[CENTERING 1032] - BOOK - 5.5 x 8.5", 24 pg, saddle-stitched chapbook edition of 50.
// First print copies (edition/100) of this work were made available in July 2023. This 2nd print was made for Vision Festival 2024; the balance are exclusively available here & from our good brother of vintage width, 50 Miles of Elbow Room.
When You Smile The Big Orange Mountain Cries presents 52 poems by Little Huey, 1967-1970. Previously available in a small & elusive-to-most edition in 1997, this new version is a saddle-stitched chapbook, 24 pages on 100# satin, published on Parker's own Centering imprint.
In Universal Tonality: The Life and Music of William Parker, WP tells author Cisco Bradley that Little Huey, the guiding inspiration for his Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra, was “going back to childhood, back to the Bronx, back to the housing projects.” Little Huey “wants to be a poet because all he has is a pen and paper. He begins to retell what he’s seen, whether through music, film, ideas, or just what he sees looking out the project windows.”
two of the 52 poems herein:
(30)
IT IS SAID IN STREET BASKETBALL
THAT "THE GOAT" (SHORT FOR
EARL MANIGAULT) COULD TAKE
A DIME OFF THE TOP OF THE
BACKBOARD, BUT THEY ALL HAVE A
GOOD GAME. CONWAY, BIRCH, RANDY
MARTINDALE, THE DOWNS BROTHERS,
LITTLE TIMMY, JOHN DAILEY, MOLAVE
IRISH PATRICK THEY ALL HAVE A GOOD GAME
TOO MUCH GAME FOR THEIR OWN GOOD
(39)
I'VE MADE A BIG MISTAKE
I'VE KICKED THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL
TEACHER IN THE LEG
SHE SAYS IT'S OKAY
SHE UNDERSTANDS
BUT I AM READY TO THROW
IN THE TOWEL
HIDE UNDER MY BED UNTIL I AM 75