of Timothy
Young, Yata Peinovich and friends.
…..Lyle Daggett, poet and publisher of the blog A Burning Patience,
from the poetry
blog……..
"And,
in the dawn, armed with a burning patience, we shall enter the splendid
cities." -- Arthur Rimbaud
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
And sing against the cold
In the mail last week came Snow Has Fallen, a CD of poems
and songs by Timothy Young and Yata Peinovich. I've known Tim Young
for many years by now; this was my first introduction to Yata Peinovich.
The poems and music on this disk are a great pleasure and delight to listen
to.
Whether reading his work on the page or hearing him read it out loud, I've
always liked Tim Young's willingness to let go of all harnesses, cast away
fear, and jump into a poem all at once. He has written much about the joy
and difficulty in men and women trying to relate with each other, the heat
and the coolness, the great dance and, sometimes, the wound. Many of his
poems reach into the connections between deep pain and intimacy and the
public events and occasions of the larger world.
If someone touched you
wrongly,
if you weep through the night
if your life is a river of sadness
MY HEART IS YOUR HOME,
MY HEART IS YOUR HOME,
If brown clouds are rising and the sun's fading too fast
If the water's dark and angry
If you're losing your work, your children are crying
If your home is no longer your castle
If you don't own your soul
If you're looking for a way out
If you're ready to hold and be held
MY HEART IS YOUR HOME,
YOUR HEART IS MY HOME ...
(From
the poem "My Heart Is Your Home" on the above CD.)
Over the years, here in Minneapolis,
I've taken part in various poetry writing and performing groups, sometimes
impromptu, sometimes organized with intention. I've lost count of the
number of times I've gathered with poet friends in a church basement, a
small bookstore, a hippie cafe after closing time, to read poems and beat
and tap on various drums and bells and woodblocks, improvising our way
through another joyfully disheveled night. Bare pipes and concrete walls
and thinned-out rugs, a used couch in the corner on its last legs. Tim was
frequently among us in our mixed-bag gatherings. I recall one evening at
the Seward Cafe on East Franklin Avenue in Minneapolis when he showed up
with a buffalo bone he'd found in a gravel pit somewhere outside the city.
He used it to thump on a large round drum all evening.
The old man pulls the blues
from deep in the earth
His licks are twinkling
like old sea fossils
asleep in a limestone bed.
There's no traffic in this small town
so I stand in the middle of the street
The moon's a bone over the road.
Tonight no dogs will sleep.
(From the poem "Best Blues,"
again from the CD Snow Has Fallen.)
The best of Tim Young's poems read as though they have been written by a
geographer who has just emerged from mapping the interior bones of the
earth. My thanks to Tim for sending the disk of poems and song. His words
are set off brightly by the soulful and sparkling music of Yata Peinovich
(vocals and guitars), Bruce Hecksel (guitars, bass and percussion), Dalyce
Elliott playing exquisite violin, and the various others who have
contributed.
Take a walk on the bright side of the moon with the poems and music of
Timothy Young, Yata Peinovich and friends.
# posted by Lyle Daggett @ 8:23 PM 
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From left, poet Timothy Young,
songwriter Bryce Black and guitarist Yata Peinovich have released two
albums, "Snow Has Fallen" and "Sheer Caffeine."
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Staff photo by Troy Espe
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Mixing
it up
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By Troy Espe
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Leader-Telegram
staff
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Arkansaw guitarist Yata Peinovich
has collaborated on two new albums with two different styles.
"Snow Has
Fallen" is a spoken-word album that navigates the aging process.
"Sheer Caffeine" extols the versatility of baler twine.
Although subject matters
differ, the albums showcase gifted songwriters, Peinovich said.
"Both of them are
masterful with words," he said. "We're really happy with the
results."
Peinovich, 55, recorded
"Snow Has Fallen" with Minnesota
poet Timothy Young. The disc contains 11 spoken poems set to background
music. Peinovich sings on three tracks.
The album addresses
relationships, love and grief.
"They all deal with
being an older man in this culture," said Young, 58, of Bloomington.
Young wrote the lyrics
while Peinovich composed the music. The men met to sync notes and verses.
"It was a pure
collaboration," said Young, formerly of Stockholm. "All the poems are
structured as song, which is unique for spoken word."
"Snow Has
Fallen" is Young's second poetry CD. He taught juveniles at the
Minnesota Correctional Facility in Red Wing before retiring in 2004.
Peinovich recorded
"Sheer Caffeine" with Arkansaw songwriter Bryce Black. The disc
contains novelty songs about mad cow disease and dinosaur chickens.
Black didn't settle for
cheap laughs, he said.
"A lot of the songs
have a satirical element," he said. "The wordplay is fairly
sophisticated. There are lot of images and metaphors that are not
trite."
