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“Jazz Trio” by Samuel Dixon

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Dear Readers:

…..Welcome to the second full collection of jazz haiku!

…..Poets submitted their jazz-themed haiku poetry with the understanding that they didn’t need to strictly follow the 5-7-5 syllabic structure of formal haiku, but had to at least be faithful to the spirit of it (i.e. one stanza, brief, expressive, emotionally insightful).

…..Thanks to the 19 poets included in this collection who so effectively share their reverence for the music and culture with passion and brevity.

…..As always, I hope you enjoy.

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Joe Maita

Editor/Publisher

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At the conclusion of the poems, short biographies of the artist and poets contributing to this collection are listed in alphabetical order

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Listen to the 1995 recording of Abdullah Ibrahim performing “Nissa” [Kontor New Media GmbH]

 

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Michel Krug

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Tunes hike across wooded paths
Slowing to listen
And synthesize life with memory.

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A muted trumpet shower
Scores the shingles
Happy to be dropped and cooled.

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Inside a digital playlist
Spawns acidic jazz
That funks with organ(ic) scrolls.

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Cracking egg and cracking egg
On a low skillet
Appetite waiting to solo.

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The shivering car stutters
And gasps till its melody
Plays corners like a warm jazz club.

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Patricia Carragon

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Rain Haiku

primeval rhythms
beat on windows and A/Cs
rain jamming in jazz

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chill to the beat of
pitter-patter musicians
jazz jamming in rain

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Russell duPont

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Always on the run,
Jazz is a way to escape
all them dirty rules.

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Booze with B B’s Blues
on the juke at the Palace
Black dude’s head bobbin’

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The Silver Dollar,
Izy Ort’s and the Playland
Jump Blues in Boston

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Leaves of Grass, Whitman
improvising Jazz-like poems
cool freewheeling verses

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Connie Johnson

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The dreamy haiku
You quote to me is music
Spare & elegant

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Burning cigarettes,
Spinning jazz on a Sunday
We worship like this

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Say! You’re a jukebox
A quarter’s worth of bebop
Choose wisely, my love

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O Camarillo
Past Due summed it up for him
Charlie Parker’s mood

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Thelonious Monk
it all happens ‘round midnight
eternal hepcat

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Sipping sangria
You play it: Sketches of Spain
Intoxicated

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we ask for mercy
Cannonball obliges us
just call it soul jazz

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In California
We remember Chet Baker’s
Funny valentine

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Brew that black coffee,
Though Sarah likes espresso
Sip! In gratitude

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Kicked loose stilettos
You’re a fishnet of blue notes
On both of my legs

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She wears silk stockings
be-bop jazz her preference
his smile was Dizzy

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Fly me to the moon
Doesn’t this feel like a dream?
Tony Bennett sings

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Beauty is wasted
Needles/opium steal it
Weep now for Billie

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Your muse was last seen
On a slow train to Memphis
Gone from jazz…to blues

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Michael L. Newell

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Duke plays Solitude
every note a grace note
the world a cathedral

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one night note from Miles
guides listeners miles into
truth of blues

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Webster’s whispered notes
drape listeners
in velvet beauty

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A lad stutter stepped
down side street, hair aflame,
Scott Joplin in his feet.

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Horace Silver oft demands
dance man dance and we
frequently agree

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breeze whispers at window
Bill Evans is
quieter than breeze

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Mose Allison could make
you weep, laugh at yourself,
and swing, baby, sing

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he would rip scabs off
nation’s flesh, roar heal thyself,
the prophet Mingus

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an ocean of sound
Coltrane
at full throttle

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wind in my hair
rain in my face
Lady Day in my weeping ears

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A Love Supreme

hurricane touches down
Coltrane blows away
life’s masks see bones beneath

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Sketches of Spain

dark blue, deeper blue
than the gloaming, trumpet flows —
oceanic grief

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Amy Barone

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My early jazz days
“The Sun, the Moon and the Stars”
John Klemmer’s Finesse

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The Brecker Brothers
Heaths, McCoy Tyner, Billie
Jazz born in Philly

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A cozy jazz club
Philly circa ‘84
Stan Getz plays “Bim Bom”

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On Getz/Gilberto
Jobim’s bossa nova strains
Explain saudade

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A Kind of Blue mood
Where Miles soothes, restores, provokes
Each tune masterful

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Thelonious Monk
Floating in “Brilliant Corners”
“’Round Midnight” at dawn

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Ripley Music Hall
Jaco Pastorius jams
On soulful South Street

