Description
Book SynopsisHow would you write if there were no tomorrow? How would you see the world differently? The elegance of Douglas Lowry's writing is testimony to the intertwining of all the worlds of arts and music, including poetry, and is a curated gift to those who love the arts, whether philosophers, wits, or anyone who loves a good read. Poetry is a way of looking into someone's soul. The original poems in this book were written over several years by Douglas Lowry, emeritus dean of the Eastman School of Music, and scattered throughout his many computers, iPads, and journals. They have been in safekeeping there since his death in 2013. Receiving a diagnosis of multiple myeloma created a sense of urgency. While a great musician and scholar was dying, he might have hoped, but never imagined, that any of his literary works would be published. It was said of Lowry that "he displayed a wide-ranging intellect, a fluent way with words, a remarkable range of artistic and scientific references, and a fine sense of humor." In one of Lowry's many speeches he talked of "the theatre of ideas; not just musical ideas inspired by somebody else's musical ideas, but the mosh pit of literature, visual art, drama; of the sciences, of social friction, of politics; in short, the mosh pit of the human condition." These poems cover all of that and more. His tentacles of interest reached every corner of the human condition, delusions, fantasies, memorable characters in literature, mythology, and life experiences. Music, of course, was paramount (with a dose of irreverence) but also the pleasures of literature, history of the ancients, family, nature, and thoughts on life, death, meaning, and the divine. Toward the end, resignation set in with his realization, "days and nights aren't nearly as immortal as they used to be, are they?"
Table of ContentsDedication Foreword from the Editor Prefatory Note Le Quattro Stagioni ~ La Primavera Chorum Aquas The Crooked Months The Rush of April's Sheen ~ L'Estate Celestial Avatar Bunk Like an Idyll ~ L'Autunno Dissonant Pears The College of Toads and Frogs The Highline Whine ~ L'Inverno Time Has Not Slowed Can't You Find Some Other Button to Push? A Melting Wind Rainbells Memorable Characters, Fools, & Charlatans A Mere Tuner's Tap at Cuxhaven-Lüdingworth A Dream That Melted Like Butter Centurions Here with a Package for You Feasibility Study Hamlet Flipped Me Off He Went On To Say: Her Name Was Jane Gallows No Wanna No Of Current and Gas Take All Comers Then Came a Wagnerian Soprano When I saw Him Pomes Chomp and Bit Five Pomes Late at Night i. Rough Relations ii. GL iii. Late iv. The Days When We Sing Hymns v. Angles Give and Take Hacked in Heaven Interest Is It PhysicaL, or Is It MentaL? One Man's Sky Is Another God's Floor Straying from Rectitude Word Play A Bucket of Gs Enough Is Enough Scuddle-Shrucking Soul Above the Instep Images & Delusions, Fantasies & Phantasms In This Case Delusions Editor In Chief People-Rating Service GoAhead,CallMeCrazy Potions for Your Most Resistant Ailments Smitings The Garbage Rocket The Museum of Crime The Nightingale The Paradise Drilling Company What the Big Deal Was The Backstory of Music and Composition Desire Names a Streetcar (Homage to Previn) Air the Throne, Heir Buoyed by the Delights (Music - the Backstory) Castoff Conveyances Imagining Beethoven Middlemen Schoenberg Cringes The Band Wagon The Hanging Ringlets Existentia: Life, Death, Meaning, and the Divine Does Goodness Swoop In? And Gold and Tempers Flaring At Wit's End For Damn Sure It Would Be Comforting Little Toe-Knuckles Pounding, Pressing Sleep as Sediment The Mild Sinner Up Where the Sails Flap in Heaven What's the Charge in This? Time Out by the Acacia Tree Babble On Glad Somebody Remembers More Wondrous Murmur This Is Precisely the Problem Notes from Nantucket The Broken Wons Antiquarianism When Little Is Known Brought Under Rein In the Quiet Shallows Out West Fire Up in Gibson Jack Green River Heritage The 550 The Timeless Split Memes on Manhattan Breaking Before Entering Hostile Takeovers and Short-sellers You Had to Mop Up the Sentiment Natural World: The Sea, Lakes, Rivers, Earth, Weather Beer vs Burgundy Knock You Off Your Rocker Lake Looking Glass Therefore Delusional Thunderation I Hear Such Separate Music On the Pleasures of Literature and Writing Rosie Takes the Cake 't Automatic Dishwasher De-Loader Blue Latte For a Man Might Miss an Opportunity to Fight Bulls One Damn Thing History and the Ancients i.e. Loyalty's Voice Imprisoned in the Upwelling Sceptre and Conflict Spiritual Surprises Spittle and Clay Family Times Camp Stove Cool and Collected Life Without Sauce Fashions and Filaments Coda (Lyrics as sung poetry, plus other words) Wm's Ghosts The Blue Mazda Words from the Cutting Room Floor Afterword ~ The Freedom Zephyr Endnotes