Black, 56, delves into
contemplative issues on songs such as "Loving the Questions"
and "Stone Goose."
"We get the
ridiculous and the sublime," said Black, who restores windmills on a
60-acre farm. "That's who I am."
Black wrote the lyrics
and melodies. He also sings on the album. Peinovich provides guitar,
mandolin and vocal harmonies.
Both albums were
recorded at Cricket Studios in Maiden Rock. Studio owner Bruce Hecksel,
who is half of the popular folk duo Patchouli, mixed the CDs and played
several instruments on the two discs.
"There's a river
theme," Peinovich said. "We could look out the window when we
were recording, and we could see the Mississippi."
Peinovich, Young and
Black are longtime friends. They often played together during White Pine
open mic shows in Downsville.
Peinovich, who has
recorded seven albums and played on "A Prairie Home Companion"
radio show, approached Young and Black about making the albums.
"Sheer
Caffeine" was released in February. "Snow Has Fallen" came
out this month. The three men are holding concerts to promote the CDs.
"It was one of
those happy accidents," Peinovich said. "The main thing for me
is working with great lyrics. That's why I like working with these two
guys."
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Jazz studies produces a ‘Pulse’
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Written
by Zabrina Ransom, The Shorthorn Scene writer
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Wednesday, 05 March 2008
07:19 PM
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Assistant professor of Music Dan Cavanagh,
foreground,
listens to playback of a vocal overdub recorded by poet,
Timothy Young, background, on Monday at Crystal
Clear
Studios in Dallas.
Cavanagh's band, the Jazz Emporium
Big Band, is recording tracks for their first album.
The Shorthorn: Michael Rettig
With his son cradled in his
arms, Dan Cavanagh walks into his office and hands him to his
mother-in-law.
A keyboard, PBS home video on jazz, music sheets and other material that
accent his career as a musician
and professor cluttered his
office.
It’s a busy schedule for the
jazz studies assistant director and music assistant professor. His day
continued
when he picked up musicians
from the airport that afternoon to play in his latest project.
The musicians and a poet came
to record a big band jazz album Sunday as part of the Dan Cavanagh Jazz
Emporium
Big Band, a group Cavanagh
recently formed.
The album, releasing next fall,
is mostly instrumental with the exception of a poet’s spoken word and
features
original compositions that
Cavanagh wrote. The title, Pulse, came from one of the songs he wrote
for Virginia
Tech University.
Assistant professor of Music Dan Cavanagh, left,
goes over tracks recorded for his band's album
with visiting assistant professor Micah Hayes,
right,
at Crystal Clear Studios. The band's album,
tentatively titled Pulse, will be the first album
Cavanagh has released on a record label.
The Shorthorn: Michael Rettig
“As
a musician, my research involves creative activity like playing concerts and
writing music, and this is a combination of a two-year project that I
have been working on,” Cavanagh said. For him, the album brings
entertainment and academic work.
“It’s part of my scholarly activities,” he said. “That’s not the
only thing, of course.”
The band comprises 22
musicians including saxophone player Tim Ishii, music associate professor
and jazz studies director, and others on trombone, trumpet, piano and
bass drums. The group performed eight songs on the album.
Some
band members worked with Cavanagh during his years as a traveling jazz
musician. Others attended college with him and two are his former
teachers.
Cavanagh’s uncle Tim Young,
retired teacher and poet from Minnesota,
recited his poem with the working title, “Mississippi Ecstasy,” over
music on the album. The poem is based on a trip to the Mississippi
River he took in 2006.
Though Young performed with
music for at least 25 years, he said this was the first time he had read
his poetry with a jazz Big Band.
“I wanted to be apart of that cutting edge of jazz,” he said.
Ishii collaborated with
Cavanagh in choosing which musicians would best suit the album. The two
have played together many times before this project.
“It’s just a great honor to be
included,” Ishii said.
The professionals are not
alone. Aspiring musicians also have a hand in the project — two trombone
players are students.
Music senior Haley Kitts
studied with Cavanagh for three semesters and said he influenced her jazz
writing. One of her pieces premiered at the Texas Music Educators
Association Convention and she said it wouldn’t have been written without
his help.“I think that he is extremely innovative,” she said. “His music
is along the line of modern jazz.”
Pulse is the first record
Cavanagh made that was signed to a record label, Sea Breeze Jazz Records.
He has been part of other musical projects including The Dan Cavanagh
Trio, a piano trio he led in the Metroplex accompanied by a drummer and
bassist and The Dan Cavanagh Ensemble, a jazz and creative music group.
“This isn’t your swing jazz music of the 1940s anymore,” Cavanagh said.
“There’s some rock influences, some classical influences as well as the
traditional jazz influences.”
