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photo via rawpixel.com.
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A Long Slow Lonesome Blues
There’s little air
left for a harmonica’s woe
after years of blowing
long and slow
……………I sit and watch lone leaves fall
……………as if they have no breath at all
man, the burst of hope
back in ’08
when jazzy joy songs
blew to celebrate,
……………then in ‘16 a harmonica strain
……………long and slow to the rhythm of a train
that rolled on backwards
year after year
going nowhere,
except to fear,
……………sunlight through an open door
……………the promise of change in ’24,
now just a harmonica dirge
a long slow tune
in a musty stations
waiting room
……………a lonesome blues wailing refrain
……………for how many years of driving rain?
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by Daniel W. Brown
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Resurgent Rhapsody
The overlapping administrations
play competing compositions,
each considering their body of work,
one at an erasure keyboard,
depositions beings scheduled,
brittle laws skitter across driveways
held by the curb. Deadlines pressure,
what will endure, what will be repealed?
I take a drive over the pounding tracts
of yesterday’s freeway, laying down a rhythm
that Gershwin heard when he wrote
Rhapsody in Blue, and I respond
to this turnabout, unflappable era,
atonal, (but not an inventive way)
in response to this latest jazz age,
no rhapsody in blue, rather, red fortissimo.
This rhapsody will melt into purple,
combining elements from all notes,
keys and tempos, a whole new sound
born of improv, a score for the pit,
with a debut in Aeolian like Halls across
the Youtubian land, everyone invited,
everyone reinvented, all variations
return to this new central theme.
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by Michel Krug
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Jazz, After the Election
Jazz, after the election,
sounds better; hits my mind
in all the right places, embraces
my spirit even more.
After the 2024 elections
I am searching for a deeper
connection to the All, to the
people, to what is hopeful,
believable in this democracy
of ours.
Jazz is providing me empowerment.
Jazz is singing to my soul in ways
that takes away the daze, the haze
of the current political moment.
Jazz after the election is merciful,
is medicine, is salve solving issues
possessing the power to start civil
wars.
Jazz after the election:
for connection, for deflection of the
insanity we witness on television,
on blogs, in newspaper articles,
on Facebook and Instagram posts.
Jazz serving as a dose of calm in
the chaos – because a lot of us feel lost
at this time. Jazz eases my mind after
the election.
Miles’ horn; Coltrane’s sax; Lena’s voice;
Billie’s blues; Quincy’s visionary production;
Monk’s mastery; Bird’s guitar strums;
Santamaria’s conga beats
are a release from all of these national
political campaigns which drain the psyche,
the soul, the ability to find peace, harmony,
and a sense of self.
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by Christopher D. Sims
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La Vie en Rose
Armstrong’s song
blooms through
a gramophone trumpet
found at Goodwill—
Good old days
hold me close
and hold me fast
and beg me
not to sigh
and say goodbye
and go to a world apart
because life will
always be La vie en rose
as beautiful as a dream.
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by Jianqing Zheng
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Listen to the 1950 recording of Louis Armstrong performing “La vie en rose” [Universal Music Group]
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Daniel W. 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 journals and anthologies. At age 72 he published his first collection FAMILY PORTRAITS IN VERSE and Other Illustrated Poems through Epigraph Books, Rhinebeck, NY. Daniel writes daily about music, art and whatever else catches his imagination.
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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 New Verse News, Poetica Publishing, Liquid Imagination, Blue Mountain Review, Portside, and many others.
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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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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 for:
More poetry on Jerry Jazz Musician
“Bluesette,” Salvatore Difalco’s winning story in the 67th Jerry Jazz Musician Short Fiction Contest
Information about how to submit your poetry or short fiction
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