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The Sunday Poem is published weekly, and strives to include the poet reading their work.
John Menaghan reads his poem at its conclusion.
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Wojciech Soporek, CC BY 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Pharoah Sanders in Poland; 1981
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Pyramids
for Pharoah Sanders
O
no
I’ve
heard things
louder than Pharoah’s
horn just can’t remember
when softer a second then
booming again hard not to pay
attention what hard bop hard to say
old Pharaoh playin’ his own way building
up walls note by note pyramids of pleasure
jewels hidden deep inside a wonder of this world
or any other mother fucker better listen up you hear.
I
saw
him play
at Catalina’s
back in the day
sitting at the bar
not him fool me while
he blew up the room boom
boom down in front everybody
duckin’ for cover or clutchin’ their
lover if they got one or their drink instead
just glad either way they aint dead o no more alive
than ever no jive that dude plays his sax like a bazooka
blam blam blam blam blam blam blam toot toot boom boom.
Do
you even
know what I’m
talking about I’m sayin’
he’s a stone cold killer with
a gleaming horn spraying bullets of
sound all over town hell all over the goddamn
universe at the end of the night they pull up a hearse
to the back door of the club and carry out the dead dudes
who listened so hard they had some kind of stroke it aint no
joke I’m telling you now don’t you dare say you wasn’t warned
Pharoah rules the roost simple as that you in his sights splat splat
no escape hell everybody dies not yet don’t fret he’s got another set.
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Listen to John Menaghan read his poem
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Winner of an Academy of American Poets Prize and other awards, John Menaghan has published four books with Salmon Poetry–All the Money in the World (1999), She Alone (2006), What Vanishes (2009), and Here and Gone (2014)—as well as poems and articles in Irish, British, American, and Canadian journals, and given poetry readings in Ireland, England, Scotland, France, Hungary, Canada, and across the U.S. from New York to Honolulu. A fifth volume, composed entirely of his jazz-related poems, is forthcoming from Salmon.
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Listen to the live 1973 recording of Pharoah Sanders performing his composition “The Gathering,” from the album Elevation [Universal Music Group]
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Click for:
More poetry on Jerry Jazz Musician
War. Remembrance. Walls. The High Price of Authoritarianism – by editor/publisher Joe Maita
“The Sound of Becoming,” J.C. Michaels’ winning story in the 70th 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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“a gleaming horn spraying bullets of / sound…”—-terrific!
The internal rhymes pop with the rhythms of bop more than hip-hop, although this is a hipster’s poem, riding on Menaghan’s surefire ear, Sanders’s music, & the internal aural logic of the experience of listening so hard you become the music. It’s a synesthetic delight.
Beautifully captures the rhythm of the music in the poet’s lines… the crescendos and the quiet pauses, and the bodily responses of each listener to the artist’s notes…
Lovely!