Verse from the Village

Description

Taiko Quartz Beat is the result of several decades of writing extended sequenced poetry. The first poem is “Quartz City,” which is my version of a closet screenplay. It was originally conceived in the 1990s as my jazz improvisation of TS Eliot’s The Wasteland and my readings of English Romantic poets like Lord Byron and Percy Blisshe Shelley, who wrote closet plays (lyrical drama intended to be read not performed.)

“Graffiti Walls” is the result of a combination of journaling and poetry. “Body Mosaics,” “The Book of Eternal Returns” and other sequences often explore the history of Los Angeles often using mythology as a construct. The poems have been updated and revised.