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Variations: Oh Baltimore
Summer was nascent, and I longed for it nonetheless. I had vowed to myself — it was going to be the best season of my life. I was freshly seventeen and my spring Friday nights were peppered with visits...
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Variations: Pomp and Circumstance/Pompa e circunstáncia
Every summer, our placid village by the Bay of Biscay was invaded by what dad called the Oxford tribe: dons donning white socks under sandals; fresh-faced dissertators in linen shirts; eccentrics; the...
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Variations: One of You Leaves First
V: Cadenza | Silver-Tipped Swallow: “One of You Leaves First” The story is the same always: one of you leaves first & you both know who it’s going to be. There are tears, or there aren’t. You stay...
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Variations: The Jazz Artist
image: “Congo Square” by Adéwálé Adénlé For Harold Battiste, Jr. In New Orleans, I saw a reflection of myself in a stranger’s marbled tombstone. I turned away, but in every direction, rows and rows of...
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Variations: Shape Note
Artwork: Carter Vintage Guitars by Vermillion Murals / Photo: Nashville Public Art Blog Honeygo Blvd. to the Megabus stop in the vast unending lot beyond the mall, where Maryland displays a faded...
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Variations on a Theme: Sometimes You’re at a Pedro the Lion Concert, Mourning...
There’s something special about following a band for over a decade—especially if you started listening to that band in your youth—as the discography of the band starts to layer itself over your own...
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Variations on a Theme: In Memoriam, Amy Winehouse: Years Later, My Tears Are...
When Amy Winehouse died in 2011, I was not a particularly big fan of the singer. I knew her big hits like “Rehab,” and “Back to Black” because who didn’t? My boyfriend, however, really liked her, and...
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Variations on a Theme: Walls
In July, 2012, I turned the corner to the back area of Crush Bar after paying my tab. Burnt, Tongue, the reading series dedicated to Tom Spanbauer and his infamous Dangerous Writers writing group had...
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Variations on a Theme: This River is Wild
The snowfall doesn’t usually begin in December in Cape St. Claire. Usually, it holds itself off until January when the snow is dry powder and sticks to the tops of cars parked in their uphill...
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Variations: Landslide
photo by Unsplash user Jesse Borovnica I hate flying. I hate the window seat, the middle one, and prefer the aisle if given a choice. I was particularly anxious for this trip. I clenched and unclenched...
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Variations on a Theme: Hasten Down the Wind
It is the tenth anniversary of my husband Kevin’s death. Each year, I acknowledge the date by posting memories and updates along with a link to a favorite song. There are many from which to choose. Our...
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Variations on a Theme: Misreading
I was 17 when I first heard Liz Phair in the backseat of a boy’s car with my much cooler best friend. We were aimlessly driving around when the boy put on Whipsmart. I immediately loved how Phair’s low...
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Variations on a Theme: The Soundtrack of Social Distancing
Everything within me died as my relationship ended. I was afraid I would not be able to leave him. I was afraid I had no value as a person, as a woman. Prior to my relationship, I had always written...
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Variations on a Theme: Lover Playing Guitar II / Dream Journal: a single note
photo by the author, 2015 * two poems by Rosalie Hendon * LOVER PLAYING GUITAR II The other night you were playing guitar, bare-chested, looking like a rock god, your fingers flying over the strings. I...
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Variations on a Theme: How a 50 Year Old Song by a Fake Band Broke My Brain
The Partridge Family — a real (fake) musical act with a real (fake) tour bus — had an actual hit record in 1970 with I Think I Love You, and fifty one years later this song has broken my brain. I am...
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Variations on a Theme: Precious Moments Found Through Singing
Throughout most of my life I have sung, mostly sacred music in choruses, and some opera. Singing has offered the opportunity to convert emotion into harmony, a warm, joyous energy. It is also an...
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Variations on a Theme: poems by Dustin Grinnell
MUSIC AS MEDICINE Cancer, all over Doctors prodded, tested Overwhelmed, smothered, lost And then the piano played Breathing deepened Tension released A soft smile * MUSIC SOFTENS US The music makes...
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Variations on a Theme: September Song
Stardust Willie Nelson April 17, 1978 Columbia Records On the back cover of my father’s copy of Stardust, Willie Nelson smiles, soft-focus mountains rising in the distance. It is magic hour, and his...
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Variations on a Theme: Sequence (Part I)
This is a two part feature. Link to Part II here. lately, it’s been getting late, but i’m not tired, and no thanks to sleepless nights spent burning with desire so i’ll get in my car…[i]...
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Variations on a Theme: Sequence (Part II)
This is a two part feature. Link to Part I here. ———- before long, i was subject to the same unspeakable, unbearable impulses, the same that drive many people – gambling, drugs, and sex. having...
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