Poetry and Music Friday
I enjoy the pursuit of creativity. That is not the same thing as saying that I do it well, but I am convinced that Christians must regain an appreciation for the arts in light of and for the Gospel. To that end, I take some time to highlight the pursuit of creativity here on Fridays. I link to the photography of Joe Kennedy, Will Turner, Timmy Brister, Steve McCoy, Joe Thorn, along with the Friday Flickr Group in which they participate. I also highlight a poet who may or may not be Christian, but who above all, uses words well and I also highlight a musical artist (more often than not instrumental since thats primarily what I listen to) who makes at least one track available for free and legal download.
Today’s featured poet is Paul Verlaine (1844-1896). As with Rimbaud and Baudelaire, Verlaine’s personal life was certainly less than admirable from a Christian perspective. As such, Verlaine’s poetry was often quite dark and certainly not for the discerning reader. But, that is not to say that there isn’t also much beauty to be found in his work. Verlaine’s many stylistic innovations helped lay the foundation for free verse and other experimental poetic techniques which would later emerge in movements such as Beat poetry. Today’s poem is entitled “Autumn Song”:
With long sobs
the violin-throbs
of autumn wound
my heart with languorous
and montonous
sound.Choking and pale
When I mind the tale
the hours keep,
my memory strays
down other days
and I weep;and I let me go
where ill winds blow
now here, now there,
harried and sped,
even as a dead
leaf, anywhere.
Today’s featured music comes from guitarist Charlie Hunter. Hunter is best-known for playing a custom made 8-string guitar, playing guitar and bass simultaneously. He plays the lead on the top five strings (tuned ADGBe) and bass (tuned EAD) on the bottom three strings. My wife and I had the chance to see him play live several years ago. It is simply amazing to watch him play. Hunter’s music often crosses genre boundaries, combining jazz, funk and rock. Hunter is kind enough to host several live tracks available for downloading highlighting several different incarnations including solo, duo, trio, quartet and quintet settings. He offers three discs worth of live material available for download and even offers artwork!
- Download “Fables of Faubus” (solo)
- Download “Cloud Splitter” (duo)
- Download “Fred’s Life” (trio)
- Download “911″ (quartet)
- Download “People” (quintet)
- Visit Charlie Hunter’s official website
- Listen to Charlie Hunter for yourself
- Browse the collection of free, legal live Charlie Hunter recordings at the Archive
- Download Charlie Hunter’s albums from eMusic
March 31st, 2007 at 4:36 pm
Actually, Verlaine had a change of heart after he tried to kill his lover, Rimbaud, and spent some time in jail. One of his later works, Sagesse (’Wisdom’) is quite close to a Christian sentiment. I looked online to see if I could find some good translation of a poem to post here, but I couldn’t. Anyway, though Sagesse is not as powerful as his earlier work, it is definitely worth reading it.
March 31st, 2007 at 4:40 pm
Thanks so much Billy. I wasn’t aware of that. I’ll have to look for that poem, I don’t believe I’ve read that one.
March 31st, 2007 at 5:41 pm
Sagesse is actually a collection of poems, not a single one. I think you might like it.
March 31st, 2007 at 5:51 pm
Actually, I just found some English translations. Go to , and search for Sagesse. After the second occurence, there are some poems from that collection.
I don’t like those translations that much. The original French is much nicer and fluent. But as you will notice, some poems are a bit ‘too pious’, and appear a bit naive (at least to me). But in many, especially those where he laments his past, his old talent still surfaces.
April 6th, 2007 at 2:56 pm
There’s a great Charlie Hunter sit in on Christian McBride’s Live at the Tonic album. He sits in on “See Jam, Hear Jam, Feel Jam” for almost thirty minutes of straight goodness!
http://www.christianmcbride.com/home.html