A Collection of Jazz Poetry — Fall/Winter, 2022-23 Edition

December 16th, 2022

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The Artist

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Keith Mallett is an American  painter, etcher, and ceramic  artist  whose subject  matter ranges from figurative to abstract. His work has been exhibited worldwide and is featured in corporate and private collections. He has enjoyed considerable success with numerous sold-out limited-edition prints, and was commissioned to craft the official limited-edition print commemorating the 50th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s breakthrough into major league baseball. In 2017 as guest artist, he created the Google doodle celebrating the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. Keith has been nominated for the NAACP Image Award. His clients include: Simon & Shuster, Random House, Farrar Straus Giroux, Harper Collins, Lee & Low, Charlesbridge, and Bradford Exchange, among others.

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Poet biographies are listed in alphabetical order

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Poet and musician Michael D. Amitin, originally from California, traveled the roads of the American West before settling in Paris, France where he now lives. Recently named International Beat Poet Laureate 2020-2021, Amitin’s poems have been published in California Quarterly, Poetry Pacific, North of Oxford. Love Love Magazine. and others. A current collaboration with Parisian photographer Julie Peiffer has given rise to the “Riverlights” project, and can be found at Riverlights.art

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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. .

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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.

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Stephen Bett is an internationally-known Canadian poet who has had 23 books of poetry and one book of non-fiction published. His earlier work is known for its sassy, edgy, hip, caustic wit―indeed, for the askance look of the serious satirist… skewering what he calls the ‘vapid monoculture’ of our times. His more recent books have been described as incredible accomplishments for their authentic minimalist subtlety. Many are tightly sequenced book-length ‘serial’ poems, which allow for a rich echoing of cadence and image, building a wonderfully subtle, nuanced music. He is recently retired after a 31-year teaching career largely at Langara College in Vancouver, and now lives with his wife Katie in Victoria, BC. Click here to visit his website.

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Byron Beynon‘s work has been featured in several publications including Black Fox Literary Magazine, The London Magazine, Wasafiri, Poetry Ireland Review, Poetry Wales and the human rights anthology In Protest (University of London and Keats House Poets). Also in several collections including The Echoing Coastline (Agenda) and Where Shadows Stir (The Seventh Quarry Press).

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R. Bremner has been writing of incense, peppermints, and the color of time since the 1960s. He appeared in the legendary first issue of Passaic Review in 1979, which also featured Allen Ginsberg, and in International Poetry Review, Paterson Literary Review, Sigmund Freud in Poetry, Anthem: a Leonard Cohen Tribute Anthology, and more. Ron has published eight books of poetry, including Absurd (Absurdist poetry from Cajun Mutt Press) and Hungry Words (Alien Buddha Press).

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Daniel 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 a journal or anthology. His first poetry collection, Family Portraits in Verse, will be published in early 2023.

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Patricia Carragon’s poem “Paris the Beautiful” won Poem of the Week from great weather for MEDIA. Her fiction piece “What Has to Happen Next” is nominated for Sundress Publications Annual Best of the Net Anthology. Her latest book from Poets Wear Prada is Meowku. Her debut novel, Angel Fire, was recently released by Alien Buddha Press. Patricia hosts Brownstone Poets and is the editor-in-chief of its annual anthology. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.

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Molly Larson Cook is an award-winning Oregon writer, writing coach, and artist. In 2016, she received the first Steve Kowit Poetry Prize in a national competition. Molly was a Fellow at the Fishtrap Writers Conference in Oregon where she worked with poet Naomi Shihab Nye. Molly’s jazz novel, Listen, was published in a limited edition in 2003. Her “Colors of Jazz” paintings are at mollylarsoncookpaintings.wordpress.com.

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Brooklyn-born Arlene Corwin is in her late 80’s, and is a harpist, pianist and singer – a jazz musician forever. She earned her BA at Hofstra Univ. She has published 19 poetry books. In the 1950s her mother owned a jazz club in Hempstead, Long Island with Slim Gaillard. She currently lives in Sweden.

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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 two novels, King & Train and Waiting for the Turk; two books of poetry; and two non-fiction chapbooks. His essay, “The Corner,” is included in the anthology Streets of Echoes. His work has been published in various newspapers and literary magazines. He was the founder & publisher of the literary magazine,.the albatross.

