The Sunday Poem: “A Friend’s Son Reminds Me of Gabor Szabo” by Daniel Warren Brown

March 28th, 2026

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

Daniel Warren Brown reads his poem at its conclusion.

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The cover to the Hungarian guitarist Gabor Szabo’s 1969 Skye Records album

A Friend’s Son Reminds Me of Gabor Szabo
(An Ode)

We hadn’t written in awhile
he liked a memory I shared about his Dad
a fine musician and record collector,
especially guitarists —

Gabor Szabo’s name came up
whom his Dad and I saw at Carnegie Hall, late 70’s;
a guitar celebration with Fahey, and Almeida,
Szabo a name, style and mood returned
plectrum sorcery of ancient moon shadows —

and so as a tribute to all that age forgets
I sought out the the Hungarian raga strains
of Szabo’s album “Dreams”,
each tune a Galatean memory cast in stone
though brought to life by memory —
my past becoming alive
with variations on a theme,
a recapitulation for my future.

Listen to Daniel Warren Brown read his poem

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Daniel Warren 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.

Listen to the 1967 live recording of Gabor Szabo performing the Cole Porter composition “What Is This Thing Called Love?”, with Szabo (guitar); Jimmy Stewart (guitar); Lajos “Louis” Kabok (bass); Marty Morell (drums); and Hal Gordon (percussion). [Universal Music Group]