Sublime eclectic mayhem. That’s been my playlist project and musical life, one that begins with The Muppet Movie soundtrack and later involves performing hymns, death metal, surf, and bluegrass. I’ve played in theaters, tents, and basements, for multi-stage festivals and squirrel rodeos. I’ve written and recorded music for The Drunken Odyssey. Sublime eclectic mayhem. A warning and a welcome for joyous noise, for those navigating what Beckett called “this bitch of an earth.”

Keeping Things Whorled

He asked if I knew any enduring truths
and the only thing that came to mind
was that no truths were enduring.
It wasn’t meant to be flippant or holier-
than-thou, but how I moved through the world
or how the world moved through me.

I suppose it’s also a lie, but I’m trying 
to figure out what I meant by it. 
I wasn’t trying to sound like Socrates,
in that I know that I don’t know, 
although that works just as well. 

I wasn’t trying to sound like the ghost
of Derrida, all breath a palimpsest,
all scripture trace and erasure – though 
I suppose that works fine, tool. 

Maybe I was, again, chasing 
that ontological arsonist Heraclitus, 
where the world is flux, dripping 
with cosmic fire. I understood that – 
nostalgia a sticky grief, the inability 
to hold on to the sharp points of happiness. 

Life open. Moving.
Moving on. 

I try shaking a narrative from the trees.
Either their defense is too great or 
my ability too meager to make the world
bend. So why bow? Why break? 
They have no oaths, and I no power to make
even the grasses wave for me.

A late summer harvest, a lean, lighted morning, 
burning fog and sweat away. The toil,
the ultimate boiling of the returns. 

Still, these few plants stand, curled, slightly sere 
around their own fecundity, seared at the edges, 
mocking this heat. A golden day, an hour, a year. 

All those paintings and pottery,
working life curled around hillsides–
dances, sacrifices, shields.

I think the crowd may be as often running away 
than ever spinning with any of this.

Keeping Things Whorled

Listen on Tidal. Listen on Spotify.

1. “Jazz Battle” – Jabbo Smith
2. “Echate Pa’lla” – Fania All Stars
3. “Reich: The Desert Music: I. fast” – Joe Hisaishi, The Philharmonic Chors of Tokyo
4. “Connect the Dots” – Rosetta Stone
5. “Just a Glass of Wine” – Kletka Red
6. “Rickshaw Waltz” – Bill MacKay, Ryley Walker
7. “Obstination” – Uèle Lamore
8. “Don’t Light My Fire” – Otoboke Beaver
9. “So so Good U Guys” – Sam Grendel
10. “Bells of Athena” – Madeleine Cocolas
11. “García Lorca, Sollinís: Canciones españolas antiguas: No 10, Zorongo” – Avi Avital, Between Worlds
12. “Between Dens and Ruins” – Malthusian
13. “Why” – Star Moles
14. “Metelytsia” – Julian Ktasty
15. “Jelly Meadow Bright” – NO JOY, Fire-Toolz

Stephen McClurg (Episode 473 & 666) composes and improvises in Serenity Dagger, The Abdomen, and other projects. Along with session work for mid-Alabama singer/songwriters, he frequently collaborates with musicians across the state adding bass, guitar, and synths to friends’ recordings. He currently writes reviews for Horror DNA and is the substitute low end wrangler for Mobile-based punk rock band Future Hate. You can find out more about his work here.