Visit his website by clicking here

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Victor Enns reads and writes poetry and fiction. He lives in Gimli, Manitoba, Canada.  His poems have appeared in Canadian publications and including Rattle (print) and Shot Glass Journal (online) in the U.S. His most memorable performance this century was a mainly Mingus show led by Toronto bassist David Young (originally from Winnipeg) with an eight piece band at the Rex in Toronto.

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debora Ewing is a prolific poet, artist, songwriter, and ruiner of peace for the greater good. She’s also a peer reviewer for  Consilience Science-based Poetry Journal  and Global Content Editor for  Igneus Press, but she is not The Cool Mom. Find her work at  Dodging the Rain, Beyond Words, San Pedro River Review, Jerry Jazz Musician, and elsewhere. Deb posts serial fiction at  debnation.com

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(Debora’s short story “Coloring Outside the Lines” was the first winning story in the Jerry Jazz Musician Short Fiction Contest, published in October of 2002.  The contest is currently in its 62nd edition).

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photo Jennifer Lindberg

Editor-in-chief for From the Ashes (Arts & Literature 1990-1994) and Swivel: Vintage Living (vintage lifestyle 1994-2000), Tam Francis has also been a poet (two-time, National Poetry Slam city team, Scottsdale Center for the Arts Poetry Art Walk Featured Poet, New Times Feature Poet, Visual Voices Featured Writer) and short story wordsmith (two-time shortlisted for Scare the Dickens Out of Us contest). Published in Texas Writer’s Journal, Short Edition, Coffeelicious, Awakenings, Red Dog Journal, Spoken Word from Lalapalooza, and other digital and print magazines.

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Joel Glickman taught music including jazz history and the jazz band at Northland College, Ashland Wisconsin, from 1974 until retirement in 2017, where he has resumed teaching about jazz again, part time. He has written and published poetry over a wide range of subjects. Primarily a classical clarinetist and folk singer-song writer and banjo player, his jazz and saxophone skills lag behind these. He resides in Ashland with wife Susan and their Bichon, Madeline.

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James Higgins was born in Texas, and currently lives in Oregon. He has had poems that placed or won in Oregon Poetry Assn. contests, and while he has not submitted poetry in many years, he is now seriously pursuing publication. He is a graduate of the University of Oregon, where he studied poetry with Ralph Salisbury, and earned a BA in English literature. His work has appeared in Terra Incognita, Beyond Words, and Jerry Jazz Musician.

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Sean Howard is the author of five books of poetry, most recently Unrecovered: 9/11 Poems (Gaspereau Press, Canada, 2021). Sean’s poetry has been widely published in Canada, the US, UK, and elsewhere, and featured in The Best of the Best Canadian Poetry in English (Tightrope Books, 2017). Sean is adjunct professor of political science at Cape Breton University, and writes a monthly ‘War & Peace’ column for the Cape Breton Spectator.

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Recently retired from nearly 40 years of teaching college writing, literature, and peace studies, D. R. James lives, writes, bird-watches, cycles, and incessantly listens to jazz with his psychotherapist wife in the woods near Saugatuck, Michigan. His latest of ten collections are Mobius Trip and Flip Requiem (Dos Madres Press, 2021, 2020), and his prose and poems have appeared internationally in a wide variety of print and online anthologies and journals. https://www.amazon.com/author/drjamesauthorpage

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D. H. Jenkins’ plays have been staged in California, Arizona, Australia, and Japan.  His poems appear in the art films “Call From a Distant Shore” and “Our Autumn,” and in  The Tiger Moth Review and  Jerry Jazz Musician.

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Dr. Emory D. Jones is a retired English teacher who has taught in high school and in several community colleges. He has seven hundred eighty-six credits including publication in such journals as Writers Digest, and Encore: Journal of the NFSPS.  He lives with his wife in Iuka, Mississippi.

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photo by Jim Whitcraft

George Kalamaras is former Poet Laureate of Indiana (2014– 2016) and Professor Emeritus at Purdue University Fort Wayne, where he taught for thirty-two years. He has published twenty collections of poetry, twelve full-length books and eight chapbooks.

