.
.
An ongoing series designed to share the quality of jazz poetry continuously submitted to Jerry Jazz Musician. This edition features poems communicating the emotional appeal of jazz music, as well as nods to the likes of Miles Davis, Regina Carter, Maynard Ferguson, Ornette Coleman, and Max Roach.
Thanks to the poets…and enjoy!
.
.
___
.
.
photo of Conte Candoli by William Gottlieb/Library of Congress/design by Rhonda R. Dorsett
.
.
Hiromi
somewhere
deep into the night
Art Tatum is smiling
while Monk shakes his head
in wonder
Hiromi Uehara
mad scientist of the keys
intergalactic goddess of the keys
a spiritual experience
an antidote to all that
is joyless
flawless!
power in her right hand
improvisational transcendence
her joy / contagious
her virtuosity
taking you to worlds
beyond this one
& her smile!
reminding you
of what the world
cannot take away
as you wonder:
is joy still
within reach?
In response
Hiromi Uehara’s fingers
fly across the keys & beckon you
along for the ride / for an intergalactic
jazz endeavor! / & why hesitate when it’s
now or never?
.
by Connie Johnson
.
___
.
Some Side Effects Of Listening
I
slow sky mix rumble
cracks hard remaining hovered
dropping rain in sheets to a playlist parade
at the corner of Armstrong and Toussaint
in that blue past West End of NOLA
& on to a Mann underground in Memphis
where artist loves named Patricia, Emily & Jutta Hipp
have violets for their furs in a bouquet
featuring an African flower (Fleurette Africaine)
that drives at least one Jimmy crazy
perhaps from what happened to Hoagy in Hong Kong
………………………………………………………..generating his blues
meanwhile back down South some wayward penguins shout
pounding out a no ice mambo doo wop
Hey Senorita! Them red beans are cookin’
& for all we know she’s leaving home
because the blackbird flew
without learning how to sing
it’s gotta be this or that
And speaking of blue pasts or presents
some claim a sunset others the moon
Jay’s confessin’ them to Kenny Drew’s poor brother
I say be wary of them blues twisted by Windsor knots
………………………………………………………..& their escorts
………………………..rains may diminish
thunder rumbles still
could be more blues a comin’ in the distance
people get ready!
II
a trio of Trios integrate their titled sounds
………………………………………….at random
……………………………………………………..to play
as fading daylight dips westward
darkening green gold grass with broad
shadows surging as block chords
seen through window glass spotted
from drying recent rain
like whole, half & quarter notes
………………………………………….on a sliding scale
I shiver from the cool sensation
this atmosphere provides
backed by a Walton a Barron & a Kelly
a mainstream entry into early evening
brief respite from the absence of integrity
to glimpse the remaining green gold afternoon
III
………………………………………….nearly still
…………………………..just a sunlight
…………..whisper
…………………………..shimmers
………………………………………….golden Pothos
…………………………..(Devil’s Ivy)
…………..bonded firm
…………………………..against
………………………………………….Black Olive bark
…………………………..awaiting more
…………..summer rain
.
by Terrance Underwood
.
___
.
Jazz Hunger
Empty belly /
rumbles / into /
tantara / of a /
trumpet / which /
blares / into /
gray / evening /
an / eagerness /
to haunt / the /
mind / for a /
moment of /
cha-cha-cha /
cha-cha-cha…
.
by Jianqing Zheng
.
___
.
I hear the jazz . . .
I’m waiting for the electricity to come
back on;
outside, the rustling wind moves thru
the leaves—soft sway
of cherry blossom etches patterns
on the wall, and
I hear the jazz of road traffic
waver and fall,
like autumn trees, like hissing lawns.
I hear the jazz of road traffic
whimper and fade,
like some strange over-ripe fruit.
I see the sweating, smiling face
of a singer
who is frozen in between takes.
I see the black face of a trumpeter
creased with pain,
yet his sound is solid and serene.
I hear the jazz of road traffic
calling, falling
like sutras of leaves on summer eves.
I hear the jazz of road traffic
waver and fall
and know it’s time for me to leave.
