It is FRIDAY….and for those of us who live for the weekend…hooray!

"Early September in Sterling NY,"  Lisa Brennan, Photographer (c) 2017

 
There is something beyond pleasurable in the way that the end of August transitions into September.  Some folks take this time as the end of summer and plan a change in activities especially as American style “football” revs up for another NFL season.  Children routinely bemoan the fact that school will start in a few days.  Some folks start to plan fall activities, and then there are legions of folks who see this transition as a continuance of the ‘traditional’ summer but with a less hectic pace. They are not defined by a calendar.  While most vacations are over, the BBQ grills and bags of charcoal will stay in place; seasonal afternoon cook-outs and parties will still drift into the late evening hours and permeate  backyards with laughter and good times, and daily summer wardrobe of shorts, flip flops, sandals, summer dresses and baseball caps worn backwards will not come to a radical halt.  So, let’s be real.  It is Friday.  It is time to start the festivities.  It is summer.  We kick this weekend off with excerpts from works by Howard Nelson and Tushar Jain.  So, let the spirit move you!

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Howard Nelson (photo provided)

Howard Nelson’s body of work reflects his deep understanding of poetic traditions, scholarly research, well regarded poetic writings, and formal presentations of his body of work when he publicly reads.  With aaduna, he continues those characteristics but with a hipster’s touch of verve, difference, and innate coolness.  He is an excerpt from one of his summer issue works aptly titled, “James Brown.”  

I saw James Brown in person, it must have been 1967,

in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.  My college friends and I

were the only white people in the audience, or close to it. 

And it was a great show.  I saw James Brown

do his famous cape routine.  “Please Please Please,”

falling again and again to his knees,

getting up, running back, unable to leave the stage.

I wasn’t alive in Leipzig in 1725,

so I didn’t get to hear Bach play the organ,

and I didn’t live in the Austalian outback

in all those millennia before time got sliced in half

with BCE and CE, so I’m sure I missed

some great didgeridoo players,

but living in America in the second half of the 20^th century,

I got to see James Brown live on stage,

and fifty years later, I guess it is still

one of the greatest things I’ve ever seen.

Howard will bring two other pieces to the summer issue.

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Tushar Jain (photo provided)

Tushar Jain is an award recognized Mumbai, India-based poet and writer. The summer issue will feature three of his subtly complex and poignant poems.   Mr. Jain shares, “My poetry is a merging of minimalism, surrealism and cubism. The structure of the poems is integral to their understanding. The core of the poetry is its insistence on resisting 'total' meaning and not to simply let the poem interact with the reader but also, with itself.”

Here is an opening snippet from Jain's poem, “&”

t he

c  o  nduc tor

   f   r  om

    th      e

                                   bea_c_h

 

      h    as

d        rag      g             e     d

  

   sand                             t       o

                                                   

                                        t    h                                  e

                                                   

                                             c   oncert

  

t   he

    am  ber     s              a            n                            d      

                           is     every  where

                                                                     r       uns  a        mock       ;

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It is Friday!

Watch for aaduna's Summer 2017 issue - LAUNCHING SOON!

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aaduna - a timeless exploration into words and images - is a globally read, multi-cultural, and diverse online literary and visual arts journal established in 2010.  Visit us at www.aaduna.org where we put measurable actions to our words.

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