“If You Were Julie London” – a poem by Jerrice J. Baptiste

December 11th, 2024

.

.

CBS Television, via Wikimedia Commons

.

.

 

If You Were Julie London

Maybe, whisper of your voice
could bring home
……………………your far away love
before icicles begin to form.
……………………It could be so.

Maybe, promise of warmth
from your extended arms
………..would make December
a month to remember.
………..It could be so.

Maybe, by fireplace glowing
You’d sit with hands interlacing.
………..It could be so.
Maybe, your world would be ecstasy
if only you knew her melody.

.

.

___

.

.

Jerrice J Baptiste is a poet and author of nine books. Her most recent book of poems Coral in the Diaspora is published by Abode Press (August 2024). Her poems have been published in Mantis, Penumbra Literary Art Journal,  Pensive: A Global Journal of Spirituality & The Arts, The Dewdrop, Urthona: Buddhism & Art and numerous others. Her poetry and collaborative songwriting are featured on the nominated Grammy award album: Many Hands Family Music for Haiti.

.

.

Listen to the 1956 recording of Julie London singing the Bob Russell composition “Warm December” [The Orchard]

.

.

___

.

.

Click here to read previous editions of The Sunday Poem

Click here to read more poetry published on Jerry Jazz Musician

Click here to read “Bluesette,” Salvatore Difalco’s winning story in the 67th Jerry Jazz Musician Short Fiction Contest

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

Click here to help support the ongoing publication of Jerry Jazz Musician, and to keep it commercial-free (thank you!)

.

___

.

.

Jerry Jazz Musician…human produced (and AI-free) since 1999

.

.

.

Share this:

30 comments on ““If You Were Julie London” – a poem by Jerrice J. Baptiste”

  1. “Maybe, your world would be ecstasy
    if only you knew her melody.”

    What an inspiring poem inspired by such a wonderful artist!

    Thanks, Jerrice!

  2. Jerrica has a beautiful soul! Such warmth in this poem! Can’t wait to read more of your poetry! Love the poem! I’m going to order your book!

    1. Thank you so much Cathy for your kind words! So happy you will order my book Coral in The Diaspora! Joy, Jerrice 🙏🩷

  3. I love how each stanza begins with the word maybe, and allows for the magic that can transform our lives with love! Thank you for this beautiful poem!

    1. Thanks for your keen observations here Priscilla! I appreciate these beautiful words you shared here😊💖🙏

  4. ah yes, to maybe be that easter bunny seducing a warmth from the long winter nights with her soft magical whispers.. to have the power to bring my love home…
    what a beautifully crafted poem from a deeply committed poetsoul, filling my Yuletime Season with honest layers of reflection and joy <3

  5. I love the longing in this poem, with its intriguing title putting me in Julie London’s shoes – even if I realize I can’t quite stay there with the last line! Brava.

  6. This poem was very appealing to me, I enjoyed reading it more then once. The imagery in this poem is absolutely stunning, especially the line that went like “Maybe, your world would be ecstasy if only you knew her melody”.

  7. Maybe…It could be so.
    The in between so beautiful and beautifully framed.
    This should/could be a new song.

  8. This poem is beautifully crafted leaving all the picturescape imagery resonating with a cadence and rhythm that is totally unique to you. As lovely and full of love and longing as the Julie London recording. This touching poem is as good as laughter in a house on a grey and dreary day.

  9. Such a beautiful poem. It has an interesting mix of dreamy imagery and a melancholic tone. It feels like a relationship that you want so badly to work, but can’t imagine it actually working unless something changes fundamentally. Definitely makes you think. Amazing work, Jerrice!

  10. Thank you to all who have read and have taken the time to write a meaningful, heartfelt comment on my poem!
    So glad it resonated with all of you!

    Joy & gratitude
    Jerrice

Comment on this article:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Site Archive

Your Support is Appreciated

Jerry Jazz Musician has been commercial-free since its inception in 1999. Your generous donation helps it remain that way. Thanks very much for your kind consideration.

Click here to read about plans for the future of Jerry Jazz Musician.

In this Issue

Announcing the publication of Volume II of Kinds of Cool: An Interactive Collection of Jazz Poetry...The second edition of Kinds of Cool, an Interactive Collection of Jazz Poetry has just been published, and is now available for sale on Amazon.com. This edition is dedicated to publishing women poets from all over the world who share their personal passion for and relationship with jazz music, and the culture it interacts with. With a foreword by Allison Miller, one of the world’s most eminent jazz drummers, and photography and design by Rhonda R. Dorsett

Poetry

photo by William Gottlieb/adapted by Rhonda R. Dorsett
21 jazz poems on the 21st of April, 2026...An ongoing series designed to share the quality of jazz poetry continuously submitted to Jerry Jazz Musician. In this edition…Mix in poems on the blues with some Coltrane, Monk, Bix, Mingus, Miles, Art Farmer, King Oliver, Desmond, and Brubeck, and you have one hell-of-a lively and entertaining collection to take in. Enjoy!

Community

A collection of poetic responses to the events of 2025...Forty poets describe their experiences with the tumultuous events of 2025, resulting in a remarkable collection of work made up of writers who may differ on what inspired them to participate, but who universally share a desire for their voice to be heard amid a changing America.

The Sunday Poem

photo via Pixabay

The Sunday Poem: “Shivers” by Howard Osborne

The Sunday Poem is published weekly, and strives to include the poet reading their work...

Howard Osborne reads his poem at its conclusion.


