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photo via PickPik
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After Solstice
( “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”)
it happens like
………………….clockwork with
……………………………………the advent of increase
daylight expands
………………….darkness cautiously
……………………………………diminishes
hearts lighten
………………….as that day
……………………………………of giving nears
once upon us
………………….troubles do seem
……………………………………like Dexter interprets
miles from sight
………………….relegated to reverence
……………………………………beyond a Yuletide melody
………………….could it only remain so
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by Terrance Underwood
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Listen to Terrance Underwood read his poem
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This Instant Recollection
I am five years old
Taking a picture of my parents
In front of our lofty (in my eyes!)
Star-spangled tree
The whiff of my dad’s Camel spirals
My mom’s smile is enigmatic
As Nat King Cole’s
“The Christmas Song”
Spins.
My dad places his hand
On my mother’s waist
To draw her close.
She is his Cotton Club manifestation
In an hourglass floral housedress
The root of everything I know
About what a woman can mean
To a man.
She is his Polaroid prayer
A black & white peek
Into grown folks’ business
Happiness contained.
This is Christmas in the ‘50s
And my father is proud of his little family
In this captured moment
In this manifestation
Of a Polaroid prayer.
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by Connie Johnson
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Listen to Connie Johnson read her poem
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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.
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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. In 2024, he was nominated by Jerry Jazz Musician for a Pushcart Prize.
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”
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Listen to the 1961 recording of Nat King Cole performing the Mel Torme/Robert Wells composition “The Christmas Song” [Universal Music Group]
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Listen to the 1981 recording of Dexter Gordon performing the Hugh Martin/Ralph Blane composition “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” with Gordon (tenor saxophone); Kirk Lightsey (piano); David Eubanks (bass); and Eddie Gladden (drums). [Columbia/Legacy]
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Click for:
More poetry on Jerry Jazz Musician
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!)
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Jerry Jazz Musician…human produced since 1999
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