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Four musicians and a poet create a special
performance
Story by: Elizabeth White Contributor
to The Shorthorn
The Shorthorn: Megumi Rooze
Timothy
Young left, recites poetry as Jazz Studies
Director Tim
Ishii, right, and Dan Cavanagh, jazz
studies
assistant director, provide music Thursday
at Irons
Recital Hall.
The
sound of drums and a bass guitar pounded like the rhythm of a heartbeat through
Irons Recital Hall as four musicians and a poet performed Thursday night.
Poet Timothy Young recited from
his collection of poems as a jazz quartet played original music composed by
Dan Cavanagh, assistant director of jazz studies, for 50 people. They
played 10 pieces during the hour-long performance.
Tim Ishii, associate professor
and jazz studies director, played several saxophones throughout the night
and UTA alumnus Jaime Reyes played drums to accompany the poet.
International business junior
Chris Carfa, who played bass for the concert, described the performance as
experimental. He said Ishii asked him to play for the concert because he is
in the Jazz Orchestra and a family friend. Carfa, 21, started playing bass
about 10 years ago.
Poet and musicians traded the spotlight throughout the performance,
some pieces instrumental, others just poetry. One piece, titled “A Small
Harmonica,” featured Ishii on soprano saxophone as Young spoke of being a
god’s harmonica.
Music Education sophomore Denise
Richards thought the performance was different.
“If something like this happened
again, I would go,” she said.
The poetry subjects ranged from
Young’s work at a juvenile correction facility to crows, kisses and coffee.
Young acknowledged poets who
influenced him, like Walt Whitman. The last piece of the night was “Homage
to Whitman.”
Cavanagh, who composed the music
specifically for this performance, said it went well.
“It was wonderful, even though
there were loose moments like any jazz concert,” he said. “I hope there
will be more performances like this, but it’s a matter of making it
happen.”
Carfa said the concert was
fantastic and that it was a good opportunity to expand his musical
experiences.
“It was great to push the limits
on what I’ve done,” he said. “It was odd, but fun.”
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Thousands Press introduces a book of poems by
Timothy Young.
Building in Deeper Water by Timothy Young
Here's a book full of nourishing darkness: Timothy Young’s Building in Deeper Water. The title comes
from a poem about a pair of beavers “who were too young/ [and] built a
lodge in the wrong place”, and eventually learned “the way to live…having
built in deeper water.” Young is a longtime resident of rural Wisconsin, and earns
his living by teaching juvenile offenders at the Minnesota Correctional
Facility in Red Wing. He is clearly a man who values depth, and that is
evident throughout his book. The poems here frequently take small, daily
moments and open them into larger realities. They are lived-through,
honest, and rarely overdone. A good example is the closing stanza from his
poem “Wild Plum”:
When all the plums are in
you can cook the flesh for jam
and dry the pits for a rattle.
But you still have to live with the thorns.
This quiet, soulful manner is one of the books great
strengths. The natural world is a constant presence in these poems, whether
it’s a pig’s head in a ditch or eagles soaring over a river. Yet the poems
feel more “of” than “about” nature, for they do not stand to the side but
involve themselves in their subjects. His poem “Walking After Breakfast”
begins with a characteristic weaving of the inner and the outer worlds:
Sometimes between the
cardinal’s first whistle
and the bee’s morning hum,
a man hears the answer to a question
he forgot to ask.
It is a pleasure to read poems so involved in the
natural world, that do not cross-examine blizzards or oak trees but simply
take their own place in the larger universe of which we are all a part. The
poem from which the book’s title comes describes how, after diving into the
swamp, the beavers “emerge with a sweet root.” Tim Young has done his own
diving over the years, and the result is this rich, honest book, full of
deeply rooted sweetness.
--Jay Leeming, poet
review in Free Verse, October 2003
Lake Pepin, Mississippi
River, Wisconsin, left and Minnesota, right
Rural Stockholm
poet is building in deeper water with the release of new book
Timothy Young of rural Stockholm
recently had his book of poems published by The Thousands Press of
Minneapolis. The poems, many set in Pepin
County and the Mississippi bluff area, examine the
deeper relationships the author has with the land, animal life and his
family.
The book, Building in Deeper Water,
is receiving favorable reviews from established poets and writers. One poem
in the selection, A Thread of Sunlight, was included among the Best
American Poems of 1999 by Scribner Books.
The nationally recognized poet, Robert Bly, who provided an introduction
for the book, writes that this book has a lived life in it. Bly says, This
is superb writing about relationships, and such writing is a rare gift
among men.
Young writes intimate love poems for his wife. He also writes poems on
marriage as a continuing mystery. There are also poems on the nature of
marital conflicts. For instance, In the Middle of an Argument he writes:
Here on the bluffs.
we’ve had practice dealing with storms.
I must resist the wind, just a bit,
push against it, and yield slowly,
so we close the door together.