 

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Erren Kelly

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

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Gloria Krolak is the host of Good Vibes, the first and only broadcast radio program featuring the vibraphone. She was also Poetry Editor at Jersey Jazz, the journal of the New Jersey Jazz Society.  In 2019 she created Jazz Lines, a book of free verse built entirely of jazz tune titles, with photos by the late Ed Berger. In her poem,  “And in Vibraphone News…” she builds instead with album titles. Her website is www.gloriajazz.com

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Catherine Lee is a widely published neo-Beat who reads solo and performs with improvising musicians “on poem” when she can. Joint gigs with her mentor, poet/hipster tedjoans in 1986-87 got her started on this journey. Lots of multimedia poetry, documentary videos, and radio specials are archived on Soundcloud and VIMEO. Lee’s artistic profile is located at GetCreativeSanAntonio and she can be reached at Jazz-Ovation-Inn.com.

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When Diane Lefer is not writing about music, she’s written fiction about scientists who become terrorism suspects (in Out of Place) and baboons with broken hearts (in Confessions of a Carnivore), both novels published by Fomite Press. More at dianelefer.weebly.com

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Aurora M. Lewis is a retiree, having worked in finance for 40 years. In her fifties she received a Certificate in Creative Writing-General Studies with Honors from UCLA. Aurora’s recent poems, short stories, and nonfiction were accepted by The Literary Hatchet, Jerry Jazz Musician, The Copperfield Review, and Gemini Magazine, to name a few. She self-published her first book, Jazz Poems, Reflections on a Broken Heart in 2021 and it is available on Amazon.

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Laurinda Lind lives in New York’s North Country, next door to Canada. Some of her writing is in Blue Earth Review, New American Writing, Paterson Literary Review, and Spillway. She is a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee.

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Phil Linz was born in Brooklyn, NY and has lived in several cities across the United States. He began writing poetry in 1971 and is founder and publisher of Fierce Grace Press, which specializes in chapbooks, believing in the concept of “Publishing Under the Radar.”.His new book, The Chapbooks: Collected Poems, is available on Amazon.

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Elliott Martin is a bass guitarist, historian, and poet in Richmond, Virginia. He loves jazz, blues, and all things rock, and has played guitar and bass in several bands on stages large and small. His poetry has appeared on Jerry Jazz Musician and in The Copperfield Review; Artemis Journal; Amedment Literary and Art Journal, and elsewhere, and his short fiction is forthcoming in Cirsova and The Copperfield Review.

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c.m. mattison has read and written poetry since age 13.  Edgar Allen Poe’s  The Raven, William Blake’s  Love’s Secret, and the music of Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and Marc Cohn enthralled her. She tries to, in some small way, match their rhythm and grace with her style, giving voice to the abused woman-child who saw the wonder of the world.  She resides in northwestern Wisconsin with her husband and two cats.

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Jessica Lee McMillan is a poet who expects to be buried under her shelves of books and records. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Blank Spaces, Pocket Lint, Pinhole Poetry, Rat’s Ass Review, Tiny Spoon, The South Shore Review, Dream Pop Journal, and Blue Heron Review, among others. Jessica lives in New Westminster, British Columbia. She can be reached at https://twitter.com/JessicaLeeMcM

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Robert Milby of Florida, New York has been reading his poetry in public, since March, 1995. He is the author of several chapbooks, books, and CDs of poetry. He won first prize of $500 in the Orchard Street Press (Gates Mills, OH) Malovrh-Fenlon national poetry contest in June, 2022, for his poem, “Beethoven’s 9th Sonata.”  Milby served as Orange County, NY Poet Laureate from 2017- 2019.

www.robertmilbypoetry.com

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Marilyn Mohr is the author of two chapbooks,  Satchel and Running The Track,  and has recent work included in the anthologies Brownstone Poets, Fractured Hearts and Poets On The Verge.  She lives and writes in West Orange , New Jersey.

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Sean Murphy has appeared on NPR’s “All Things Considered” as well as in USA Today, The New York Times, The Huffington Post, and AdAge. A long-time columnist for PopMatters, his work has also appeared in Salon, The Village Voice, Washington City Paper, The Good Men Project, Memoir Magazine, and others. He has twice been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and his chapbook, The Blackened Blues, is now available from Finishing Line Press. To learn more, visit seanmurphy.net

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Michael L. Newell’s most recent book is Don’t Fret (Jazz Poems), published by (www.cyberwit.net). Newell lives in Florida.

