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Kwame Dawes. Courtesy photo.

It is not entirely clear what has arrived, here in this poem “Psalm For Arrival.”

What is clear, is the familiar sense that sometimes, after a long effort, we are able to “find sounds/ for words” — to articulate, the difficult stuff of memory.

And perhaps this is what has arrived, the voicing of the difficult things.

In the end, however, Khaled Mattawa finds no great relief in speaking these words. Somehow the deadening effects of memory can be persistent, despite our necessary efforts to disavow “old sentiments”.

Psalm For Arrival
By Khaled Mattawa

When we find the sounds
for words we need, their death
rattle begins to echo in our throats.

Memory creeps up on old sentiments,
finds them lurking like blind fish
in the twilight of our blood.

Dead and living on—ancient prophecies
or frozen microbes—something we disavow
continues to feed on us.


American Life in Poetry does not accept unsolicited manuscripts. It is made possible by The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2020 by Khaled Mattawa, “PSALM FOR ARRIVAL” from Fugitive Atlas (Greywolf Press, 2020.) Poem reprinted by permission of the author and the publisher. Introduction copyright ©2022 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction’s author, Kwame Dawes, is George W. Holmes Professor of English and Glenna Luschei Editor of Prairie Schooner at the University of Nebraska.
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Kwame Dawes. Courtesy photo.

Here is what one might call a most witty anti-Valentine’s Day poem, which, tellingly, turns out to be an exuberant and witty pro-love poem.

Kalamu Ya Salaam’s “civilization” should be read as an over-protestation against sentiment, for in the end, “As Serious as a Heart Attack,” is a lovely and defiantly optimistic celebration of the abundance of love.

As Serious as a Heart Attack
By Kalamu Ya Salaam

i have never been fully domesticated
but i have been civilized

by women taught that the heart
is more than a muscle

a life drum whose function is
both physical blood pumping
and spiritual longing to be embraced

but love, ah love is a river
we may get wet
but we can never drink it all
love always flows on
more than we can ever swallow

no matter how thirsty
we claim to be


American Life in Poetry does not accept unsolicited manuscripts. It is made possible by The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2020 by Kalamu Ya Salaam, “AS SERIOUS AS A HEART ATTACK” from Cosmic Deputy, poetry and context 1968-2019 (University of New Orleans Press, 2020.) Poem reprinted by permission of the author and the publisher. Introduction copyright ©2022 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction’s author, Kwame Dawes, is George W. Holmes Professor of English and Glenna Luschei Editor of Prairie Schooner at the University of Nebraska.
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Victor Hall and Gloria Scott on Juneteenth 2021 at the Middletown Art Center. Photo MAC staff.

MIDDLETOWN, Calif. — The Middletown Art Center presents the third in the “Sounds of Liberation” series with world music musician Victor Hall at 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 18.

The event will take place online at and the center, located at 21456 Highway 175.

Doors open at 6:45 p.m.

Hall, a longtime Lake County resident and popular musician with many local bands including Midnight Sun Massive, will be hosted by Clovice Lewis, composer, musician, educator and social justice advocate from Upper Lake.

The evening's event includes a conversation about race and music, with an intimate performance by Hall and Lewis and opportunity for audience questions.

Friday’s event will center on stories of Hall’s experiences and artistic journey as a man of color in the music world and in the military, during challenging times of social change and racial injustice.

He’ll share about his work across musical genres from reggae to blues, and the personal connections he draws between music and social justice.

Sounds of Liberation is a collaboration between Clovice Lewis and the MAC, forged through the Community Call to Action, or CCA, A loving response to systemic racism in America.

CCA is a self-organized local action group formed in response to the widely publicized and horrific deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor in 2020.

“This series of interviews and performances are based on my research on the role of African music as the music of liberation,” explained Lewis. “My central thesis is that most African American music is, in some manner, a reflection of the harm of systemic racism and oppression. Victor and I share many connections yet are very different from one another. I anticipate an interesting and surprising evening of conversation and music.”

The series honors the Black experience as told through musical genres that have contributed to and influenced contemporary North American music and culture.

The primary goal of the project is to create environments that support public exploration of challenging questions about systemic racism in America through music and the personal experiences of Black musicians living in Lake County.

The project launched on Juneteenth 2021 at MAC, with an engaging conversation between Clovice Lewis and arts professional and social justice advocate Sabrina Klein Clement.

