Two pieces in one today: a spoken-word performance with music of Kevin FitzPatrick's poem "Lambing," and then a short instrumental response to the story of the poem "Night-Born Lambs."

For more of what we do, combining other people's words (mostly literary poetry) with original music 

I combined two short Emily Dickinson poems to create this song or the strangeness, richness, and temporariness of life. 

To find out more about this, or to peruse the more than 700 other combinations of words (mostly literary poetry) with original music that are part of the Parlando Project, visit our blog and archives at frankhudson.org

A short bit of Gertrude Stein presented without prejudice as word-music you might enjoy in this musical performance by The LYL Band. For more about this, and the Van this is an abstract portrait of, see our blog and archivers at frankhudson.org

I took a strange poem by Robert Louis Stevenson and made it a stranger song as part of our observance of Armistice Day this year. Read about how my version slightly modified the original work and check out the more than 700 other combinations of various words with original music at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

For Armistice Day, I sing this poem by A. E. Housman about returning WWI soldiers. 

For more than 700 other combinations of various words (mostly literary poetry) and original music we perform, visit our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

An original song I made from a poem of mine about Autumn. Don't worry, the Parlando Project is still dedicated to using other people's words, and we'll return to that soon.

For more than 700 examples of that sort of thing, various words (mostly literary poetry) combined with music we compose and perform, visit our blog and archives at frankhudson.org

A special Halloween extra episode: 10 songs in 33 minutes featuring ghosts, graveyards, curses, and creatures. 

The Parlando Project combines words (mostly literary poetry) with original music in various styles. Here's a list of the songs in this mix along with their lyrics' authors: A Poison Tree (Blake), The Listeners (De La Mare), All Souls Night (Flexner), Reynardine (Campbell), Unreal City (Eliot), Ghost Blues (Ball), The Little Ghost (Millay), The Shadow on the Stone (Hardy), Ghost House (Frost), Stones (McKiernan)

For more about this Project see frankhudson.org

I extracted this sweet yet regretful poem for music performance by the LYL Band from a longer and more archaic one that Longfellow wrote. 

For more about this and for more than 700 other combinations of various words (usually literary poetry) with original music visit our blog and archives at frankhudson.org

The LYL Band's musical performance of a short poem comparing small-town Midwestern wooden churches to an acoustic guitar. 

For more that 700 other combinations of various words (mostly literary poetry) with original music, visit our archives and blog at frankhudson.org

Emily Dickinson's little poem mention my "home" instrument, so I just had to perform it.  Besides the obligatory guitar I let a string trio enter into the middle of the piece, scored in my simple way.

For more than 700 other combinations of various words (mostly literary poetry) with original music, visit our blog and archives at frankhudson.org

I poetically expand on this commonly expressed feeling of writers during this live LYL Band performance. 

We usually use other people's words at the Parlando Project, and to see more than 700 other examples of that (mostly using literary poetry) combined with original music in various styles, visit our archives and blog at frankhudson.org

Emily Dickinson featured bees in many of her poems, but this short playful poem is possibly the most imaginative.  I set it to music with acoustic guitar for today's audio piece.

For more than 700 other combinations of various words (usually literary poetry) with original music visit our blog and archives at frankhudson.org

I adapted the final poem in Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses as a song for today's audio piece.  Stevenson may have intended this poem to extend the lifetime of his children's book, by explaining to future children that his 19th century poems were nevertheless about children like them however different in details from his time.

My encounter with this poem led me to see it as something many adults, and I particularly, feel about the children in our lives who grow and change and leave us with "Children of the Air."

This is what the Parlando Project does, we combine words (mostly literary poetry) with original music. We've done over 700 of them over the years, and you can hear them and read about our encounters with all those words at our blog and archives at frankhudson.org

Here's a section of a longer Carl Sandburg poem for American Labor Day. Physicists tell us that what we see as a solid object is just atoms and particles moving around rapidly. Sandburg and Labor Day tell us that what we see as city is just the vibration of our constant labor.

The Parlando Project has over 700 audio pieces combining various words (mostly literary poetry) with original music. You can find our previous pieces and read about our experiences of them at our blog and archives found at frankhudson.org

Claude McKay's aching summer love poem performed as a love song. That's the kind of thing the Parlando Project does, takes literary poetry and combines it with original music in various styles.

You can hear over 700 examples of this archived at our blog where I discuss my reflections on each poem and performance at frankhudson.org

A song about a spring teenage romance interrupted by the summer vacation break in the schoolyear. 

For more about this and more than 700 other examples of various words (usually literary poetry) combined with original music, visit our blog and archives at frankhudson.org

Here's a poet writing the poetry of a long sleepless night, yet he spends as much time on the others in the summer night as himself. Today I perform this story of one now long past summer night.

To hear more than 700 other combinations of various words (mostly literary poetry) with original music in various styles, visit our blog and archives at frankhudson.org

Mark Twain carved out this heartrending lullaby as an epitaph for his dead daughter. I performed it simply and unadorned with my original music.

This is the 700th audio piece officially released by the Parlando Project in the 7 years since it launched. While I vary the words we use in style and outlook, most of them are taken from literary poetry. I also try to vary the original music we combine with the words, using different instruments and types of expression. You can find the other 699 pieces, along with more information about the words and my experience with them, at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

This passage from Huxley's last novel, Island,  was shared in a social media post this summer, and it seemed to be to have a compelling message. So, here's my performance of that excerpt.

Usually this Project uses literary poetry for its words, but I make exceptions. There are almost 700 other combinations of various words sung, spoken, or chanted with original music available at our blog and archive which can be visted at frankhudson.org

I took William Carlos Williams poem from his early collection Al Que Quiere!  and made into a song performed with a rock quartet. That's kind of what the Parlando Project does (though the music isn't always one kind of thing).  We combine words (usually literary poetry) with original music. 

We've done this just about 700 times in the past few years. To hear more of what we do, visit our blog and archives at frankhudson.org

Emily Dickinson's classmate Jackson also wrote poetry, and today we perform this summer poem of hers. Hunt-Jackson's July poem is filled with flowers trying to survive under heat.

We've done almost 700 of these kinds of these short audio pieces, using various words, mostly literary poetry, with original music. To read more about this, or to fine those hundreds of other pieces, visit our blog and archives at frankhudson.org

Robert Louis Stevenson wrote this as a children's poem, but I'm not so sure that there aren't many adults who feel this way on a long summer's day too.

This sort of thing is what the Parlando Project does: set words, usually literary poetry, to original music.  We perform them in various ways, with various music, and we're nearing our 700th published example of how we do this. To hear other combinations, visit our blog and archives at frankhudson.org

Every nature poet writes from their own location for the nature they write about, and so here's a musical performance of one of mine comparing our poems to urban geese. 

The Parlando Project has done nearly 700 of these combinations of various words (mostly other people's literary poetry) with original music. You can read more about this and hear other combinations at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

In 1852 the great American reformer Frederick Douglass gave a speech "What to the Slave Is the 4th of July?" -- but today I cast part of it, not has history, but as questions we can ask today, and in the future, in our country, or in yours. 

To read more about this, or to hear nearly 700 other combinations of various words (mostly literary poetry) with original music, visit our blog an archives at frankhudson.org

Emily Dickinson is a great poet partly because her poetry has several different modes. Here she is playfully looking at flies in this poem I set to music and performed.

For more about this and almost 700 other combinations of various words (mostly literary poetry) with original music, visit our blog and archives at frankhudson.org