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Mary K O’Melveny, retired labor rights lawyer, lives with her wife near Woodstock, NY and Washington DC. Mary’s award-nominated poetry appears in print and on-line literary journals, anthologies and national blog sites. Mary has authored three poetry collections: A Woman of a Certain Age, Merging Star Hypotheses and Dispatches From The Memory Care Museum and co-authored two anthologies: An Apple In Her Hand and Rethinking The Ground Rules. Visit her web site at https://www.marykomelvenypoet.com

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Martha Patterson’s short story collection Small Acts of Magic was published by Finishing Line Press in 2021. Other work has been published in more than 20 anthologies and journals, and her plays have been produced in 21 states and eight countries. She has two degrees in Theatre, from Mount Holyoke College and Emerson College, and lives in Boston, Massachusetts. She loves being surrounded by her books, radio, and laptop.

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photo Roger Gordy

Steve Paul, a onetime jazz DJ and critic, retired from daily journalism after a career of more than 40 years and segued into literary and cultural biography. He’s the author of Hemingway at Eighteen (Chicago Review Press, 2017) and a forthcoming biography of the writer Evan S. Connell. His occasional columns on jazz topics appear in KC Studio, a regional arts magazine.

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After having taught middle and high school English for 32 years, Marianne Peel is now nurturing her own creative spirit. She has spent three summers in Guizhou Province, teaching best practices to teachers in China. She received Fulbright-Hays Awards to Nepal (2003) and Turkey (2009). Marianne participated in Marge Piercy’s Juried Intensive Poetry Workshop (2016). Marianne’s poetry appears in Muddy River Poetry Review, Belle Reve Literary Journal, Jelly Bucket Journal, among others. Marianne is also a veteran musician, playing flute/sax and singing in various orchestras, bands, choirs, and jazz bands her whole life. She has a collection of poetry forthcoming from Shadelandhouse Modern Press.

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Carrie Magness Radna is a librarian, an Associate Editor of Brownstone Poets, a singer and a poet who loves traveling. She is this year’s Third Prize Winner of Writer’s Digest Annual Writing Competition (Rhyming Poetry) and was recently nominated for the 2023 Pushcart Prize. Her latest poetry collection, “Shooting myself in the dark”, will be published by Cajun Mutt Press in early 2023. Born in Norman, Oklahoma, she lives in New York City.

https://carriemagnessradna.com

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Bernard  Saint  is a U.K. poet who has published in U.K. and United States literary magazines since the 1960’s. He is a regular contributor to International Times. His most recent book is ROMA, published by Smokestack Books. He worked as a therapist and supervisor in the U.K. National Health Service in psychiatry and in addiction recovery.

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photo by Mya Smbg

Moe Seager is a poet and jazz & blues vocalist who sings his poems on stages in Paris, New York and elsewhere, and has recorded two jazz-poetry CD’s. Seager founded and hosts “Angora Poets World Caffé,” in Paris, and now hosts the event on Zoom. He also hosts “100 Thousand Poets for Change,” Paris and is one of the coordinators for le Fédération des Poètes, Paris. He has six collections of poetry and currently publishes with Onslaught press, Oxford, U.K. Other poetry collections include Dream Bearers (1990); One World, (2004); We Want Everything in French translation (1994); Perhaps (2006); Fishermen and Pool Sharks Busking (1992). 

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Sarah Sarai is author of That Strapless Bra in Heaven (Kelsay Books) and The Future Is Happy (BlazeVOX), with poems in Boston Review, Threepenny Review, The Southampton Review, Okay Donkey, and many other journals. She was born in a former speakeasy on Long Island and grew up in the sleaze of Paul Thomas Anderson’s San Fernando Valley. She works as an independent editor in N.Y.C.

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Bill Siegel lives in the Boston MA area, and writes both prose and poetry to express his love of jazz. Bill’s work appears in Indigenous Pop: Native American Music from Jazz to Hip Hop (Univ of Arizona Press, 2016); AllAboutJazz.com; inmotionmagazine.com; International Poetry Review; Brilliant Corners; Blue Mesa Review: Cruzando Fronteras (Crossing Borders); and other publications. He also created and manages jimpepperlives.wordpress.com, a collection of articles, poetry and news celebrating the work of the late saxophonist, Jim Pepper.

