“The Saxophone Writes John a Letter” – a poem by Valdez Hill

October 16th, 2026

Distributed by Impulse! Records/cropped/via Wikimedia Commons

The Saxophone Writes John a Letter
……..The Instrument That Remembered His Fire

John, I remember your hands—
Your fingers moving across my silver keys,
Your light against my golden-brass body.
You did not merely hold me.
You played me
And your breath enter.

Hamlet,
Gave you your first breath
Your grandfather’s faith
Placed clay in your lungs.
Philadelphia taught your sorrow to echo
Shaping the man you become.
Miles dressed your pain in Jazz-blue.
Monk bent a staircase of sound beneath your feet.
But you kept searching my body
For a note no key could lock.
McCoy made rain beside us.
Elvin rolled heaven through his drums.
Jimmy gave our voices earth enough to stand upon

As four souls entered one vowel:

Love,
You lengthened it through me—
Loooooove—
One more time—John
Come on now.!
Loooooove—
Yeah
There it is.
Until God became our muse.
A Love Supreme was not a throne.
It was my knee touching earth.

Later, Pharoah opened the heavens.
Alice answered in arpeggios.
You asked me to go farther—
Past melody,
Past language,
Into the place where sound becomes prayer.
I opened my body deeper.
I played when you needed tenderness.
I cried out when silence would not listen.
I became a door without hinges.
And you became the breath that passed through it.

Then your lips lifted from my reed.
Your breath left me too soon.
I still remember the warmth of your hands.

A hundred years after your birth,
Other mouths still borrow your fire.

Concert halls open.
Lost tapes awaken—
Digitized,
Remastered
For a new generation.
Orchestras lift your name
In praise.
Violins and cellos
Try to carry your voice,
But no orchestra can contain your sound.
Not even a new quartet bearing your name.

John,
You place your fingers
On my silver keys.
You rested your lips
On my reed one last time,

Filling
My golden body
With your breath.

The
century
Is ready to exhale.

Listen to Valdez Hill read his poem

___

Valdez Hill is a classically trained pianist who marked fifty-nine years at the piano in 2025 and has long woven music and poetry into a unified artistic practice. In 2024, he presented a recital integrating both forms. He has served for nineteen years on the Board of Directors of the Young People’s Symphony Orchestra (YPSO) in Berkeley, California, and currently serves as Artistic Director of Giving Concerts. His poetry has appeared in many publications, as well as in gallery exhibitions and commissioned projects. He is an active member of the California State Poetry Society (CSPS).

Listen to the 1963 recording of John Coltrane performing his composition “Impressions,” with McCoy Tyner (piano); Eric Dolphy (alto saxophone); Jimmy Garrison (bass); and Elvin Jones (drums). [Verve Music Group]