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On a Night Passage
Driven by Weather Report
To “Madagascar”

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Gray night in Milan
Sleepy hotel features jazz
Cedar Walton stars

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Tito Puente
Jazzy summers in Milan
“Oye Como Va”

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Roger Singer

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dealer man
golden horn
sawdust and whiskey
2am never sleep

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open summer
windows welcome
jazz stealing
into backdoors

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horns flow
soul sounds
jazzed to
heaven’s ceiling

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Emmett Wheatfall

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lady sings the blues
slide guitar slung hip level
baby back next week

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I saw B.B.King
In hand his queen Miss Lucille
B.B. sung the blues

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blues in the Blue Room
crooner Muddy Waters blues
blue my suede shoes scuffed

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socially taboo
bawdy blues is dirty blues
hit me with a lick

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Listen to the 1974 performance of Tommy Flanagan playing “Yesterdays” [The Orchard Enterprises]

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Judith Vaughn

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jazz has no seasons
haiku the master of four
they dance together

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I waltz for Debby
hands touching beyond love
on black and white keys
(Bill Evans)

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forest flower sings
early sun screams red dawn
music in his bones
(Charles Lloyd)

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love supreme god’s joy
shows the path mortals hope for
a dream unrealized
(John Coltrane)

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my favorite things
count the stars in bluest night
a smile from his eyes
(Coltrane)

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yardbird on a wire
blows cool blues lick, a riff by
any name is gold
(Charlie Parker; Miles Davis)

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now’s the time to jump
above the clouds into space
beyond the starships
(Charlie Parker)

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my old flame burns bright
heart blazes memory’s heat
pure magic of love
(Billie Holliday)

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blues of the abstract truth
seek answers between the notes
every thing revealed
(Oliver Nelson)

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jazz notes fall on ice crystals
city lights shimmer shadows
on snow covered streets

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Jianqing Zheng

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Jazzku

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train to Chicago
Roach’s drum chugs
through night

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yearend snow
a jazz horn lingers
in the street bar

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Carrie Magness Radna

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This needs to breathe. Purge
thoughts of worthlessness; Jazz music
will make you feel free.

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Do you need to be
smart & sassy to get jazz?
Not at all. Enjoy.

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Heat rising from tea—
Another secret pleasure: I
sing-along with Ella.

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This bossa nova
takes me out of my blue room,
bewitching my heart.

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Thunderous trumpets,
a cool bassline rumbles on,
This is the punchline—

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George Held

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Listening to
the lowdown well after dark —
Gordon after midnight

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He never lets
catastrophe stop his chops—
Chet plays with split lip

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Dizzy ran circles
around the competition—
O, that fluegelhorn!

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Justin Hare

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Solea

Lonely afternoon;
brass exhales, meandering;
ripples in warm air.

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Lester Leaves Town

Soon, the train departs.
Lester tips his brim and boards.
“Goodbye Pork Pie Hat.”

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July 7, 1956

Duke hoots amid his
twenty-seven choruses:
Come on, Paul—Dig in!

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Requiem

My heroes shot up:
the charts; black tar; with bullets;
the solos cut off.

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Black Saint

A life’s story,
from birth til Diz and Bird:
epitaph in sound.

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Laurie Kuntz

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Crows on a wire
cawing to Mingus
as I leave the bar at dawn.

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A jazz refrain escapes
from my window:
a solitary leaf falls from the red maple

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Reaching a cruising altitude of 33,000 feet:
Charlie Parker prancing from earbuds,
is its own kind of wisdom.

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Terrance Underwood

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Ben’s Way

Honk a robust growl
…………..Dark toast for a cherry jam
Fluttered lightly sweet

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A Jeep Motors On

Piano idles time
…………..Before others jump to join
Blood flows hot like oil

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Walton Moment

Tender skylark lands
…………..In Cedar’s wood rhythm smooth
Branches barely waver

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Body Groove

from a J J flow
…………..sliding notes cascade cleanly
bathe in Blue Trombone

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Contrast Haiku

blending Old Fashioneds
…………..first take John’s Blue Trane version
next Rowles’ Lilac one

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Bud Bop

Powell on piano
…………..Translates from oblivion
Space to gifted sound

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Jackson Attraction

Mallets held supple
…………..Good knockin’ vibes clearly cool
Aspect surroundings

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Hall’s Guitar

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Seldom turbulent
…………..String charged exceptionally
Smooth current flowing

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Wonderous

Death permits Borges
…………..To assume Thelonious
Dissonance triumphs

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Mike Jurkovic

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keeper of the odd
muse the drummer tunes his skins
chanteuse takes the stage

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pelo’s fajitas
spice the air down near Mezzrow’s
where the dancers stir

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left of middle C
the blues hold sway the gold sax
praises bass kicks in

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liam’s mosquito
craved more bass dug Miles’ tones buzzed
too near the speakers

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devil’s interlude
a combo of dissonance
and augmented fourths

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buried in the bronx
Miles Duke Handy Lionel Max
rest where all gods go

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Miho Kinnas & E. Ethelbert Miller

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Song & Dance

Don’t turn my life into a musical.
I am on a turntable
between night and day.

