Beauty beyond Reason

This little book is a monumental accomplishment for me.

The first half of the book consists of the lyrics for a song cycle celebrating performance dance.  The song cycle will eventually be performed as a ballet chanté.  Works are underway for a short production in the Fall of 2018 in Brooklyn, New York.

The second half of the book consists of poems spanning 20 years of my ongoing celebration of dance through poetry.

The book's blue cover alludes to the setting of George Balanchine's iconic ballet, Serenade, which is also celebrated in the book with one of my sonnets.

Serenade
- for George Balanchine

Mr. B sits at the tip of the wing,
he knows the piece, he knows what to expect,
there is always the inevitable misstep,
his interest now is watching the audience.
Behind the curtains, he knows the routine,
choice dancers of the corps, the trembling breath,
then the salve of the soothing release
and from this calm the strings begin to sing.
With an ethereal blue the curtain lifts
and the dancers - standing, enchanting,
after years reaching for the impossible -
touch the divine with their fingertips.
Then a whispered phrase as smooth as a pearl,
"Now, my dears, you may dance before the world."

The back cover includes an addition poem and a photo by Daniel Leventhal from 2018.

This year I also established my own independent press - Dendritic Path Press. Beauty beyond Reason is my first publication under my own imprint.

The press' logo is:

The Path I take is the path I create.

Copies may be purchased on Amazon: Beauty Beyond Reason or visit me at my bookstand in Manhattan for an autographed copy!

New Release! Fortune: Poems and Libretti

My 5th book of poetry is now available. The book is composed of 16 new poems plus 2 libretti. I had so much fun with Letters to Zoey, I have decided to begin composing more works for musical theater.

The poems in the collection are almost entirely sonnets. One exception is a villanelle, the eponymous poem - Fortune. Another exception is a 16 line poem that some may considered a "run-on sonnet." There is also a nontraditional form of a ballad celebrating dance

The first libretto, Discounter, is a tragic comedy depicting a mattress sales person. The second, On the Stage of Every Day, is an amusing and insightful libretto about a poet selling his books on the streets of New York City.

The "Look Inside" feature from Amazon should be available soon. For now, I have a sample poem "Jester" posted on my website. www.gbrobinson.com

The book is an extremely ironic expression, although hopefully not in a heavy handed manner. The individual compositions often make intricately corresponding statements within the work.

Please check the book out and tell others. I will have the book available on my bookstand within a couple of weeks.

Listing on Amazon

Times Ledger feature article by Devin Holt!

On the news stands now in the great borough of Queens!

http://www.timesledger.com/stories/2016/12/playwright_2016_03_18_q.html

Happy Valentines Day Everyone!!

Letters to Zoey, Video Clip

New Video!  

John Chatterton/MITF Spring 2016 

present

Letters to Zoey

written and performed by

Garrett Buhl Robinson

Tickets: https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/955753

$20

Performances:

Wednesday March 23, 6 PM

Friday March 25, 8 PM

Sunday March 27, 2 PM

Jewel Box Theater

312 W. 36th Street

New York, NY

Letters to Zoey at the Midtown International Theatre Festival - Spring 2016

Purchase Tickets:  https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/955753

Tickets are $20

Three Shows:

Wednesday March 23 6 PM

Friday March 25 8 PM

Sunday March 27 2 PM

WorkShop Theater

312 W. 36th Street

New York, NY

Christmas Tree Song at New Year

Yesterday I was everything.

They found me in a dark stand and circled around me with cheers.

They brushed the shivering snow from my verdant fir and stood me up in their home.

They adorned me with ornaments and strung lights from my outstretched limbs.

They set presents before me, gifts wrapped in beautiful paper, tied with velvet ribbons and knotted in glorious bows.

They crowned me with a sparkling star and gathered around me with mirth and merriment.

Then one morning they rushed up to me and tore the presents open and turned away with all their attention devoted to what had been concealed inside.

Then, with the gathered wrapping and packaging, they tossed me outside.

Yesterday I was everything.

Now I am nothing.



Garrett Buhl Robinson
© 1/12/16

Business Plan

Lately, I have been trying to be practical.  I have concentrated my attention on the business aspects of my artist endeavors.  I even began composing a business plan this week.  

