Frank Hudson
@frankhudson.bsky.social
Founder of the Parlando Project — “Where Music and Words Meet.” Composes, records, researches, writes, & those things feedback into each other.
I've completed my piece for Veteran's Day/Armistice Day, a poem, now song by Padraic Colum, "Old Soldier." I was thinking this was the 1st time my long-running Parlando Project had encountered Colum, but it turns out I mentioned him in passing in this account by Carl Sandburg of a poet's guitar pull
November 11, 2025 at 3:44 PM
I've completed my piece for Veteran's Day/Armistice Day, a poem, now song by Padraic Colum, "Old Soldier." I was thinking this was the 1st time my long-running Parlando Project had encountered Colum, but it turns out I mentioned him in passing in this account by Carl Sandburg of a poet's guitar pull
A short thread. Today’s the 50th anniversary of the release of the Patti Smith Group’s “Horses” & I’m obliged to express my gratitude to this record’s Glorious example. I do this while working on yet another musical combination of literary poetry & music as part of my long-running Parlando Project.
November 10, 2025 at 1:38 PM
A short thread. Today’s the 50th anniversary of the release of the Patti Smith Group’s “Horses” & I’m obliged to express my gratitude to this record’s Glorious example. I do this while working on yet another musical combination of literary poetry & music as part of my long-running Parlando Project.
#poetry #music Tonight’s burning the midnight lamp for the Parlando Project? Working hours on a complex mix with several South Asian instruments applied to an Irish poem. I’d fallen in love with the idea, but I’m going to bed now thinking what I played didn’t work. Tomorrow, a new version’s needed.
November 9, 2025 at 6:23 AM
Burning the midnight lamp tonight thinking of the teenage poet I once was—who was in turn thinking back then of how we don’t think about wars much.
There’s a musical performance too: frankhudson.org/2025/11/08/o...
There’s a musical performance too: frankhudson.org/2025/11/08/o...
Ode to a 1953 Automobile Ad
I’ve mentioned this Fall that I’m on a project to clean out the accumulations of my long life. There are various battlefronts in this effort, but last month I worked on emptying my stuff from a sma…
frankhudson.org
November 8, 2025 at 6:34 AM
Burning the midnight lamp tonight thinking of the teenage poet I once was—who was in turn thinking back then of how we don’t think about wars much.
There’s a musical performance too: frankhudson.org/2025/11/08/o...
There’s a musical performance too: frankhudson.org/2025/11/08/o...
After coming across this poem on Halloween I wanted to sing it with my rough-hewn voice for All Souls Day. I write about how the poem attracted me & present this folk music style song setting of the poem at this link: frankhudson.org/2025/11/03/s...
November 4, 2025 at 7:54 PM
After coming across this poem on Halloween I wanted to sing it with my rough-hewn voice for All Souls Day. I write about how the poem attracted me & present this folk music style song setting of the poem at this link: frankhudson.org/2025/11/03/s...
#PoemsAbout #Blood @thebrokenspine.co.uk @alanparrywriter.co.uk Few click links, & in this case that may be for the best—this remains the most disturbing musical piece in the 10 years of my Parlando Project & the 9 minutes of music that Walt Whitman & a modern account are set to is unpleasant.
The Blood of Strangers
As we go forward, following Leonard Cohen’s suggestion “Let Us Compare Mythologies,” I’m going to take you to another very dark place. If Siegfried Sassoon was hesitant to publish the last piece Ch…
frankhudson.org
October 31, 2025 at 11:33 AM
#PoemsAbout #Blood @thebrokenspine.co.uk @alanparrywriter.co.uk Few click links, & in this case that may be for the best—this remains the most disturbing musical piece in the 10 years of my Parlando Project & the 9 minutes of music that Walt Whitman & a modern account are set to is unpleasant.
Spiders & their webs are inseparable from Halloween. Here’s a strange, but I think playful, spider poem from Vachel Lindsay—yes, Vachel Lindsay—that I used my overlap in interest between #poetry #music Modernism & folk song to perform: frankhudson.org/2025/10/30/t...
The Spider and the Ghost of the Fly
As Halloween approaches, here’s a song that focuses on the playfully frightful aspects of the holiday. Wait a minute – I debated typing “playfully” there with “frightful.” I went with that combinat…
frankhudson.org
October 30, 2025 at 8:58 PM
Spiders & their webs are inseparable from Halloween. Here’s a strange, but I think playful, spider poem from Vachel Lindsay—yes, Vachel Lindsay—that I used my overlap in interest between #poetry #music Modernism & folk song to perform: frankhudson.org/2025/10/30/t...
