Something from Robert Ashley

Robert Ashley writes opera-type things but they don't sound like opera as we have been made to think of it

ozzie smith -- celestial excursions act 3

i saw with my own eyes on tv

mr oxxie smith wizard of oz

his last batting all star game

when he came on the field he always did a flip

the way he did things was a legend

he said the night before "this is the last one"

50,000 fans were screaming

both teams from both sides were on the field

hats and gloves and everything were flying in the air

thousands of ball players everywhere were in tears

tv zoomed in of course

he stood there at the plate and tipped his hat

--(don't know what is said here, sorry)--

he tipped his hat again two or three times

then he just stood there crying

10 minutes on a baseball

---
act 1 - is itlight yet, love letter pt.1

she asked me

to write a love letter

something she could hide

in a shoe box in the drawer

no names no promises

just something she could look at

to remind her what the day is for

lonely lady

middle of the afternoon

lonely lady

come in feeling blue

love letter on a paper napkin

folded

addressed to you

lonely lady


how precious

you are

i mean to me

how pricesless

you are

will always be

how special

you are

noone can see

but:

i'll keep it a secret

i'll keep it a secret

i'll keep it a secret

sincerely....


--- these are from Robert Ashley's work "Celestial Excursions" - it is an opera of sorts about old people who are going to die soon. I have only as of yet heard this and "Your Money My Life Goodbye" which is about 'financial scandals'. All the words are sang/spoken in the syllabic metre of the title. i.e. "Your-Mon-ey-My-Life-Good-Bye", this reminds me of two other things, firstly, Louis Zukofsky the great personal poet, who wrote a lot of his late poetry in lines of a fixed number of words, and secondly, the singing pattern of M E Smith of The Fall, lines like "I live in cancer death-wipe", there is a compression of what needs to be expressed, better hurry up, or be precise &tc it is mainly that tight mode of expression that I feel like noting right now-ish.