For a break though, I composed a little poem.  The opening quatrain makes an allusion to a famous statement made by George Balanchine - "I don't create.  Only God creates.  I simply arrange."  Forgive me Mr. Balanchine if that is not verbatim.  

I like to think there is music in everything.  

Business Plan

Music is not a thing, it is a way;
the universe is entirely complete,
a perpetual motion machine,
the novelty is how it is arranged.

The ideas arise in everyone's minds
and they arise quickly and are as quickly gone
and with what we do, consider how it is done,
and how the multitude of ideas harmonize.

Between the margins of losses and gains
for any enterprise to be sustained
the primary concern is the way we engage
and success is defined in the manner of exchange.

So take note of the score on this page
and as much as what, consider how I say,
the melodic arrangement of language
is the musical way I communicate.

And when you try to balance the means to the end
keep in mind the way we comprehend
so what we accomplish is what we intend,
for the greatest benefit - the means are the end.

poem composed before noon, 11/19/15

in The Cartography Room, NYPL

Garrett Buhl Robinson

Vive la France

My heart is broken for Paris,
my heart is broken for France,
my heart is broken for Humanity.

La Mer

for Prof. Claudine Armand

Receding inside the room of my mind

where I open my eyes into a place

I have never been, through the window's light

I look out on the sea from Saint-Nazaire.

Listening to the music play

on the radio's crackling frequency

I let my mind drift out upon the waves

in a vessel composed from a symphony.

Winds blow the foam from the crests of the waves

that rise like mountains then suddenly drop

plunging down slopes of crescendos' staves

with strings bowing into darkening troughs.  

On the swirling sea beneath the roiling clouds

my eyes stay fixed on the horizon's line

narrowing to a point on the stalwart prow

where the gathered sea meets the open sky.

And even on oblivion's cold void,

a single speck on the immensity,

there are endless bridges of harmonic chords

in the spanning beauty of Debussy.  

Garrett Buhl Robinson

11-13-15

A Compassionate Song

As I have mentioned before, for the past eight months or more, I have concentrated all my attention on the upcoming performance of my musical. From this, I had to divert my thoughts from my devotion to composing poetry. Occasionally though, I am brushed by the wings of the muses and immediately my attention turns toward the swift flight that lifts my thoughts into the bright, soaring heights where the music resides.

The other day, this occurred through one of my correspondences. I received an email from a friend and I was astounded at the compassion I felt in her message. The next day I responded and explained this to her. Then later that day, while I strolled through the Soho, a colorful string appeared in my thoughts and began weaving its way through my mind in the most musical ways while outlining some of the warmest images, threading together what I had felt frayed in dismay. 

Then riding the J Train back to the Jamaica Center, I composed this sonnet in my little notepad above the old brick buildings of Williamsburg on a gorgeous day.

- For Lee Christine Brownlee

Stumbling through the woods on a moonless night
among the fronds of ferns and mossy stone
I found a plume fallen long ago,
the only trace of a trackless flight.
Then with some twigs from the forest floor
still wet and green from last year's spring
and an unraveled quilt's colorful string
I wove a nest I left above the old barn's door.
Although empty when I turned away
I hoped some saddened thought would settle there
and find comfort from the frosty air
cupped inside the tender weave of strays,
then with the next day's warming light
dive into the bottomless sea of sky.

Garrett Buhl Robinson

8-30-15

New Postcards for Musical

I decided to use a brighter image and edit the text in hopes of improving the postcards for the Musical.  

If anyone has any comments or criticisms, they would be greatly appreciated.  

Trussville Tribune Article!

Thank you June Mathews for the wonderful article in my hometown newspaper - The Trussville Tribune!

Photo by Bob Kidd

The Mind Is a Metaphor

Maps Are Metaphors

Standing Out from the Slush Pile
Photo by Garrett Buhl Robinson

I have often thought of topography
to map the rough terrain of my life
where tight increments of lines steeply climb
and swiftly slide through creases of ravines
washing with the watersheds as they spread
in fanning planes that slip beneath the sloughs
of a glassy lake where the soft plop
from a raindrop sends ripples on the body
of water's settled, reflective repose
so the whole sky begins waving overhead.