#poetry #music Burning the midnight lamp to rapidly complete another musical piece in our Halloween/Days of the Dead series. This one ends with a dreaming skull but starts with one of the oddest guitar designs ever, the Ashbory bass. In between Sylvia Plath wakes up, sees a ghost:
A Ghost’s Leavetaking. Returning to an odd-ball instrument and a resulting musical sketch
Today’s piece, continuing our series as we consider the variousness of Halloween including the surrounding Days of the Dead and associated horror/fantasy elements, has odd origins. It starts, since…
frankhudson.org
October 29, 2025 at 5:29 AM
#poetry #music Burning the midnight lamp and continuing in a Halloween mood: Leigh Hunt writes that the fairies are robbing an orchard—and I’m here with a 12-string guitar to sing about it. frankhudson.org/2025/10/26/r...
Robbing an Orchard
Halloween is a multi-valent holiday. There’s the cluster of religious and spiritual holidays of prayer and remembrance for the dead, the holiday of horror and monsters, the children’s festival of c…
frankhudson.org
October 27, 2025 at 4:22 AM
#poetry #music Burning the midnight lamp and continuing in a Halloween mood: Leigh Hunt writes that the fairies are robbing an orchard—and I’m here with a 12-string guitar to sing about it. frankhudson.org/2025/10/26/r...
Reposted by Frank Hudson
This is a fantastic interpretation! In reward I send you…
Jolene (HP Lovecraft version) by Joliet4
YouTube video by Joliet4
youtu.be
October 23, 2025 at 11:09 AM
This is a fantastic interpretation! In reward I send you…
I found a 1977 letter from poet Phil Dacey in my late wife’s packed away things. It included a draft of a brief poem about this time in the Minnesota year. I felt compelled to perform it & write a little about how I think the poem works: frankhudson.org/2025/10/21/f...
Frost Warnings: an appreciation of the poetry of Phillip Dacey
I mentioned earlier this month that my late wife took creative writing classes with poet Phillip Dacey in the mid-1970s. Later, through her, I met Phil and was able to talk to him a bit about poetr…
frankhudson.org
October 22, 2025 at 2:06 PM
I found a 1977 letter from poet Phil Dacey in my late wife’s packed away things. It included a draft of a brief poem about this time in the Minnesota year. I felt compelled to perform it & write a little about how I think the poem works: frankhudson.org/2025/10/21/f...
Reposted by Frank Hudson
Looped around the outrageously gorgeous Olympic Peninsula today. Tomorrow, 10/22, BookTree in #Kirkland WA: free workshop 5:45, reading at 7, open mic after. #poetry
@chrisbooktree.bsky.social
@chrisbooktree.bsky.social
October 22, 2025 at 12:29 AM
Looped around the outrageously gorgeous Olympic Peninsula today. Tomorrow, 10/22, BookTree in #Kirkland WA: free workshop 5:45, reading at 7, open mic after. #poetry
@chrisbooktree.bsky.social
@chrisbooktree.bsky.social
It’s #NoKings morning. My old body will join with younger ones to stand to say we see, and we oppose, capricious oppression and misrule. Here’s a poem, now song, for this: frankhudson.org/2025/10/16/b...
Beautiful Justice
This poem by the French Surrealist poet Paul Éluard wandered into my view earlier this month, and it seems like it, and my work translating it into English, slots right in between my late wife’s po…
frankhudson.org
October 18, 2025 at 2:29 PM
It’s #NoKings morning. My old body will join with younger ones to stand to say we see, and we oppose, capricious oppression and misrule. Here’s a poem, now song, for this: frankhudson.org/2025/10/16/b...
#PoemsAbout #BreakTheMould I know most folks post new work of their own, but here's a 50-year-old poem written by my late wife Renée Robbins in her youth that I just rediscovered this Fall. Link to my fresh performance of it here: frankhudson.org/2025/10/14/i...
October 17, 2025 at 1:07 PM
#PoemsAbout #BreakTheMould I know most folks post new work of their own, but here's a 50-year-old poem written by my late wife Renée Robbins in her youth that I just rediscovered this Fall. Link to my fresh performance of it here: frankhudson.org/2025/10/14/i...
Reposted by Frank Hudson
An unreleased song with unambiguous meaning. It's a wonder there's no revolution. This song will be visible only for the weekend of 18th & 19th October 2025 (UK time), to show solidarity with the millions of #NoKings marchers across the US.
Peace Lives.
youtu.be/7bcx1e9iwbY
Peace Lives.
youtu.be/7bcx1e9iwbY
John Reed: No Revolution (Rough Take)
YouTube video by John Reed-Music
youtu.be
October 17, 2025 at 12:08 PM
An unreleased song with unambiguous meaning. It's a wonder there's no revolution. This song will be visible only for the weekend of 18th & 19th October 2025 (UK time), to show solidarity with the millions of #NoKings marchers across the US.
Peace Lives.
youtu.be/7bcx1e9iwbY
Peace Lives.
youtu.be/7bcx1e9iwbY
Here’s my musical performance of Paul Éluard’s poem “Bonne Justice” with a fresh English translation as “Beautiful Justice.” #poetry #music frankhudson.org/2025/10/16/b...