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Christopher D. Sims is a writer of poetry, a spoken word artist, and a human rights activist who uses words to inform. Born and raised on the west side of Rockford, Illinois, he has been writing since he was nine years old. A published poet, Christopher wrote a poetry and memoir collection entitled I was Born and Raised in The Rock in 2020. He is a fellow of the Intercultural Leadership Institute.

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Dr. Roger Singer was in private practice for 38 years in upstate New York. He has four children, Abigail, Caleb, Andrew and Philip and seven grandchildren. Dr. Singer has served on multiple committees for the American Chiropractic Association, lecturing at colleges in the United States, Canada and Australia, and has authored over fifty articles for his profession and served as a medical technician during the Vietnam era. Dr. 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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M. G. Stephens is author of 27 books, most recently the novels King Ezra and Kid Coole (both published by Spuyten Duyvil in 2022), and History of Theatre or the Glass of Fashion, prose poems and poetry (MadHat Press, 2021). Forthcoming in 23: Ornithology, poems (Finishing Line Press) and Jesus’ Dog, stories, from Paycock Press.

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Chuck Sweetman’s career in jazz lasted for six weeks of lessons on the sax, but jazz remains a key source of inspiration. He is senior editor for december magazine. His essays, stories, reviews, and poems have appeared in such places as Verse Daily, River Styx, Poet Lore, Black Warrior Review, and Notre Dame Review. His chapbook of poems, Incorporated, won the 2007 Dream Horse Press Chapbook Prize and was consolidated into the book Enterprise, Inc. (2008)

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Steve Trenam is currently teaching a poetry writing class as part of the Santa Rosa Junior College Older Adults Program, and is partially responsible for the formation of Poetic License Sonoma, an eight-member gathering of local poets who conduct Zoom readings once a month with the Sebastopol Center for the Arts. He is the author of An Affront to Gravity, published by Blue Light Press.  Some of his poetry and ceramic art can be found in an ekphrastic poetry book titled, Canyon, River, Stone and Light, and in  Pandemic Puzzle Poems,  both published by Blue Light Press, 2021. Other poems appear in Crossroads, the Redwood Writers poetry anthology published in May 2022.

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Laura Trigg is a retired physician, jazz and blues fan of many years, and amateur poet. Her poems are influenced by the music and culture of the American South.

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Lawrence Ullian is a novice writer of poems who loves jazz music. Now retired in  Florida, he was an adult educator specializing in training design, program development, and grant writing for both public and non-profit organizations. He also directed training departments for a variety of health care institutions. 

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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 lives in Sonoma, California. She attended New York City College, John F. Kennedy University, and Dominican University. She is a member of PoeticLicenseSonoma who read their poetry the 4th Tuesday of each month at Sebastopol Center for the Arts. Publications: First Literary Review-East an online literary publication, 2020, 2022; Oak Leaf News, a student publication at SRJC, Santa Rosa, CA; Jerry Jazz Musician; Crossroads, Redwood Writers’ 2022 poetry anthology; and Moonlight and Reflections, Nine Sonoma Poets, Valley of the Moon Press.

She is also a photographer. Photo images: 500px.com/judithjudith1

https://judithjudith.tumblr.com

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Anthony Ward chooses to write because he has no choice. He writes to get rid of himself and lay his thoughts to rest. He derives most of his inspiration from listening to classical music and jazz since it is often the mood which inspires him. He has recently been published in Jerry Jazz Musician, Synchronized Chaos, Literary Yard, Mad Swirl, Shot Glass Journal and Ariel Chart.

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Phyllis Wax writes in Milwaukee on a bluff overlooking Lake Michigan. Inspired by nature and human nature, as well as by music of all sorts, her poetry has appeared previously in Jerry Jazz Musician as well as in many other journals and anthologies, both online and in print. 

