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

Daniel Klawitter reads his poem at its conclusion.

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Mart Production/via Pexels.com

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Improvisations on a May-December Romance

I’m making this stuff up as I go along—
Like the melodies of Monk & Bird before me.
But there’s still swing & syncopation, see?
Call & response, liberation, & harmonic complexity.
We belong together baby & I love you like jazz.
So why you keep my heart locked up in Alcatraz?

I ain’t done nothin’ wrong, just admiring your rhythm.
You’re walking on rainbows while I’m in a ragtime prison.
You think that I’m funny & find me entertaining.
But to me you’re pure music: like hearing a painting.
I’m glad that you’re laughing & find me amusing.
But God help me woman—we could also be grooving.

I’m playing all the blue notes; I’m playing them with soul!
If it wasn’t for jazz…there wouldn’t be no rock n roll.
Louis Armstrong said that, & Satchmo knew the score.
It may be a wonderful world, but right now it’s tug-of-war.
My brain is bleeding baby; my heart is bruised & sore.
I’m a little older than you lady, but I ain’t no dinosaur.

Now I’m hanging at the jazz club & sitting here alone.
My heart is moaning mournful, like a tenor saxophone.
Lonnie’s Lament ain’t nothin’, compared to how I ache.
I’m tormented, spent, & bended: but this isn’t a mistake.
Just need a little moonlight: a white gardenia for your hair.
& we can go on holiday—no more games of solitaire.

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Listen to Daniel Klawitter read his poem

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Daniel Klawitter is a poet in Denver, CO and the lead singer/lyricist of the indie folk/rock band Mining for Rain. His seventh book, Where Sunday Used to Be (Wipf & Stock/Resource Publications, 2022) won the Colorado Author’s League Book Award for Poetry.

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Listen to the 1963 live recording of John Coltrane performing his composition “Lonnie’s Lament,” with McCoy Tyner (piano); Jimmy Garrison (bass); and Elvin Jones (drums).  [Universal Music Group]

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Click for:

A Letter From the Editor: On “The Weary Blues: Celebrating Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance”

Information about the book Kinds of Cool: An Interactive Collection of Jazz Poetry, Vol. II (featuring women poets)

The Sunday Poem Archive

“21 jazz poems on the 21st” collections

More poetry on Jerry Jazz Musician

“La Fontaine,” Ashlee Trahan’s winning story in the 72nd Jerry Jazz Musician Short Fiction Contest

More short fiction on Jerry Jazz Musician

Information about how to submit your poetry or short fiction

Subscribe to the (free) Jerry Jazz Musician quarterly newsletter

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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