Click here to read previous editions of The Sunday Poem

Short Fiction

Photo by Johannes Schröter, via Pexels
Short Fiction Contest-winning story #71 – “Where the Music Wasn’t Allowed,” by Jane McCarthy....The award-winning story is about a young immigrant growing up in Southern California to the sound of music seeping into his family’s home from an upstairs neighbor’s piano, shaping the boy’s understanding of memory, family, belonging, and the improvisational ethics of music.

Interview

photo by Warren Fowler
Interview with John Gennari, author of The Jazz Barn: Music Inn, the Berkshires, and the Place of Jazz in American Life...The author discusses how in the 1950s the Berkshires – historic home to the likes of Hawthorne, Melville, Wharton, Rockwell, and Tanglewood – became a crucial space for the performance, study, and mainstreaming of jazz, and eventually an epicenter of the genre’s avant-garde.

Poetry

photo by Tsutumu Takasu/via Flicker/CC BY 2.0
“Cajun Glory” – a prose poem by Robert Alan Felt

Community

Ricky Esquivel/Pexels.com
Community Bookshelf #6...“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 (September, 2025 – March, 2026)

Poetry

Six poets write eight poems (in the midst of our times)...Poets within this community of writers are feeling this moment in time, and writing about it. This collection is another example.

Feature

photo by Laura Stanley via Pexels.com.
Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 28: “Little Samba”...Trading Fours with Douglas Cole is an occasional series of the writer’s poetic interpretations of jazz recordings and film. This edition is based largely on a documentary – They Shot the Piano Player – about Tenório Junior, a Latin jazz musician who only produced one album (1964) before he “disappeared” in 1976.

Short Fiction

photo J. & L. Caswall Smith
“Bitty’s Last Request” – a short story by Jill Bronfman...In the story – a finalist in the recently concluded 71st Short Fiction Contest – a very old dancer visits her young relative with stories to tell about the old days in the clubs.

Poetry

art by Marsha Hammel
“Learning the Alphabet of the Blues” – a poem by Mary K O’Melveny...A poem from Kinds of Cool: An Interactive Collection of Jazz Poetry, Vol. II

Short Fiction

Alejandro Aznar/via Pexels.com
“Down at the Crossroads” – a short story by David Rudd...In this story – a finalist in the recently concluded 71st Jerry Jazz Musician Short Fiction Contest – a jazz composer hears a lone fiddler play a tune that enters his head and won’t leave it, like a virulent earworm, wrecking his playing, his friendships, and indeed, his life, until he finally finds a way to remove it.

Feature

photo via Wikimedia Commons
Memorable Quotes: Two, by Edward R. Murrow…

Feature

photo via Wikipedia
“Two Famous Johns” – a true jazz story by Bob Hecht...The writer remembers an evening in New York’s Half Note in 1964 when he witnessed a John Coltrane performance that was also attended by the pop singer Johnny Mathis

Poetry

Haiku: Musings – by Connie Johnson...Exploring segments of the world of jazz – in three suites of vivid haiku poetry…

Jazz History Quiz

photo of "Hot Lips" Page by William Gottlieb
Jazz History Quiz #187...This trumpeter began his career in California, where he organized a big band that had a residency in China in 1934, and, during a trip through Kansas City in 1936, was invited to join Count Basie’s orchestra, replacing “Hot Lips” Page (pictured). Who is he?

Feature

“Bohemian Spirit” – A Remembrance of 1970’s Venice Beach, by Daniel Miltz...The writer recalls 1970’s Venice Beach, where creatives chased a kind of freedom that didn’t fit inside four walls…

Poetry

Linnaea Mallette/publicdomainpictures.net
A 2026 jazz poetry calendar...12 individual poets contribute a jazz-themed poem dedicated to a particular month, resulting in a 2026 calendar of jazz poetry that winds through the year with a variety of poetic styles and voices who share their journeys with the music, tying it into the month they were tasked to interpret. Along the way you will encounter the likes of Sonny Stitt, Charles Mingus, Jaco Pastorius, Wynton Kelly, John Coltrane, and Nina Simone.

Feature

Boris Yaro, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
“The Bowie Summer” – a personal memory, and how art can fundamentally reshape identity, by G.D. Newton-Wade

Short Fiction

photo by Iryna Olar/pexels.com 
“The Fading” – a short story by Noah Wilson...The story – a finalist in the recently concluded 70th Short Fiction Contest – examines the impact of genetic illness on a family of musicians and artists.

Poetry

Poems on Charlie “Bird” Parker (inspired by a painting by Al Summ) – an ekphrastic poetry collection...A collection of 25 poems inspired by the painting of Charlie Parker by the artist Al Summ.

Feature

Albert Ayler’s Spiritual Unity – A Classic of Our Time, and for All Time – an essay by Peter Valente...On the essence of Albert Ayler’s now classic 1964 album…

Poetry

Laura Manchinu (aka La Manchù), CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
“Ron Carter Apple Sauce” – a prose poem by Martin Durkin

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.

Playlist

photo by Robert Hecht
“Spring is Here!” – a playlist by Bob Hecht...With perhaps Lorenz Hart’s most sardonic lyric — which is saying something! — this song remains one of the greats, and has been interpreted in many ways, from the plaintive and melancholy to the upbeat and hard swinging, such as John Coltrane’s version. Check out this bouquet of ten tracks to celebrate this great season!

Poetry

Wikimedia Commons
“Dorothy Parker, an Icon of the Jazz Age” – a poem by Jane McCarthy

Community

Nominations for the Pushcart Prize L (50)...Announcing the six writers nominated for the Pushcart Prize v. L (50), whose work appeared on the web pages of Jerry Jazz Musician or within print anthologies I edited during 2025.

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.

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

An interview with Paul Alexander, author of Bitter Crop: The Heartache and Triumph of Billie Holiday's Last Year; New poetry collections, 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.