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Maynard Dixon artwork/via Wikimedia Commons

Queen Calafia mural at the Mark Hopkins Hotel, San Francisco.  Califia is the namesake for the state of California

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my feminine ideal

is a Black woman, carefree, free to care,
with all the right grace notes, bundle of strength,
Amazonian, sexual, and queer
in all the senses, in all the tenses
……….(Queen)
that quiver and shiver and shine —
shimmer like Sun Ra’s percussion and sax
Mbungi Ubuntu the stars align
in all the senses, in all the tenses
……….(Queen)
Califia, sororadelphia,
full length and depth of the sea, caliphate
of fecund drum beats, reeds of Dionysia
wise as Apollo, Black as Otello
closed eyes, I picture Angela Davis
coming into Plato’s Cave to save us

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Listen to John Kendall Hawkins read his poem

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John Hawkins is a freelance journalist, poet, and PhD candidate in philosophy. He worries about AI and elites and the lack of an aggressive counterculture. His work has appeared in many publications around the world. He misses California, his native turf.

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Listen to the 1966 recording of Sun Ra and His Myth Science Arkestra perform his composition “When Angels Speak of Love” [Virtual Label LLC]

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Click for:

The Sunday Poem

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

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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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