Or perhaps these rings of lyrics outline
a mountain, tightening as they rise,
narrowing to one peak from every side
like the opening of an eye.

Garrett Buhl Robinson
July 20, 2015

This poem has an interesting story to it.  The conception actually arose from a typographical mistake that I made on another posting when I was recapping a conversation I had with a mathematician last week.  One of the topics we discussed was topology, although I actually used the term topography in the post.

The next day I was considering correcting this mistake, but when I arrived in the Cartography Room of the New York Public Library, the idea for a poem arose in my thoughts and I decided to draft it out.  Later that day, I had the opportunity to sit down and polish the draft, smooth out some of the seams and develop some more of the images.

As I have commented before, I have become particularly fascinated lately with how various media provide unexpected perspectives.  I hope that the closing of the poem provides some poignancy to the insight as it arises.

In this modified sonnet - the sextet is actually attached to the opening quatrain.  I used an encapsulated rhyme scheme to mimic the layout of topographical maps and the appearance of ripples on the surface of a body of water.  Then of course, the final stanza draws the alternations into a unified whole.

Thank you for reading.

Shirley Parker Levine's Watercolor Paintings from the NYPL

Shirley Parker Levine, with the New York City Urban Sketchers, honored me yesterday by making me a subject for one of her watercolor paintings.

Shirley's work can be found at http://www.paperandthreads.com/

Letters to Zoey at the Trussville Library

The Trussville Public Library
http://www.trussvillelibrary.com

This is where much of my love for reading was awakened. As I have told several people, when I was a child I was fascinated with a display of a train that was set on top of one of the bookshelves. It was always out of my reach though. That is when I realized that if I wanted to achieve the aim of my aspirations in life, I must do so by ascending the shelves, climbing through the books as the fluttering pages awakened my mind and lifted me higher. I am still climbing too.

Librarians Lindsey Kelley and Maura Davies

I have been brooding over these ideas for most of my life and they have gently broken out of their shells and it is time for these fledglings to leave the nest. I can't wait to see these little songs take flight into the broadening skies of the audience's brightening eyes!

My Number 1 fan with Ms. Emily Tish, Library Director 

Poster for Letters to Zoey is on display at my hometown library! Thank you to the Trussville Library. Great hat Mom!

Check out the Video Trailer for the Musical

Letters to Zoey, Tickets Going Fast!

Letters to Zoey is one of the top selling shows in the United Solo Theatre Festival!  There are only 22 tickets left for the first show on October 17 at 2 PM.

I am having a party after the show and everyone in attendance is invited.  The party will give me an opportunity to personally thank everyone while we celebrate together.

As for now, I would like to thank everyone for their support.  I will continue marketing my books and promoting my show on 5th Avenue in Manhattan while I fill the air with the lyrical music of melodious poetry!

Letters to Zoey at the United Solo Theatre Festival

Tickets Now Available for Letters to Zoey

Tickets for the World Premiere performance of Letters to Zoey are now on sale.  

Purchase Tickets Here

United Solo Theatre Festival has accepted Letters to Zoey!

World Premiere will be Saturday, October 17 at 2 PM at Theatre Row.  

Tickets will be available soon.

New Release, Broken Stone

Announcing the release of my new collection of poems, Broken Open. 

 This collection contains 56 poems most of which were composed over the past 18 months.  There are three older poems, one going back to 2002.  The collection is predominantly sonnets and a few variations of curtal sonnets. Included in the collection are a few freer forms and a ballad I composed on the folk hero of San Francisco, Emperor Norton.  There are a number of homages to various poets who have inspired me through the years and continue to inspire me.  There is also a couple of poems that interweave the scholarly thought of John Rawls whose work has intrigued me of late and whom I hope to study more intensely in the years to come.  

Link to listing on Amazon

Video Trailer for my musical, Letters to Zoey

This weekend, the new video trailer for my musical debuted at the Henley Flow Independent Arts Festival at Henley-on-Thames!  Thanks to everyone involved in the festival for presenting my work!!  

Link to Video