A 2026 jazz poetry calendar

December 31st, 2025

 

 

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Readers can click to the next month at the conclusion of each poem.  You can also go to each month by clicking on the link to the months here:

Jan/Feb/Mar/Apr/May/Jun/Jul/Aug/Sep/Oct/Nov/Dec/Intro

 

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July, 2026

“The Storms of Julio”

by Jennifer Maritza McCauley

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photo via picryl.com

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The Storms of Julio

Look here: I’m trying
to be nice.

I step and quick-beat to the cut
of sun slamming boldly through
the slats in my rain-thick window, oh,
that sun bangs through like fingers
pounding piano keys.

Warm wet is the worst, I can’t
stand the storms of Julio.
I told you that and you just
rocked back on stuffed
rocking chair and
started snapping.
Elder woman, you always
know every shape of the sky,
when weather gets fussy.

Well, well,  you said,
What happens when a storm splits a cloud?
When you or they or even I get too mean?

I don’t know, I said, though my foot
was tapping then too.
That’s where the danza occurs, she said
and got up. Flicking knees til we funk it,
we sweet our bodies until they’re something
sugary and solid.

So fine. I’ll get over it.

Tonight, while the hot rain
drenches our dark heads,
we twist and turn and
danza,
………………………..danza,

………………………..………………………..danza.

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Listen to Jennifer Maritza McCauley read her poem (accompanied by ukulele player Jesse Biehn)

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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.

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Listen to the 1968 recording of pianist Horace Silver performing his composition “Rain Dance,” with Charles Tolliver (trumpet); Stanley Turrentine (tenor saxophone); Bob Cranshaw (bass); and Mickey Roker (drums).   [Universal Music Group]

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Click here to read Daniel Warren Brown’s poem for August

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