I see myself riding on a bus
swaying away
on the highway of night.
I hear the jazz of road traffic, now
as member of the band, no longer
a stranger in this weary land.
,
by DH Jenkins
.
___
.
The Ballad of Me
Me is feeling not too well today—
recovering from a bout of flu
or was it a bad cold? Even
doctors are not sure
without testing.
I’m not dying, just ailing.
I’m not Sylvia Plath
in a hospital bed
two years from suicide.
I’m more like Miles
blowing Kind of Blue
in a practice room
with his iconic sextet.
Me is a lucky person, I suppose,
though I never won the lottery.
I inch along, me, a larva ever
on the verge of becoming a butterfly.
,
by Geer Austin
.
___
.
Sax and Shakespeare
What wind is this that rocks the room
in which I sit upon a rocker rolling
forth and back, book in hand, while Rollins’
sax roars with the might of surf’s
explosion upon a beach besieged
by storm? And on the page which
I peruse, Lear rages, and engages
my heart and mind in ways I have never
known before. Such music — sax
and Shakespeare overwhelm my mind
and heart, and the wind outside reminds
me of the truth they tell: all is fragile —
tree, bush, building, man, and beast, and I
rock, read, and listen, rock, read, and listen.
.
by Michael L. Newell
.
___
.
Harmolodics
for Ornette Coleman
bass
smothering
beat so
drums can
roam guitars
surfing foam
on a swirling
sea keyboards
coagulating chords
sax slapping
tunes silly
putty in
their hands
Ornette and
the band
.
by John Menaghan
.
___
.
Sharing a Boat with Arthur Rimbaud
the worker bee is
sea
waves
birds
a mannequin sunning herself
in rimbaud’s boat
she is the lyric bob dylan
finished
her naked body, resting in
a bed at the chelsea
hotel
nice and inviting as an
eclair
her body becomes blue waves
to lead a faithful traveler abroad
her body becomes a blues
wave
like the sounds of muddy waters’
guitar
her kisses like gospel
to bring a sinner home
.
by Erren Geraud Kelly
.
___
.
Harlem “Or That Dream Ain’t Yet Deferred”
The golden flesh
of Louis’s instrument
shocks, valorizes,
re-defines,
shakes down my story.
He knows my notes.
Just thinks it’s real
funny you
don’t.
.
by Jennifer Maritza McCauley
.
___
.
Hot-Tubbing With Miles Davis
Luna’s slim scimitar carves the dark,
its blade of bright desire smitten
with Paul Desmond’s alto sax
softly crooning Moonglow.
Artie Shaw’s crystalline clarinet sends
glistening glissades into the listening
prairie on Moonlight Serenade.
The Milky Way blooms splendorously
when Miles Davis’ scatters Stardust
across star-hungry Texas heavens.
Coyotes moan riffs on Monk’s
Round Midnight, as it drifts across
this midnight’s meadow.
Bill Evans’ piano caresses only me
with You and the Night and the Music,
because you are somewhere, elsewhere.
And I float womb-warm in wonder,
sipping slow on a fine noir Pinot,
alone and lonely, watching, listening,
enwoven in the weft of the music,
allured by the lostness of your star.
.
by Michael Baldwin
.
___
.
Mr. Hi-Hat
You need, we all need, to hear
Max Roach play the drums. Listen
to The Third Eye and you will hear
a billion cicadas emerging from their earthen
hibernation to sizzle dance across the cymbals
and you will feel the rotation of Andromeda
inside your torn rotator cuff
as the hi-hat barks the quarks.
All the massive stars will burn and heal
and you’ll reach up to touch them
with your good arm tied behind your back.
You may spend your daytime hours in a straitjacket
but at night your fingers will fly across the keys
and caress the soft fur of a mouse at the peak of the Andes
where the Miles Davis trumpet whispers in the wind,
and you’ll feel the gliding snailfish escape, slipping
between your fingers at the bottom of the Mariana Trench—deep,
oh God, so deep, not even Sting’s bass can reach
so deep. Funny how small and how tall
that makes you feel, arms wide
26,000 feet up and 26,000 feet down
at the same instant. Then something breaks,
and the lover you always thought would live forever
is disappearing into thin air, into a deep ocean,
into mercurial axions
that can only be understood
when Mr. Hi-Hat lays it down.