The MAC invites community members of all ages to join via Zoom broadcast or by limited seating in-person at the MAC gallery with COVID protocols in place. Tickets are available on a sliding scale at www.middletownartcenter.org/sounds-of-liberation.

Sounds of Liberation is made possible with community support and with support from California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Learn more at www.calhum.org.
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‘BLACKLIGHT’ RATED PG-13

One question that fans of Liam Neeson need to consider is whether following the career path of Steven Seagal in action pictures is worthy of emulation for a talented actor just shy of being a septuagenarian.

The Northern Irish thespian’s starring role in 2008’s “Taken,” in which he played a retired CIA operative who employed his “particular set of skills” to harshly deal with abductors of his teenage daughter kidnapped while on a trip to Paris, was followed by a series of similar films.

“Taken” turned into a trilogy, where he saved family members before having to finally save himself after being framed for the murder of his ex-wife and then using his talents to track down the real killers.

This brings us to “Blacklight,” where Neeson’s Travis Block is a deep undercover agent and a “fixer” for the FBI under the direction of its director Gabriel Robinson (Aidan Quinn), both of whom served together during the Vietnam War.

The film’s opening would seemingly appear to cleverly recall the paranoia of political thrillers from the 1970s when charismatic Congressional candidate Sofia Flores (Mel Jarnson) ends in the crosshairs of a shadowy conspiracy.

On the scene of the Flores political rally in the nation’s capital is Dusty Crane (Taylor John Smith), who we soon learn is an undercover FBI agent working for Director Robinson on a covert assignment of dubious origins.

A chain of events propels Crane to take drastic measures to reveal the foreboding conspiracy dubbed “Operation Unity” at high levels in the FBI, leading the agent to connect with website news reporter Mira Jones (Emmy Raver-Lampman).

As seen before in other films of the genre, Block tries to make amends as an absentee parental figure to his single mom daughter Amanda (Claire van der Boom) and young granddaughter Natalie (Gabriella Sengos).

To that end of seeking more quality time with family, Block wants out of his extraction duties, but Director Robinson won’t hear of it and insists that he must bring the errant Crane back into the fold.

Without giving away some twists, Block begins to harbor doubts about his superiors, and with a little push from journalist Jones, a light begins to shine on the sinister truth of “Operation Unity.”

Soon enough, Block is on a collision course with his old war buddy Robinson when his daughter and granddaughter mysteriously vanish from their home that Block had outfitted with cameras and sensors.

As expected, the obligatory gunfights and high-speed car chases add to the thrills, and Block delivers a few catchy lines, the best one being telling the menacing Robinson, protected by two agents, “you’re gonna need more men.”

According to the dictionary, blacklight is invisible ultraviolet light or infrared radiation. Given that blacklight could be used to detect that which is not visible to the naked eye, perhaps the title “Blacklight” is a metaphor for the unmasking of the bad guys.

Frankly, this generic Liam Neeson thriller does not merit any serious thought about the meaning of the film’s title. It’s so indistinctive that the only proper thing is for it to fall quickly into a black hole of one’s memory.

Having enjoyed the ride with many of Neeson’s previous forays into the genre, particularly with the original “Taken,” my suggestion is that anyone tempted to see “Blacklight” should save a few bucks and wait for its inevitable appearance on a streaming service.



‘RUBY AND THE WELL’ ON BYUtv

BYUtv is a free streaming service that produces a number of original series. “Ruby and the Well” is a 10-episode family drama, premiering on Sunday, Feb. 27, that follows the adventures of 14-year-old Ruby O’Reilly (Zoe Wiesenthal) in the rural town of Emerald.

After inheriting her great uncle’s apple orchard, Ruby and her dad Daniel (Kristopher Turner) arrive in Emerald, flush with hope for the future. To their surprise, the orchard and the town are in disrepair, and everyone seems to be going through a rough patch.

All that starts to change when Ruby discovers a profound way to impact the lives of the townspeople by granting their innermost wishes, which have been captured and stored in a magic well on their property.

While Ruby and her new best friends Mina (Lina Sennia) and Sam (Dylan Kingwell) work on solving the wishes one by one, Daniel toils in the disheveled apple orchard, determined to make their new lives work, even if it means taking side gigs to support the family.

But as the town’s rejuvenation draws attention from outside, a stranger from the city shows up with an offer that threatens everything Ruby has been working for. She and her friends must figure out a way to fight back while still honoring the well’s purpose.