Beautiful Justice
This poem by the French Surrealist poet Paul Éluard wandered into my view earlier this month, and it seems like it, and my work translating it into English, slots right in between my late wife’s po…
frankhudson.org
October 17, 2025 at 4:39 AM
Here’s my musical performance of Paul Éluard’s poem “Bonne Justice” with a fresh English translation as “Beautiful Justice.” #poetry #music frankhudson.org/2025/10/16/b...
I’m working on a song version of a Eluard poem today, & here come these versions of a great Surrealist song written by an American arising in my feed. Then I think too of this one, written by another American before the 1st Surrealist Manifesto—it might be the greatest Surrealist love song:
October 15, 2025 at 3:48 PM
I’m working on a song version of a Eluard poem today, & here come these versions of a great Surrealist song written by an American arising in my feed. Then I think too of this one, written by another American before the 1st Surrealist Manifesto—it might be the greatest Surrealist love song:
Here’s someone’s poem performed with music. The Parlando Project does that all the time—but this time the poem was written by my late wife around 50 years ago when she was in her 20s. frankhudson.org/2025/10/14/i...
In Another Language
I mentioned last time that I’m cleaning out things I can no longer reasonably expect to use, and found a box which included poems by my late wife. Perhaps such things are past the use test, but I a…
frankhudson.org
October 15, 2025 at 12:36 PM
Here’s someone’s poem performed with music. The Parlando Project does that all the time—but this time the poem was written by my late wife around 50 years ago when she was in her 20s. frankhudson.org/2025/10/14/i...
Reposted by Frank Hudson
Reposted by Frank Hudson
A poem is an anti-capitalist machine
yes, it is broken if you try to produce with it
no, it doesn’t produce on command
the factory is closed
the worker is sleeping
yes, it is broken if you try to produce with it
no, it doesn’t produce on command
the factory is closed
the worker is sleeping
October 9, 2025 at 2:01 PM
A poem is an anti-capitalist machine
yes, it is broken if you try to produce with it
no, it doesn’t produce on command
the factory is closed
the worker is sleeping
yes, it is broken if you try to produce with it
no, it doesn’t produce on command
the factory is closed
the worker is sleeping
The experience of finding a cache of my late wife’s poetry & short stories while doing my own “death cleaning” yields this account, a poem, & a 2-minute musical piece. frankhudson.org/2025/10/07/e...
Exhumation
I’ve already mentioned that I’ve been dispensing with a lot of stuff, the kind of winnowing that I like to refer to as “Death Cleaning.”* This has included going through a series of stored-away box…
frankhudson.org
October 8, 2025 at 12:07 PM
The experience of finding a cache of my late wife’s poetry & short stories while doing my own “death cleaning” yields this account, a poem, & a 2-minute musical piece. frankhudson.org/2025/10/07/e...
Whew! That’s some stuff right there.
How many blues and jazz guys studied with Iannis Xenakis? youtu.be/c7nZXMJUw0c?...
Alabama March
YouTube video by McHouston Baker - Topic
youtu.be
October 6, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Whew! That’s some stuff right there.
I didn’t bring this up in the linked essay with musical performance, but I wonder if Emily Dickinson was punning “apotheosis” with “hypnosis” in this poem. frankhudson.org/2025/09/24/t...
October 5, 2025 at 11:01 AM
I didn’t bring this up in the linked essay with musical performance, but I wonder if Emily Dickinson was punning “apotheosis” with “hypnosis” in this poem. frankhudson.org/2025/09/24/t...
Not sure what’s up in south Minneapolis. Saw 4 police cars L&S on going down 3rd toward Lake St. earlier this hr. Then an ambulance, fire truck, & circling helicopter. Other police cruisers are driving down alleys between 3rd & Park Ave.
October 3, 2025 at 6:58 PM
Not sure what’s up in south Minneapolis. Saw 4 police cars L&S on going down 3rd toward Lake St. earlier this hr. Then an ambulance, fire truck, & circling helicopter. Other police cruisers are driving down alleys between 3rd & Park Ave.
Reading the #PoemsAbout #Mannequin early this morning I keep hearing in my mind’s ear echos of this Rilke poem as I read our fresh ones. A few years back I did an English translation & musical setting for that poem. The music starts with just drums, then piano & bass. Finally a cello arrives.
Archaic Torso of Apollo
New Year’s is a time to look at where one’s been and to look anew, to make resolutions and changes. So, let’s look anew at a 110-year-old work by Rainer Maria Rilke.That’s appropriate, because Rilk…
frankhudson.org
October 3, 2025 at 10:12 AM
Reading the #PoemsAbout #Mannequin early this morning I keep hearing in my mind’s ear echos of this Rilke poem as I read our fresh ones. A few years back I did an English translation & musical setting for that poem. The music starts with just drums, then piano & bass. Finally a cello arrives.