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Ed Werstein is a Regional VP of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets. In 2018 he received the Lorine Niedecker Prize from the Council for Wisconsin Writers. Communique: Poems From the Headlines (Water’s Edge Press, 2021) is Ed’s fourth collection. A book of poems about his childhood, Benediction & Baseball (Fireweed, 2018), won prizes from the WFOP and from America’s Bookfest. More at edwerstein.com.

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Emmett Wheatfall lives in Portland, Oregon. He is a published poet and performs lyrical poetry to music. He has three books of poetry published by Fernwood Press. They are As Clean as a Bone (2018) which is an Eric Hoffer Award finalist and Our Scarlet Blue Wounds (2019). His new poetry book With Extreme Prejudice, Lest We Forget is now available. For more biographical information visit https://www.poet-emmettwheatfall.com.

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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. 

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Natasha Zarin’s work has appeared in Event, The Maynard, Grand Dame Literary, Press Pause Press. In 2021, she read at the Emerging Writers and Readers Series in Toronto (virtually). Natasha works as a school counsellor and lives in Surrey, BC with her partner and two children. She is currently writing about tentacles and tripe in a memoir about food and family.

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Click here  to read the summer 2022 poetry collection

Click here  to read the spring 2022 collection of jazz poetry

Click here  to read the fall/winter 2021/22 collection of jazz poetry

 

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Click here  for information about how to submit your poetry

Click here  to subscribe to the quarterly Jerry Jazz Musician newsletter

Click here  to help support Jerry Jazz Musician

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6 comments on “A Collection of Jazz Poetry — Fall/Winter, 2022-23 Edition”

  1. What a wealth of jazz poetry! Enough to get lost and then find yourself again.
    To Martha Patterson, I especially appreciate your salute to the radio host who is the source of your jazz education. I suspect we are all still learning, but definitely true for me.
    Listen to my show Good Vibes (JazzOn2) and I will teach you what I know about the vibraphone, an instrument that captured my attention some twenty years ago, and had been adopted into jazz by Lionel Hampton and Red Norvo in the 1930’s. My last ten shows are also archived at mixcloud.com
    under Good Vibes with Gloria Krolak, which I update every month.
    http://www.gloriajazz.com

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Calling All Poets…Submissions guidelines for the anthology “Black History in Poetry”...We are currently seeking poetry from writers of all backgrounds for Black History in Poetry, an anthology scheduled for publication in the Summer of 2026. The anthology will be a means of celebrating and honoring notable Black Americans by offering poetry that teems with imagery, observation, emotion, memory, testimony, insight, impact, and humanity. Our aim is to give readers a way to visualize Black history from a fresh perspective.

In This Issue

21 jazz poems on the 21st of October, 2025...An ongoing series designed to share the quality of jazz poetry continuously submitted to Jerry Jazz Musician. This edition features poems inspired by the late Chuck Mangione, several on other trumpeters, the blues, and nods to Monk, Ornette Coleman, Coltrane, and Sonny Rollins.

Poetry

Ukberri.net/Uribe Kosta eta Erandioko agerkari digitala, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
In Memoriam: “Color Wheels” – a poem (for Jack DeJohnette) by Mary O’Melveny

Poetry

Monk, as seen by Gottlieb, Dorsett and 16 poets – an ekphrastic poetry collection...Poets write about Thelonious Monk – inspired by William Gottlieb’s photograph and Rhonda R. Dorsett’s artistic impression of it.

Publisher’s Notes

A dispatch from Portland, 2025 – and Boston, 1969...Peaceful protest is nothing new to America. It is happening every day in Portland, where I live. It is what makes our country great. And those of us who grew up in the 1960’s probably have a history of protest – some turning violent – ourselves. The poet Russell Dupont shares text and photos from his experience while photographing the October, 1969 March against the [Vietnam] War in Boston, when plainclothes Federal officers attempted to confiscate his camera.

The Sunday Poem

photo via pickpic

”Beyond Scale” by Pamela Nocerino

The Sunday Poem is published weekly, and strives to include the poet reading their work.... Pamela Nocerino reads her poem at its conclusion


Click here to read previous editions of The Sunday Poem

A Letter from the Publisher

The gate at Buchenwald. Photo by Rhonda R Dorsett
War. Remembrance. Walls.
The High Price of Authoritarianism– by editor/publisher Joe Maita
...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.