That’s how you know she’s finally come home—
Max is at the pedal digging the groove,
driving the band, doing the waltz,
the third eye hiding in plain sight
and he’s right there
just smiling and thrumming and showing the world
what it all means.
.
by Martin Agee
.
___
.
Just Memories
late night alleyway
echoes with a tenor sax
a cat passes by
heels click
on the gravel
coffee steam curls
to the tune of smoky keys
the slow river flows
pretending he’s happy
just like me
old Coltrane
crackles from a radio
memories return
mama’s stew melts
in the pot
a voice like dusk
fills the crowded bar
red dress in the dark
the bartender
flirts
old man at the keys
playing what he can’t forget
jazz in the veins
taking a slow stroll
home tonight
.
by Andrew Brindle (plain text)
Christina Chin (italic)
.
___
.
Blue Note Nights
Eliane Elias singing tunes from a new CD
while she pounds keys to Brazilian beats.
Pharoah Sanders and his sax blaring “Master Plan,”
his long white beard swaying with the sounds.
Chatting with Terrence Blanchard after a set,
as I tell him his horn on the Gia film soundtrack
was haunting, unforgettable, and his eyes grew misty.
.
by Amy Barone
.
___
.
Long Night
the horn
hemorrhaged
a few tired notes
into the dimly
lit club
a woman
wearing a red dress
rests her head
on a table
earlier she danced
feverishly,
speaking and laughing
now exhausted
she dreams
of the jazz
in her head
.
by Roger Singer
.
___
.
Maynard Ferguson
an aging hipster
sporting an unruly shock
of curly grey hair
a thin-lapelled jacket
with rolled-back sleeves
and tight-cuffed Latin pants
the beltline drooping
below his paunch
leads a septet of kids
less than half his age
playing high-octane jazz-rock
his stratospheric flights of trumpet virtuosity
showing he’s still the alpha male
joined this night by a local young stud
out to prove he’s got what it takes
dueling screech artists
strutting their stuff
higher, faster, louder
swamping subtlety and substance
under a tide of testosterone
,
by Tim Maloney
.
___
,
Last Tango in Scarborough
Slowly swaying
to a radio saxophone,
efforts to express
my inner story fall short.
I feel less human today
than ever, at least
less part of the human race,
that teeming, screaming
biomass I can neither
fathom nor touch.
Existence in a drywall box
is never sought.
One starts the journey
full of song and skip.
But soon enough,
impediments crop up,
blockages and detours,
rockfalls and rain,
highwaymen, wolves
and vagabonds.
And yet, one can find
comfort in a groove
reaching through air,
touching through air.
One can ignore the pain
that solitude brings
having outlived its usefulness.
One can simply
live in the vibe,
that living swell and soar.
.
by Salvatore Difalco
.
___
.
To The Moon
Come fly with me, my fancy man
and I’ll take you to places
that you haven’t been,
but only if that’s what you fancy.
Come fly with me, my fancy man,
hold on tight as we climb to the moon,
and come sliding down moonbeams
under the clouds, but only in our fancy.
Come fly with me, my fancy man.
We’re still tripping the light fantastic,
still frantic to find our fantasy land
at the end of our flight of fancy.
.
by Lynn White
.
___
.
Regina Carter Dance
I’m watching through my aquarium
your face on the screen.
Long stretches of sound, sweeping as cuttlefin
mid-stretch in new sea.
Where are the hell are you in space and oceanic time?
Wherever it is:
you’re gone tonight and that’s OK, because I got you baby,
give me that spoonfed sugar, that NYC tea doused in
fresh chamomile and screaming ginger and I’ll let it soothe me
then you get up from that sofachair
and let’s get jigging to Regina Carter, until the floorboards
ache with the sound of my brown feet and the swish
and sway of how you ghost this apartment like you Orisha
and anyway;
this poem is actually about how much I wanna watch your hips
on rain-blued days like this, when Regina Carter
got that plink and pluck of jazz sound
and if you gave me the chance again, God,
you’re so beautiful, I’d dance with, for you,
any damn day.