“Ruby and the Well” invites viewers to a place where new beginnings and second chances have room to grow. Fittingly enough, this series is intended as entertainment for the whole family.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
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‘DEATH ON THE NILE’ — Rated PG-13

One of the most prolific and revered authors of detective novels, Agatha Christie was inspired during the First World War to create Hercule Poirot based on the notion that a Belgian refugee who had been a police officer would make a great detective.

Hercule Poirot turned into a legendary character and realized his best on-screen incarnation in Sidney Lumet’s “Murder on the Orient Express,” a visually stunning 1974 production with an all-star cast.

Kenneth Branagh revives “Death on the Nile,” first in the cinemas more than 40 years ago, with an old-fashioned sensibility in its gorgeous design and cinematography, as well as the sense fitting neatly as a 1937 period piece.

Opening with a somewhat unnecessary prologue during the Great War, Belgian soldier Hercule Poirot (Branagh) demonstrates valor and courage during trench warfare, surviving battle wounds that explain the origin of his bushy mustache.

Twenty-odd years later, the Belgian sleuth ends up on an Egyptian vacation aboard a glamorous riverboat steamer with a group of more or less aristocratic people connected in various ways to a picture-perfect couple on an idyllic honeymoon voyage.

The newlyweds are fabulously rich heiress Linnet Ridgeway (Gal Gadot) and her handsome husband Simon Doyle (Armie Hammer), a person who might be credibly considered an opportunist since he was engaged to another when they first met.

Enter Jacqueline de Bellefort (Emma Mackey), the jilted lover who was Linnet’s best friend and now has turned into a vengeful stalker who finagles her way aboard the S.S. Karnak riverboat heading down the Nile.

From an earlier encounter at a London night club, Poirot was already familiar with the parties to the romantic triangle, having observed that Jacqueline introduced Simon as her fiancé to Linnet.

One of the guests on the cruise is Poirot’s old friend Bouc (Tom Bateman), whose irritable mother (Annette Bening) is along for the ride to paint the ancient pyramids of Giza.

Other passengers associated with Linnet include former fiancé and physician Windlesham (Russell Brand), a jealous maid (Rose Leslie) and radical godmother Marie Van Schuyler (Jennifer Saunders).

Rousing suspicion is Linnet’s business manager and cousin (Ali Fazal), but blues band performers (Sophie Okonedo and Letitia Wright) bring a different tune to the journey.

After the first murder, Poirot jumps into the fray, annoying most of the travelers with his relentless queries and deductive reasoning, even as the body count mounts and no one feels safe.

With wicked twists and turns that may leave many guessing the final denouement, “Death on the Nile” is beautifully staged as an entertaining diversion for those who appreciate a conventional, old-school murder mystery-thriller.



‘Frederick Douglass: In Five Speeches’ on HBO

February is Black History Month, and it is a fitting time on the 23rd of the month for the HBO documentary film “Frederick Douglass: In Five Speeches,” a look at the life and work of the orator and civil rights activist in his own words.

Inspired by David Blight’s “Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom,” the documentary brings to life the words of our country’s most famous anti-slavery advocate.

Escaping from slavery at age 20, Douglass went on to become the most influential Black man in the nineteenth century, and he achieved that position based on the power of his words.

Entirely self-taught, the famed abolitionist was a powerful writer and master orator, crafting speeches that challenged the nation to live up to its founding principles.

The HBO documentary offers a new approach to understanding Douglass’ story, guided entirely by his own words about the country’s struggle for Black freedom and equality.

Acclaimed actors draw from five of Douglass’ legendary speeches to represent a different moment in the tumultuous history of 19th century America as well as a different stage of Douglass’ long and celebrated life.

Together with his autobiographies, the speeches chart Douglass’ rise from a passionate young agitator to a composed statesman, and ultimately to a disenchanted but still hopeful older man.

The first of the five speeches dates to pre-Civil War 1841, “I Have Come to Tell You Something About Slavery,” wherein Douglass recounts before an anti-slavery convention his story of being raised as a slave publicly for the first time.

During the twilight of his life in 1894, Douglass’ speech “Lessons of the Hour,” recreated by actor Jeffrey Wright, exhorted America to eliminate prejudice and look to its founding principles.

At the moment, I am in the middle of an interesting history book about the remarkable story of how Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass steered America through the moral crisis of the Civil War.

