Stanzaic Stylings

Sin Takes a Bow  Make Believe made up Sin, and Sin took it from there.  Entered our lives with a racket.  Created a racket, the life and death racket. Took our five senses for a ride.  Made yes and no common events.  Made loving you a shadow. Sin is at home in all of us, and Sin will take our breath away. Listen to Sin Takes a Bow by Paula Hackett on SoundCloud BIO: Paula Hackett's poetry is influenced by her life experiences growing up in Berkeley during the vibrant and explosive 60's. The daughter of novelist Paul Hackett, she studied under John Beecher, Angela Davis and Grover Sales. She has written lyrics in collaboration with her brother John Hackett, for many great jazz composers including Teddy Edwards, John Handy, Ivan Lins, Joe Sample, Eddie 'Cleanhead' Vinson, and Cedar Walton. Her life long love of jazz is reflected in her many poems about musicians and in her CDs with pianists Rudi Wongozi and Connie Crothers. Paula Hackett Website

Listen to Paula Hackett's My Bodyguard. spoken word poetry by clicking the link below. https://soundcloud.com/paula-hackett-295986251/my-bodyguard My Bodyguard  Losing balance losing my balance across the floor or against a wall. My body follows along always finding a structure to hit, slide or crawl across.  Something is tipping the balance. The brain a likely culprit. Or maybe gravity itself having a little fun with me.  Maybe life is trying to kick itself free from me. But before a decision is made, a diagnosis, a doctor  or a way to nail down my balance is decided,  maybe a new event will take place. My balance and I will join together as we float, glide, and prepare for our body to take us dancing, one step after another. BIO:  Paula Hackett's poetry is influenced by her life experiences growing up in Berkeley during the vibrant and explosive 60's. The daughter of novelist Paul Hackett, she studied under John Beecher, Angela Davis an...

RIP David Meltzer - A tribute poem to David by Paula Hackett Photo from Wikipedia David Meltzer Rumplestiltskin has a secret  and so does David Meltzer. David weaves Secrets and Gold, Music and Poetry. The timekeeper, he knows the rhythm of beating hearts. The beginning of Music. The beginning of Poetry. His life is a sanctuary for both, as he writes the poems music can celebrate. Listen to the poem on Soundcloud  https://soundcloud.com/paula-hackett-295986251/david-meltzer " Esteemed poet David Meltzer has said of Paula Hackett’s work, “(Her) poetry is deceptive in its clarity and deep emotional base…  Hackett writes with a keen eye, alert to the right details… Her cd “Roulette” is a wonderfully expansive session with pianist Rudi Wongozi which I recomment without question.  It’s a subtle and superlative session; one of great dialogue between music and word.”

Steel on Steel  There is a sound when your voice grabs my voice,  when your words twist inside my body, when my words scream to escape. On the other side of sound, there is motion.  When your body slides into my body and my body can outsmart you. Can throw you into space with one unexpected turn  and then enjoy the wreckage we created. But then your voice returns like screeching steel. And I remember as a child, I would wait on the railroad tracks until the conductor panicked. Hear it on Sound Cloud Paula Hackett's poetry is influenced by her life experiences growing up in Berkeley during the vibrant and explosive 60's. The daughter of novelist Paul Hackett, she studied under John Beecher, Angela Davis and Grover Sales. She has written lyrics in collaboration with her brother John Hackett, for many great jazz composers including Teddy Edwards, John Handy, Ivan Lins, Joe Sample, Eddie 'Cleanhead' Vinson, and Cedar Walton. Her life long love of jazz is reflected i...

Enter Into the Earth Enter into to the earth                   again                   The middle of rhythm                   A pounding sound                   in the back of life                   It keeps me alive                   Almost a feeling                   A whisper of memory                   A thought somewhere                  in a mind that                   has no substance                   A rite of fancy    ...

Round 2  Because we are alive in this life, because we feel and with a head full of nonsense,  we love. Afraid of our fear, of even our own wicked dreams. Your shape turning from me. Terror, the cold insides of the moon. Your words frail, your speech in sadness, always turning, always away. Because you thought, and thinking now you return. Hoping again, wanting a little less, hoping for safety. Forgetting and not forgetting. Because of lasting things, musical notes that make you sit and cry.  Weeping, praying with laughter, that these things always remain. www.paulahackett.com