Author: Mark J. Chmiel

The Bell Is for All of You

“Anything you are attached to, let it go.” –Buddhist teaching I gave that bell to Mev 25 years ago It must have been sounded 10,000 times Pete heard it In fall of 2001 You heard…

Grace Abounds (December 14, 2013)

The realization that Pete Mosher is made up of non-Pete Mosher elements Jeremy’s stellar slideshow of the all-American family John Kavanaugh & John Foley’s calming recording of “How Can I Can from Singing?” Don Lassus…

Radical Presence

The following passages are from an interview with U.S.  poet Anne Waldman, co-founder of the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics… Poetry needs the breath. It needs the voice. It needs the body. It needs…

Alive beyond Alive

My friend Loyola works at  Mount Saint Joseph (she’s chair of the Art Department)  and knew Pete Mosher.  We reminisced last night and today before Pete’s funeral.  Cab picked me up at Lo’s  this morning…

Sometimes and Other Times

Sometimes You have such lucidity that people  are jaw-dropped in awe Other times Even with 20/20 you can’t see what’s in front of you Sometimes You’re the strongest person, everybody’s Rock of Gibraltar Other times…

Obituaries

There are two kinds Of obituaries The one you write For the light of day And public consumption And The one you write From the deepest night And private obsession

Practice

An awed interviewer once exclaimed To the jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker, “You do amazing things on the saxophone, Mr. Parker.” The musician replied, “I don’t know about amazing— I practiced for fifteen hours a day…