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Short biographies of the artist and poets contributing to this collection are listed in alphabetical order

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Amy Barone’s most recent poetry collection, Defying Extinction, was published by Broadstone Books in 2022. She lives in New York City.

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Patricia Carragon is author of Angel Fire (Alien Buddha Press), Meowku (Poets Wear Prada), The Cupcake Chronicles (Poets Wear Prada), and Innocence (Finishing Line Press). She is curator/editor-in-chief of Brownstone Poets, Brooklyn, NY

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Samuel Dixon is an award-winning abstract impressionist painter based in Maryland. Click here to view his work.

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Russell duPont is an artist and an author whose artwork is included in a number of public and private collections. He has published three novels, two books of poetry, and two non-fiction chapbooks. He was the founder and publisher of the literary magazine, the albatross.

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Justin Kramer Hare is a native of Pittsburgh, PA where he lives and writes. His work has appeared in Uppagus, the Ulu Review, The Road Not Taken, and Untenured. Click here to visit his website.

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George Held has published 22 books and received  11  Pushcart Prize nominations. His forthcoming book, The Lucky Boy, collects nine of his short stories.

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Connie Johnson is a Los Angeles, California-based writer whose poetry has appeared in numerous literary and online journals.  Click here to read  “In a Place of Dreams: Connie Johnson’s album of jazz poetry, music, and life stories”

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A 2016 Pushcart nominee, Mike Jurkovic’s poetry and musical criticism have appeared in over 500 magazines and periodicals worldwide.  He lives in upstate New York.

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Miho Kinnas is a poet and translator living in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.  E. Ethelbert Miller is a poet and literary activist living in Washington D. C.  They have published a book of poems in collaboration. We Eclipse into the Other Side (Pinyon Publishing, 2023).

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Michel Steven Krug is a Minneapolis poet, fiction writer, former print journalist from the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars, and he litigates. His poems have appeared in numerous journals, including New Verse News, Poetica Publishing, Liquid Imagination, and Blue Mountain Review.

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Laurie Kuntz is the author of four books, and has been nominated for four Pushcart Prizes and two Best of the Net Prizes. Her work has been published in Gyroscope Review, Roanoke Review, Third Wednesday, One Art, Sheila Na Gig, and other journals.

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Michael L. Newell lives in Florida. He has had seven books of poetry published in the last three years.

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Carrie Magness Radna is an archival audiovisual cataloger at the New York Public Library, a singer, a lyricist-songwriter and a poet.  She’s currently an Associate Editor of Brownstone Poets Anthology, and was nominated for the 2022 Pushcart Prize. Her fifth book is Shooting Myself in the Dark (Cajun Mutt Press).

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Dr. Roger Singer  is the Poet Laureate of Old Lyme, Connecticut. He 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.

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photo by Jack Underwood

Terrance Underwood is a retired Rolls-Royce Service Engineer, veteran, College Grad (B.A. History) who has been listening to recorded jazz music since he was 5-6 yrs old. One of his first memories is listening to a 78 version of “Cherokee” by Charlie Barnett.

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Judith Vaughn’s poetry has been published in several collections, including Crossroads and Phases, the Redwood Writers’ ’22 and ’23 Poetry Anthologies, and Moonlight & Reflections: 9 Sonoma Poets, Valley of the Moon Press ’22.

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Emmett Wheatfall is a poet and recording artist.  His 2018 publication As Clean as a Bone is an Eric Hoffer Book Award Finalist as well as a da Vinci Eye Award Finalist.

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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.

 

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Click here to read the first volume of A Collection of Jazz Haiku

Click here to read previous editions of The Sunday Poem

Click here to read “A Collection of Jazz Poetry – Winter, 2024 Edition”

Click here for information about how to submit your poetry or short fiction

Click here to subscribe to the (free) Jerry Jazz Musician quarterly newsletter

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