Interview

Interview with Tad Richards, author of Listening to Prestige: Chronicling its Classic Jazz Recordings, 1949 – 1972...Richards discusses his book – a long overdue history of Prestige Records that draws readers into stories involving its visionary founder Bob Weinstock, the classic recording sessions he assembled, and the brilliant jazz musicians whose work on Prestige helped shape the direction of post-war music.

Poetry

"Swing Landscape" by Stuart Davis
“Swing Landscape” – a poem by Kenneth Boyd....Kenneth Boyd writes poetry based on jazz paintings. “Swing Landscape” is written for a Stuart Davis painting of the same name.

Short Fiction

Short Fiction Contest-winning story #69 – “My Vertical Landscape,” by Felicia A. Rivers...Touched by the stories of the Philadelphia jazz clubs of the 1960s, a graffiti artist transforms an ugly wall into something beautiful – meaningful, even.

Poetry

photo via Wikimedia Commons
Jimi Hendrix - in four poems

Short Fiction

“Alas, for My Poor Heart” – a short story by Daryl Rothman...The story – a short-listed entry in the recently concluded 69th Short Fiction Contest – concerns art and its truest meanings—where you just might have to look twice at what the shadow and light of a piece says about that within your soul.

Essay

“Escalator Over the Hill – Then and Now” – by Joel Lewis...Remembering the essential 1971 album by Carla Bley/Paul Haines, inspired by the writer’s experience attending the New School’s recent performance of it

Poetry

“Still Wild” – a collection of poems by Connie Johnson...Connie Johnson’s unique and warm vernacular is the framework in which she reminds readers of the foremost contributors of jazz music, while peeling back the layers on the lesser known and of those who find themselves engaged by it, and affected by it. I have proudly published Connie’s poems for over two years and felt the consistency and excellence of her work deserved this 15 poem showcase.

Short Fiction

“Heroics” – a short story by Michele Herman...The story – a short-listed entry in the recently concluded 69th Short Fiction Contest – is about brothers coping with an angry father whose solution for dealing with a family crisis is to take them to a Howard Johnson’s for ice cream.

Feature

Jazz History Quiz #184...Maurice Ravel (pictured) acknowledged basing his Bolero on an improvisation of this clarinetist, who was also influential in the careers of Benny Goodman and Nat Cole, who made famous this musician’s theme song, “Sweet Lorraine.” Who is he?

Interview

Interview with Sascha Feinstein, author of Writing Jazz: Conversations with Critics and Biographers...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.

Feature

Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 26: “Bougainvillea Sutra”...An occasional series of the writer’s poetic interpretations of jazz recordings and film. In this edition, his inspiration comes from the guitarist John Scofield’s 2013 EmArcy album Uberjam Deux, and specifically the track titled “Scotown.”

Short Fiction

photo by Simon Webster
“Smoke Rings and Minor Things” – a short story by Jane McCarthy...The story – a short-listed entry in the recently concluded 69th Short Fiction Contest – is a meditation on missed chances, minor keys, and the music that outlives the room it was played in.

Essay

“J.A. Rogers’ ‘Jazz at Home’: A Centennial Reflection on Jazz Representation Through the Lens of Stormy Weather and Everyday Life – an essay by Jasmine M. Taylor...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.”

Publisher’s Notes

Creatives – “This is our time!“…A Letter from the Publisher...A call to action to take on political turmoil through the use of our creativity as a way to help our fellow citizens “pierce the mundane to find the marvelous.”

Community

photo of Dwike Mitchell/Willie Ruff via Bandcamp
“Tell a Story: Mitchell and Ruff’s Army Service” – an essay by Dale Davis....The author writes about how Dwike Mitchell and Willie Ruff’s U.S. Army service helped them learn to understand the fusion of different musical influences that tell the story of jazz.

Feature

Excerpts from David Rife’s Jazz Fiction: Take Two– Vol. 16: Halloween on Mars? Or…speculative jazz fiction...A substantial number of novels and stories with jazz music as a component of the story have been published over the years, and the scholar David J. Rife has written short essay/reviews of them. In this 16th edition featuring excerpts from his outstanding literary resource, Rife writes about azz-inflected speculative fiction stories (sci-fi, fantasy and horror)

Poetry

“With Ease in Mind” – poems by Terrance Underwood...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.

