He Knew All The Words

Archive for August, 2012

…Weary of words and people…

comments: 0

…sick of the city, wanting the sea…

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.


Exiled, by Edna St. Vincent Millay; read by David Zaza


My friends swimming off Far Rockaway, 2012

I went to Far Rockaway this weekend, and while it wasn’t Millay’s coast of Maine, it was restorative. I protected myself from the bitchy sun, huddled under itchy towels, crabbed my way through a hangover morning by eating fish tacos with city hipsters. I shook off the salted caramel of a boardwalk Caracas, then took to a dark dive bar in the afternoon to shoot whiskey and darts at my young friends and the bar’s old firemen. I lost everything, even the one fish I thought I’d hooked with a bit of cheese bait back in the inland safety of our little island off the coast. The night was so dark I just knew I had gone blind.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.


Wild Sea, by Mark Eitzel


Michael Ross Dunham by the sea, 2012

Written by David Zaza

August 27th, 2012 at 10:55 pm

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged with , , , ,

About suffering they were never wrong

comments: 0

Musée des Beaux Arts, by W.H. Auden. Read by yours truly. Click to play:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Written by David Zaza

August 22nd, 2012 at 12:03 pm

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged with

Paris Opera Ballet. In Paris!

comments: 2



I’m beside myself because my family and I are going to see Paris Opera Ballet on September 24. Just us, 2000 thousand Parisians, and the Palais Garnier. Oh, and some of the best dancers in the world. Doing an all Balanchine program! Serenade, Agon, and Prodigal Son — three ballets that could couldn’t be more different in style, but which are united in showing Balanchine’s absolute mastery and genius.

Third trip to Paris, third time seeing this company. I saw them twice in New York as well — once fifteen years ago and finally again this summer. But to have them doing an all Balanchine program is beyond my wildest dreams.

Written by David Zaza

August 13th, 2012 at 9:55 pm

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged with , , ,

Between Poems, by Jack Gilbert

comments: 0

A lady asked me
what poets do
between poems.
Between passions
and visions. I said
that between poems
I provided for death.
She meant as to jobs
and commonly.
Commonly, I provide
against my death,
which comes on.
And give thanks
for the women I have
been privileged to
in extreme.

Written by David Zaza

August 9th, 2012 at 12:12 am

Posted in Uncategorized