.
by Jennifer Maritza McCauley
.
___
.
Abecedarian on Jazz
America, the dance of angels
Bestows on you a bluenote
Clouds of notes and changes
Dreams pushed beyond their desire
Elegant African melting pot with European
Forms of dance and music freedom
Gracefully becoming a welcoming song, giant
Hallowed and a heralded
Improvised pattern of our national tapestry, intricate
Jazz and Blues with eagle jamming
Kinship in its heart of kindness
Learn oh, my nation its benevolent lesson
Made less a graveyard but more majestic
Now a song for all that’s noble
On this long journey outward
Past the divisions of history pulsing
Quenching the soul, a drum roll earth quake
Rising to a crescendo, royal
Scales and modes charism offerings sacred
Trumpets from Dizzy Kingdom tremolos
Unity within our being unabashed
Valves and keyboards commune with vast
Walking bassline decades of worship
X from the A-X of Hawkins and Pres X pressed
Yesterday meets now on the wings of yardbird
Zenith pinnacle of American zeitgeist.
.
by Daniel Warren Brown
.
___
.
A Diagnosis
At this point, I can’t say
how long ago it was
when the doctor hinted
that, slowly, I was dying.
Hell, aren’t we all?
I thought. The body fails.
The heart stops
The soul drifts away.
His words,
“meandering
towards
treatment . . .
stage II,
stage III,
stage IV,”
were a blur,
followed
by months
of intrusions
that left
my right arm,
at the elbow’s bend,
dark and bruised,
like a Blues song
where deep purple
fades to a sad grey.
A lot
of years
have passed
and here I am,
still on the road,
heading for the
inevitable —
while somewhere
up ahead,
Ella and Louis
remind me of memories
that will live on.
.
by Russell Dupont
.
___
.
Six String Sizzle
Two men on a street corner,
playing nothing but jazz.
The stores close, the lights blue,
but they sit and strum
as their hat fills with frost
and the long day yawns.
Maybe their cool fire
will light fireworks one day,
but all they need tonight
are sparks and smiles,
cold flints on the heels
of their boots. Nothing’s warmer
than a spark catching fire:
not even an ember,
burning itself out.
.
by Ian Mullins
.
.
__________
.
.
.
Martin Agee’s career as a violinist has brought him to the major concert venues, recording studios and theatres in New York City and around the world for over thirty-five years. His first full-length collection of poetry, Not a Violin, is due for publication early next year by Kelsay Books.
.
.
___
.
.
Geer Austin’s poetry has appeared in Poet Lore, Fjords Review, Main Street Rag, BlazeVOX, Neuro Logical Magazine and others, and his fiction has appeared in A/U Magazine, the podcast A Story Most Queer and elsewhere. He is the author of Cloverleaf, a poetry chapbook (Poets Wear Prada Press). He lives in New York City.
.
.
___
.
.
Michael Baldwin is a retired library administrator and professor of American Government. He has published 7 volumes of poetry, two novels, and five volumes of science-fiction short stories. He is also a former amateur jazz clarinetist. His novel, Murder Music, follows several jazz musicians on a quest to solve the mystery of why one of them is a target for murder. Baldwin’s website is www.jmbaldwin.com
.
.
___
.
.
Amy Barone’s poetry collection, Defying Extinction, was published by Broadstone Books in 2022. New York Quarterly Books published her book, We Became Summer. She wrote chapbooks Kamikaze Dance (Finishing Line Press) and Views from the Driveway (Foothills Publishing). Barone belongs to the Poetry Society of America. She lives in NYC.
.
.
___
.
.
Andrew Brindle is from the UK and has been in Taiwan for more than 30 years, where he teaches at a small university on the beautiful northern coast of the island. When he is not working with students, he helps out at an organic vegetable patch in the hills outside the town where he lives with his wife and a rather large dog rescued dog. His haiku are often inspired by the ocean and mountains that surround him.
