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On the web since 1999
The air is humid from Redtenbacher’s bass. I ignore one layer of sweat upon my skin becoming salt crystals for mosquitoes at mid-day. An invisible cobweb through the woods off the trail veils my face. I pull away at the mesh. I’m an edible black bride.
...July 31st, 2025
They’d hired him on the spot, after a few brief questions. Questions that seemed strange to him now, but which the state of his nerves that afternoon had made it impossible to focus on at the time. Like, “ Do you own a car?”
...July 29th, 2025
the pencil clouds
the page (to follow the
shadow’s glissando graffiti):
thronged streets – before the
lockdown? – so many un-
befriended dreams… all
these years, scared to
open silence’s note-
book
?
July 26th, 2025
He is best known for writing “(Get Your Kicks On) Route 66” — which Nat Cole made famous in 1946 — but his earliest musical success came with the song “Daddy,” recorded in 1941 by Sammy Kaye and His Orchestra, which was the #1 record for eight weeks. He was also famous for being married to the glamorous singer Julie London. Who is he?
...July 24th, 2025
It’s the little things that keep me awake at night. No, not bubbles in a glass of champagne. I mean those microscopic creatures you see on posters hanging on immunologists’ walls.
...July 23rd, 2025
An ongoing series designed to share the quality of jazz poetry continuously submitted to Jerry Jazz Musician. This edition features a handful poets new to this publication, and in addition to a general reverence for the music, readers will find poems on the likes of Monk, Lester Young, Miles, and Oscar Peterson.
...July 20th, 2025
Maybe it happened this way. Jayne Cortez
sitting at the Five Spot, scribbling in her notebook.
July 19th, 2025
An essay inspired by my recent experiences witnessing the ceremonies commemorating the 80th anniversary of liberation of several World War II concentration camps in Germany.
...July 17th, 2025
It’s no secret that I’m a fan of Terrance Underwood’s poetry. I am also quite jealous of his ease with words, and of his graceful way of living, which shows up in this collection of 12 poems.
...July 17th, 2025
I first heard your voice singing in my dormitory room. My roommate Sheila played your song I Want Some Sugar in My Bowl. She showed me the albums that proved your deep voice was female.
...July 16th, 2025
The collection of 14 interviews is an impressive and determined effort, one that contributes mightily to the deepening of our understanding for the music’s past impact, and fans optimism for more.
...July 14th, 2025
Even as another purpled sunset curtains
this bistro’s leaded windows, letting
dinner talk turn to hush while we pour
red wine with a burble, none of us can recall
when our glass-eyed piano man became
the lucky piece we fist bump at the threshold.
July 12th, 2025
Some assembly required,
It might have said on that
Half-ton worth of furniture
Dollied from the back
July 11th, 2025
Poets write about Thelonious Monk – inspired by William Gottlieb’s photograph and Rhonda R. Dorsett’s artistic impression of it.
...July 8th, 2025
A personal journey leading to the discovery of the importance of jazz music, and finding love for it later in life.
...July 8th, 2025
sound
to a place
where tomorrow
is too
am
arrow
like
pain
from
brain chatter
July 5th, 2025
In this edition, due to a current and ongoing obsession with drummer Matt Wilson’s 2006 album The Scenic Route, Douglas Cole writes another poem in response to his experience listening to the track “Feel the Sway.”
...July 5th, 2025
It was Miles who taught me
that so what was a declaration
of independence from your mind
when it seduces you
to wish you were like everyone else,
July 3rd, 2025
The writer opines that jazz continues to survive – 100 years after J.A. Rogers’ own essay that highlighted the artistic freedom of jazz – and has “become a fundamental core in American culture and modern Americanism; not solely because of its artistic craftsmanship, but because of the spirit that jazz music embodies.”
...July 2nd, 2025
He smells residue of wind on wet skin
her long fingers caress his chin
she lives in the summer wind.
July 1st, 2025
Click here to read about plans for the future of Jerry Jazz Musician.
”Down in the Attic” by Kristofer Collins
The Sunday Poem is published weekly, and strives to include the poet reading their work.... Kristofer Collins reads his poem at its conclusion
Click here to read previous editions of The Sunday Poem
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