I like singers who write large stories about small worlds –

Mitchell and Dylan and Isbell

And Cohen and Wonder and Darnielle

And Swift and Prine and Raitt

And Browne and Simon and Waits

And so many others whose songs are divine

But whose names don’t particularly rhyme.    

*****

I like authors who paint light alongside darkness –

Russo and Whitehead and Robinson

And McBride and Tyler and Harrison

And Walter and Doyle and Barry

And Rendell and Hijuelos and Hornby

And so many others whose books I adore

But whose names don’t particularly flow.

*****

I like painters who sing of humanity,

Hopper and Rembrandt and Basquiat

And Boakye and Kahlo and Seurat

And Vermeer and Chagall and Cassatt

And Manet and Wiley and Degas

And so many others whose art is a smash

But whose names don’t particularly mesh.

*****

[Photo is the fiction corner of my home library,]