.
.
___
.
.
Daniel Warren Brown has loved jazz (and music in general) ever since he delved into his parents’ 78 collection as a child. He is a retired special education teacher who began writing as a senior. He always appreciates being published in journals and anthologies. At age 72 he published his first collection Family Portraits in Verse and Other Illustrated Poems through Epigraph Books, Rhinebeck, NY. Daniel writes daily about music, art and whatever else catches his imagination.
.
.
___
.
.
Malaysian artist Christina Chin is a widely published haiku poet. She is a four-time recipient of top 100 in the mDAC Summit Art Contests, exhibited at the Palo Alto Art Center. She is the sole haiku contributor for MusArt book of Randall Vemer’s paintings. 1st prize winner of the 34th Annual Cherry Blossom Sakura Festival 2020 Haiku Contest. 1st prize winner in the 8th Setouchi Matsuyama 2019 Photo-haiku Contest.
.
.
___
.
.
Poet and storyteller Salvatore Difalco lives in Toronto, Canada. He is the author of five books including Black Rabbit & Other Stories (Anvil Press). Recent journal appearances include Cafe Irreal, Fictive Dream, and E-ratio. His short story “Bluesette” was the winning entry in the 67th Jerry Jazz Musician Short Fiction contest, which you can read by clicking here.
.
.
___
.
.
Russell Dupont, poet, artist, novelist, has published in the albatross, Spectrum, The I, For Poets Only, The Anthology of South Shore Poets, Re-Side, Oddball, Jerry Jazz Musician, Adelaide Literary Magazine, Rye Whiskey Review, Last Stanza Poetry Journal, the new post-literate, DADAKU, One Sentence, Verse-Virtual, Lothlorien Journal, Pick-Me-Up Poetry, Poetry Porch, Concrete Formalist Poetry and the Northern New England Review. He is the author of three novels: King & Train, Waiting for the Turk, Movin’ On; a collection of short stories , Norman Mailer Walks Into a Bar; three collections of poetry: Winter, 1 948; Establishing Home Plate; and Jazz at the Point.
He is also the author of two non-fiction chapbooks — Up in Wisconsin: Travels with Kinsley, and There is No Dam Now at Richford. Examples of his work have been collected in the Archives of UMass Boston. His journalism has appeared in The Dorchester Community News, The Melrose Free Press and The Patriot Ledger.
.
.
___
.
.
DH Jenkins’ poems have appeared in Jerry Jazz Musician, Kinds of Cool—An Interactive Collection of Jazz Poetry 2025 (Unsolicited Press), The Ekphrastic Review and The Wave, Kelp Journal, as well as in Ocean Poetry Anthology 2024 (Kelp Books), Ocean Poetry Anthology 2025(Kelp Books). For many years he was a professor of Speech and Writing for UMUC-Asia, living and working in Japan and Korea. While in residence there, he received the Bylee Massey Award for a project in the Humanities, as well as the Drazek Excellence in Teaching Award. He now lives in New Zealand.
.
.
___
.
.
Connie Johnson has multiple Pushcart Prize nominations for poetry. A California-based writer, she has authored Everything is Distant Now (Blue Horse Press) and I Have Almost Everything (Boats Against the Current). In a Place of Dreams, her digital chapbook (containing audio readings/personal narrative), was published by Jerry Jazz Musician. Click here to view it.
.
.
___
.
.
Erren Kelly is a three-time Pushcart nominated poet from Boston whose work has appeared in 300 publications (print and online), including Hiram Poetry Review, Mudfish, Poetry Magazine, Ceremony, Cacti Fur, Bitterzoet, Cactus Heart, Similar Peaks, Gloom Cupboard, and Poetry Salzburg.
Click here to read “Under Quarantine” — COVID-era poetry of Erren Kelly, published by Jerry Jazz Musician
.
.
___
.
.
Tim Maloney is a musician, author, and retired arts administrator living in the Hudson Valley, whose poetry has been published in Bare Root Review, Fortunate Traveller, Ilya’s Honey, Leaflets, Muskeg Review, Poetry On and Off the Wall, Red River Review, Silver Birch Press, Syncopation Literary Journal, and The Talking Stick.