With numerous New York Times bestseller history books to his credit, Brian Kilmeade’s “The President and the Freedom Fighter” offers the premise that the two men didn’t always see eye to eye, but ultimately were committed to the Constitution that united them in friendship.

Further edification on this subject would merit reading the source material for this HBO documentary. After all, David Blight garnered the Pulitzer Prize for History for his efforts.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
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‘MOONFALL’ Rated PG-13

The choice was to see either the space odyssey “Moonfall” or the aptly-titled “Jackass Forever,” which if you’ve seen any of the previous iterations of the franchise is all you really need to know, and besides you can wait because it’s bound to show up on a streaming service.

After seeing “Moonfall,” a better option would have been to gaze at the moon. This attempt at the marvel of intergalactic thrills may not be irredeemably horrible or completely bereft of any entertainment value, but it’s an arguable point.

One goes into this movie with the expectation that director Roland Emmerich, having crafted better spectacles in blockbusters like “Independence Day” and “The Day After Tomorrow,” will deliver the goods when the world is on the brink of annihilation.

Well, “Moonfall” does have its moments of upheaval and destruction but the special effects come off as a bit shopworn and not very engaging, as the malevolent force threatening space missions can only be described as something kind of menacing.

With an opening 10 years in the past, NASA astronauts Jo Fowler (Halle Berry) and Brian Harper (Patrick Wilson) are on a space shuttle ride that goes horribly wrong and a third member of the team is cast adrift.

Brian is the fall guy for mission failure and in the present day he’s been out of work ever since. His wife divorced him and remarried, and his estranged son, Sonny (Charlie Plummer), has been arrested for drug possession after a high-speed chase.

Meanwhile, conspiracy theorist KC Houseman (John Bradley) is completely absorbed with everything related to outer space, even going so far as to impersonate professors to spout his hypotheses.

Falsely referring to himself as Dr. Houseman, KC is the first to detect that a mysterious force has knocked the Moon from its orbit, hurling it on a collision course with Earth and ending life as we know it.

With only weeks before impact with our planet, Jo Fowler, who has risen to the top ranks of NASA, has an idea to save our civilization but she’s going to need former top pilot Brian to mount a seemingly impossible final mission into space.

The gravity of the situation is readily apparent when tidal waves wipe out large swathes of Los Angeles, and elsewhere earthquakes and atmospheric disruptions cause havoc.

The idea of sending the alcoholic former astronaut Brian back into space seems incomprehensible to the NASA folks other than his old teammate Jo, but there is really no choice.

More puzzling is how the fake Dr. Houseman becomes the third crew member. After all, though he figured out the threat first, this is the same guy who has a newspaper headline about gay aliens plastered on his wall.

In 1962, President John F. Kennedy made public a plan to land a man on the Moon by the end of the decade, resulting in the Apollo 11 lunar mission and the “giant leap for mankind.” Now along comes “Moonfall” to spoil his vision.

One thing “Moonfall” might have going for it is that watching this disaster of the orbital tilt threatening our demise just might take our minds off the tough, challenging times we are dealing with in the here and now.




‘THE WOMAN IN THE HOUSE’ ON NETFLIX

When you are a prolific reader, it is not uncommon to learn new words to add to your vocabulary. A less frequent occurrence is picking up a new one watching a Netflix series, but that’s what happens with “The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window.”

Whew, that’s a long title that would never fit on a marquee. The new word, at least for me, was “ombrophobia,” which even spell check does not seem to recognize. Fear of rain is the definition, and it greatly affects Kristen Bell’s Anna in this dark comedy’s genre parody.

“The Woman in the House,” an episode series that lends itself to an easy binge-watching experience, is in the spirit of any number of Lifetime Channel movies where the female protagonist knows too much and is in some sort of peril.

Divorced and living alone in a big house, Anna excessively drinks red wine and pops pills for her anxiety, which is due to her ongoing grief over the death of her young daughter.

A handsome new neighbor, widower Neil (Tom Riley), moves into the house across the street with his young daughter Emma (Samsara Yett), and Anna takes notice with a welcoming attitude until strange things happen such as witnessing a murder (or so she thinks).

While other neighbors and even the police start to think she’s gone batty, Anna decides to play detective, and things start to spiral wildly out of control. Even her ex-husband (Michael Ealy) gets dragged into the situation.

“The Woman in the House” is entertaining for its spoof of the genre, and the twist in the final scene leaves open the possibility for another season.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.

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