This book teems with wildlife, farm animals, creeks, storms and the
natural world, and it honors the physical hardiness necessary for rural
life. Thomas Smith of River Falls and a western Wisconsin
native says, “Building in Deeper Water
welcomes the reader into the preserve of a poet who has built his literary
house in the depths of nature and culture.” Smith is the author of three
books of poetry and is poetry editor for the nationally renowned Ruminator
Review.
Young approaches his subject matter with open eyes. He addresses
emotional dilemmas, such as when his wife sends her hand-raised cattle off
to slaughter, with a style that is neither maudlin, nor brutish. In the
poem, When Hunters Rise, Young compares deer hunters with spiritual men.
So few know this hour as well as hunters maybe monks, surely a prayerful
shaman
(The hunter) understands the fundament of life: something dies so
another can live. We know this because when night goes to day the sun kills
the stars in the sky.
Young also writes quirky poems such as A Wooden Cutout of an Old Woman’s
Backside which playfully says that our garden ornaments suggest the nature
of our religious beliefs.
In the October issue of Free Verse, a literary publication from
Marshfield, Wisconsin, New York poet, Jay Leeming, reviews the book and
writes, The poems take small, daily moments and opent them into larger
realities. They are lived-through, honest and rarely overdone. Leeming goes
on, Youngs gentle, Robert Frost-like way of approaching a subject is to be
learned from and admired.
--The Courier-Wedge
Durand, Wisconsin
November 27, 2003
I'm glad to welcome this book into the community of poets. This book has
a "lived life" in it. This is superb writing about relationships,
and such writing is a rare gift among men. This man is able to bless nature.
There's no rural sentimentality.
--Robert Bly
author of The Night Abraham Called to the Stars
Building in Deeper Water welcomes
the reader into the preserve of a poet who has built his literary house in
the depths of nature and culture. Tim Young's imagination remains faithful
to the body and to earth. Every poem in this powerfully physical first book
honors both light and darkness, life and death, the visible worlds and the
invisible.
--Thomas Smith
author of The Dark Indigo Current
Books like Tim Young's Building in Deeper Water might signal the
long awaited beginning of a Euro-American awareness for the need to
continually prepare feasts…. that feed the Divine Female in Nature.
--Martin Prechtel
author of The Toe Bone and the Tooth:
An Ancient Mayan Story Relived in Modern Times
___________________________
This is sophisticated, deeply imaginative poetry done in
a distinctly American idiom. In
Building
in Deeper Water, by
Timothy Young (The Thousands Press) there is a kindness and a wisdom and a
generosity of spirit that I deeply admire.
I’ll be keeping this book close at hand for a long time.
--Robert Edwards
author of American Sounds, a book of poems,
and the publisher of Pemmican on-line magazine.
Friday, January 09, 2004, The River Falls Journal
BOOK REPORT: Listen: Hear the written words of the bards, the
best way to ‘read’ poetry
By Dave Wood
Newspaper book reviewers don’t often review
poetry with the same enthusiasm as fiction and non-fiction. There’s a
reason for that - actually several reasons. First, newspapers aim for a large readership and many
readers have little interest in poetry, judging from book sales in the
various genres. Second,
much poetry these days is not “public” poetry, as was written in the 18th
and 19th centuries, when poets celebrated the deaths or the accomplishments
of great leaders. And
finally, I suspect that poetry doesn’t yield itself to easy review on the
printed page, but shines brighter when experienced aurally. So today,
we’ll celebrate two area poets, one young and one old, by printing a chunk
of each poet’s work. So the best way to read this column is to read it
aloud to your family, the way poetry should be enjoyed.
Our younger poet is Wisconsin
teacher Timothy Young, who is accessible and writes poems about ordinary
life, as in this poem, “My Wife Loading Her Cattle” from his new book “Building in Deeper Water” (The Thousands Press, $10):
Before 5 a.m. in late November
she stepped into the deep mouth of the trailer
and sweetly called to her cattle.
“Come on, boys, look what I have for you.”
Sniffing the metal and blackness before them
twin steers backed away from her beckon.
I squeezed a stall gate against the smaller one’s ribs
‘til he leaped toward her voice and went in.
“Good boy. Good boy.”
The second steer turned and kicked on the pivot,
his brown bulk confused by her words.
He resisted the driver’s twist of his tail
but finally had to jump into darkness.
“It’s OK, baby.”
And his mother offered him corn.
The door trembled, the trailer door slammed,
something rumbled in the muscles and meat.
My wife wept as her Cattle Boys left
to the Watkins Locker in Plum City.
She said nothing more, and neither did I,
then we both drove off to work.”
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BUILDING IN DEEPER WATER
By Timothy Young
Published by The Thousands Press
68 pages. $10.00
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Timothy Young
129 Melbourne Ave SE
Minneapolis, MN 55414
tim@twoboots.net
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