.
.
___
.
.
Dr. Jennifer Maritza McCauley is the author of Scar On/Scar Off, When Trying to Return Home, Kinds of Grace and Neon Steel (2/26). She has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Kimbilio and CantoMundo and her work has been a New York Times Editors’ Choice, Best Fiction Book of the Year by Kirkus Reviews and a Must-Read by Elle, Latinx in Publishing, Ms. Magazine and Southern Review of Books. She has been published recently in Boston Review, Columbia Journal, Vassar Review, Acentos Review, Zone 3, Obsidian and The BreakBeat Poets: Latinext (HayMarket Press). She is fiction editor at Pleiades and an assistant professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
.
.
___
.
.
Winner of an Academy of American Poets Prize and other awards, John Menaghan has published 4 books with Salmon Poetry–All the Money in the World (1999), She Alone (2006), What Vanishes (2009), and Here and Gone (2014)—as well as poems and articles in Irish, British, American, and Canadian journals, and given poetry readings in Ireland, England, Scotland, France, Hungary, Canada, and across the U.S. from New York to Honolulu. A fifth volume, composed entirely of his jazz-related poems, is forthcoming from Salmon.
.
.
___
.
.
Ian Mullins bales out from Liverpool, England. Collections include Almost Human (Original Plus, 2017), Masks and Shadows (Wordcatcher, 2019), Take A Deep Breath (Dempsey & Windle, 2020), Dirty Sweet (Anxiety Press, 2023), Fear Of Falling Backwards (Cajun Mutt Press, 2023) and NightWatchMan (Alien Buddha Press, 2024.)
.
.
___
.
.
Michael L. Newell lives on the Atlantic Coast of Florida. His most recent book of poems is Passage of a Heart. Click here to read “What is this Path” – a collection of poems published on Jerry Jazz Musician
.
.
___
.
.
Dr. Roger Singer was in private chiropractic practice for 38 years in upstate New York, and served as a medical technician during the Vietnam era. Dr. Singer is the Poet Laureate of Old Lyme, Connecticut, and has had over 1,070 poems published on the Internet, magazines and in books, and is a 2017 Pushcart Prize Award Nominee. He is also the President of the Shoreline Chapter of the Connecticut Poetry Society.
.
.
___
.
.
Terrance Underwood is a retired Gas Turbine Package Engineer whose career offered opportunities to work all over the world. A devoted jazz enthusiast, his first memory operating a mechanical devise was a 4-speed spindle drop record changer for his father’s collection of 78s.
Click here to read Proceeding From Behind: A collection of poems grounded in the rhythmic, relating to the remarkable, by Terrance Underwood
Click here to read his collection of poems “With Ease in Mind”
.
.
___
.
.
Lynn White lives in north Wales. Her work is influenced by issues of social justice and events, places and people she has known or imagined. She is especially interested in exploring the boundaries of dream, fantasy and reality. Click here to visit her website, and here for her Facebook page.
.
.
___
.
.
Jianqing Zheng is the author of The Dog Years of Reeducation (Madville Publishing, 2023) and A Way of Looking (Silverfish Review Press, 2021). He teaches at a historically black institution in the Mississippi Delta.
.
.
_____
.
.
Click for:
More poetry on Jerry Jazz Musician
Poems on Charlie “Bird” Parker (inspired by a painting by Al Summ) – an ekphrastic poetry collection
War. Remembrance. Walls. The High Price of Authoritarianism – by editor/publisher Joe Maita
“My Vertical Landscape,” Felicia A. Rivers’ winning story in the 69th Jerry Jazz Musician Short Fiction Contest
More short fiction on Jerry Jazz Musician
Information about how to submit your poetry or short fiction
Subscribe to the (free) Jerry Jazz Musician quarterly newsletter
Helping to support the ongoing publication of Jerry Jazz Musician, and to keep it commercial-free (thank you!)
.
___
.
.
Jerry Jazz Musician…human produced since 1999
.
.
.