Feature

William Gottlieb/Library of Congress
“Lester Young Cools a Village” – by Henry Blanke...On the origins of cool, and the influence (and greatness) of Lester Young.

Interview

photo Louis Armstrong House Museum
Interview with Ricky Riccardi, author of Stomp Off, Let’s Go: The Early Years of Louis Armstrong...The author discusses the third volume of his trilogy, which includes the formation of the Armstrong-led ensembles known as the Hot Five and Hot Seven that modernized music, the way artists play it, and how audiences interact with it and respond to it.

Poetry

“November Affair” – a poem (for November) by Jerrice J. Baptiste...Jerrice J. Baptiste’s 12-month 2025 calendar of jazz poetry winds through the year with her poetic grace while inviting us to wander through music by the likes of Charlie Parker, Hoagy Carmichael, Frank Sinatra, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Sarah Vaughan, Melody Gardot and Nina Simone. She welcomes November with a sensual, romantic poem that inspires a listening to Andre Previn and Doris Day’s 1962 recording of “My One and Only Love.”

Essay

“Is Jazz God?” – an essay by Allison Songbird...A personal journey leads to the discovery of the importance of jazz music, and finding love for it later in life.

Poetry

What is This Path – a collection of poems by Michael L. Newell...A contributor of significance to Jerry Jazz Musician, the poet Michael L. Newell shares poems he has written since being diagnosed with a concerning illness.

Playlist

“Look Ma, No Net!” – a playlist of nonets, by Bob Hecht...In this episode of our progressive instrumentation playlists, we add a ninth instrument to the mix to form a Nonet!

Art

photo by Giovanni Piesco
The Photographs of Giovanni Piesco: Art Farmer and Benny Golson...Beginning in 1990, the noted photographer Giovanni Piesco began taking backstage photographs of many of the great musicians who played in Amsterdam’s Bimhuis, that city’s main jazz venue which is considered one of the finest in the world. Jerry Jazz Musician will occasionally publish portraits of jazz musicians that Giovanni has taken over the years. This edition features the May 10, 1996 photos of the tenor saxophonist, composer and arranger Benny Golson, and the February 13, 1997 photos of trumpet and flugelhorn player Art Farmer.

Community

Community Bookshelf #5...“Community Bookshelf” is a twice-yearly space where writers who have been published on Jerry Jazz Musician can share news about their recently authored books and/or recordings. This edition includes information about books published within the last six months or so (March, 2025 – September, 2025)

Contributing Writers

Click the image to view the writers, poets and artists whose work has been published on Jerry Jazz Musician, and find links to their work

Coming Soon

Interview with John Gennari, author of The Jazz Barn:  Music Inn, the Berkshires, and the Place of Jazz in American Life; Also, a new Jazz History Quiz, and lots of short fiction; poetry; photography; interviews; playlists; and much more in the works......  Also, a new Jazz History Quiz, and lots of short fiction; poetry; photography; interviews; playlists; and much more in the works...

Interview Archive

Ella Fitzgerald/IISG, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Click to view the complete 25-year archive of Jerry Jazz Musician interviews, including those recently published with Judith Tick on Ella Fitzgerald (pictured),; Laura Flam and Emily Sieu Liebowitz on the Girl Groups of the 60's; Tad Richards on Small Group Swing; Stephanie Stein Crease on Chick Webb; Brent Hayes Edwards on Henry Threadgill; Richard Koloda on Albert Ayler; Glenn Mott on Stanley Crouch; Richard Carlin and Ken Bloom on Eubie Blake; Richard Brent Turner on jazz and Islam; Alyn Shipton on the art of jazz; Shawn Levy on the original queens of standup comedy; Travis Atria on the expatriate trumpeter Arthur Briggs; Kitt Shapiro on her life with her mother, Eartha Kitt; Will Friedwald on Nat King Cole; Wayne Enstice on the drummer Dottie Dodgion; the drummer Joe La Barbera on Bill Evans; Philip Clark on Dave Brubeck; Nicholas Buccola on James Baldwin and William F. Buckley; Ricky Riccardi on Louis Armstrong; Dan Morgenstern and Christian Sands on Erroll Garner; Maria Golia on Ornette Coleman.