John Kuzma's Podcast

“Ancient Warrior’s Song” depicts the combat of red and black so eloquently carried in the symbolism of the chessboard, where archetypal forces collide on one sunny and peaceful afternoon that I saw as an innocent spectator.

Pig's Foot is a poem about moving from utility to love. Moving in the direction of love is what we all seek, and the pig becomes a "totem" animal, symbolically of course, in this poem.  

A warning, this poem is incredibly dense but it will pay a reward to those who listen to the end. It is very personal, and I doubt that I could write this poem again. The music is my "March for a Festive Occasion" in an electronic realization.

This poem tells us about connection and the way in which my friend Rev. Dr. Cynthia Cearley mastered the art of connection.

It must be obvious that this is a eulogy for a friend. And its a very brief poem because this is a friend that I had some difficulty with. I wanted to remember him in a positive way. And the topics I describe in this were the occasions that are most fruitful thoughts. We were both, as I say, small things in a big world. Parts of us large, parts inflated, and parts that have grown. This is put with the music because the agitated section fits so well with the middle section of this. But I think we did a good job of creating an artifact here which speaks for itself. This poem has a secret which is trying to get out as well. 

This is in two parts. The first part talks about the childhood yearning that everyone has for a simpler life. I mention that "a good stick is almost impossible to find." This is because in adulthood we become separated. There are just as many caterpillars as there were in the old days of my childhood, but I just don't spend enough time crawling around on the grass to notice them. Then the poem ends part I with me saying "faith left me for younger choir boys," that is, the childlike faith.  The second half of the poem turns to a series of adult images, focusing on the ram of Abraham, God's ram in the bushes. This is the world of adulthood where we need to be reminded that the ram is always there, but it is not known to us. Many people do reckless things in life if they don't find the ram in the bushes and this is the ram that God put in Abraham's possession for sacrifice, so he did not have to sacrifice his son, testing his loyalty. 

"My Javelin" is about writer’s block. I use the biblical David and Goliath story, 1 Samuel 17, as a metaphor for my own confrontation with this common problem. David only had one shot. His weapon was an ancient sling which, in his capable hands, could hurl a smooth tennis ball-sized stone with an impact velocity of about 250 pounds per square inch. The stone did not kill Goliath but stunned him and became embedded in his forehead between his eyes. David then cut off Goliath's head with the giant's own sword.  In other words, we all symbolically possess some version of David's weapon in solving problems. We can solve any problem no matter how over-matched we may seem.      

The music is my improvisation on Gregorian Chants that I have known since childhood. This forms a powerful framework for evaluating the loss of my ability to play the organ from ca. 2006 – present due to Parkinson's Disease. Music: Improvisation on Marian Gregorian Hymns – JK, organ; recorded 1996 at St. Lawrence Church, Cincinnati, OH.

We build things, and what we build very often builds us. Culinary culture that brings out the best in persons is another example of concatinating force multipliers, and lives of friendships over time do this as well. And isn't our reflection on this process all it takes to resolve to do better things with the ordinary ingredients we all have lying about awaiting the new?   Music: John Kuzma - Prelude & Fugue for Harpsichord

The modern supermarket is often a setting ripe with revealing comic episodes. We can see a deep sadness appearing to be helped by comedy.  It is as if the actions of the poem's central figure don't have any logical beginning or ending. He fulminates about almost nothing at all.   The music is a harpsichord piece first played in the normal way, and then in retrograde, or backwards. Somehow, we arrive at that point where anger’s hold on the moment is broken. Music: John Kuzma - Prelude for Harpsichord. MIDI sound processing by Taylor Marvin

The music paired with an inside look at weekly church choir rehearsal is a circus march. It is a parody of an organist playing wildly to his adoring audience. As a mock, Socratic dialogue intrudes into the chaos of true intrusions, one thinks of a Pieter Breugel paintng depicting all this. Music: March  - from American Suite, by John Kuzma. Recorded 2001 at St. Lawrence Church, Cincinnati, OH. John Kuzma, organist.

"Bang" is a very early poem made of rhythms like John Berryman's "Dream Songs." The innocence of this young man gives the poem its tone of lament. That I overtly try to make no judgment of this, fake that I am "just a reporter," is intentionally cold, and aloof. I give the last word to a faceless radio bystander. This is horror nearly impossible to imagine. Music: O Beautiful for Spacious Skies - The American Boychoir with orchestra, John Kuzma, arranger & conductor    

“Augean Stables” is my labor of Hercules. Only one of twelve famous “labors” Hercules had to clean out the Augean Stables, the stables of the gods, which had not been cleaned for 6000 years. He had to do this to prove himself worthy of immortality.  This is a myth which teaches us that we must get our own psychological house in order if we are to become worthy of greatness. It was a task of cleaning out my studio, ripping it back to the bare walls, scraping the floor, and removing seven layers of carpet that have been there since the house's first days.  Before embarking on a great challenge, (like reclaiming your life as a composer), one needs to be sure – through humbling labor - that one is free of any demons.  Music: Piano Prelude & Fugue - John Kuzma  

Whenever I get in touch with the police I always feel very good. It comforts me to walk into a restaurant and see a pair of cops eating there. I am always relieved to see police arrive when there is any sign of trouble. These are two occasions when something illegal either was happening or the crime had already happened. The policeman in the first story drew his gun and I thought there was going to be gunfire. I thought the man being arrested was going to have a weapon and I was going to be in the line of fire. Luckily, that was not the case. It was dramatic the way it unfolded and I hope the way the drama comes through in my encounter. The other case, I was almost sure there was evidence that something illegal was going on. Representatives of both transactions were there and twenty to thirty $100 bills were counted out in front of me and I was wondering what was going to happen there.  The music I chose is The String Quartet #2, Good Friday, because of the dramatic qualities and its use of the 12-note chord.

"What Isn't Obvious at the Ranch House Cafe" is a narrative on two levels going on simultaneously - #1 - The story of my Uncle Bill Kuzma that my dad used to beat up regularly in the coal bin #2 - The story of the Ranch House denisons Pay attention, these are the only hints. Music: Kuzma: Toccata in Boogie, American Suite, #2, John Kuzma, Organ; St. Lawrence, Cincinnati, OH, 2001  

The poem uses juxtaposition of animal and human behaviors to generate a rich texture of metaphorical ideas. In other words, creation is very simple. One looks for a knot somewhere, or more precisely, one makes the knot that is the hook from which large structures may hang: hang on one hook of the mind and that way it can work its own magic in the spirit of the listener.  Music: Jean Berger - Symfonietta for Strings III, the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, John Kuzma, conducting.

I tried to create the poem's mood using the Country Song, which is about cigarette smoke as a symbol.   Smoke is a symbol of a web in use for all kinds of seductions.  Music: Country Song - John Kuzma. Performed by Patricia Baxter Wright, Chanteuse & John Kuzma, piano

The music is my "Ode for Oboe and Strings".  The score is very rich sounding because I had the unusual scoring of two basses, three cellos, two violas, and two violins. I wanted music that is very evocative and haunting.   

Music: "The Stars and Stripes Forever", John Philip Sousa, arranged by John Kuzma and performed by the American Boychoir, John Kuzma conducting.