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

Akua Lezli Hope reads her poem at its conclusion.

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Marek Lazarski, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Sonny Rollins, 2008

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Sonny Rollins

to wrest from the sear of this

cold flame
…………….grief, the under thrum
of earth song
…………….ever jostling joy’s bright,
…………….rich riffs
shredding what was whole into
…………….today’s tatters
tears of gratitude
…………….and longing that what
never never never
…………….stood still
…………….never stayed put
…………….ever ever ever
UNFOLDED
…………….O Fount of song
…………….BECOMING
…………….O IN
…………….…………….STRUCT
…………….…………….…………….ORE
Whose being architected myth
…………….YOU on the bridge playing
…………….paying the TOLL
…………….to the unseen
…………….WRESTLING with WHAT
AWAITS at every real crossing
…………….by the water
…………….by the water
…………….by water your parents came
…………….from island to island
your spirit grew
ever stronger wings of song
ever more subtle muscles of magic
ever reaching deeper into soul
…………….raising our frequencies
…………….as we journeyed on your
…………….Great Breath
Your SUBLIME trained inhale
…………….your ever QUESTING exhale
transmitting sound into
story’s strong feeling
…………….our articulated ancient art
RE TURNED to us presented
again and again in frequencies
of freedom seeking
…………….roll away the stone
SONNY! what you did to me
when I was womb-bound when I was
wee…….. what you gave my father my mother
our kin gathered in Harlem apartments
remembering plants that didn’t
grow here……………. reconceiving homelands
reconciling promises forgoing failings
sought dreams
remembering majesties can meld
dwelling deep withinness

and when we young word world wielders
stuttered in our struggles
your example articulated
the striving metaphor for our reaching
…………….woodshed like Sonny
…………….the ADEPT
…………….calling us with his horn
…………….summoning us to surmount
…………….all dire deterrence
…………….misdirecting our soulminds,
…………….destructive distractions
…………….demolished determinations
…………….be brave, BE BE BE bold
…………….behold, what waits beyond
this benighted illusion reach reach reach
…………….is how his sibilant sound would teach
pouring wisdom‘s pearls
…………….showering us with his generous out pourings
…………….fueling healing,
…………….transforming this tragedy
…………….into tender triumphs of transmission
touching us in places and ways only
…………….his rollicking righteous
…………….rigor could retrieve reclaim
gifting us
…………….calling us
…………….…………….creating of alluswe
who listened
…………….new persons
…………….our hungers heard, and in listening,
…………….learned …………….shared shaped
…………….recoded to restore

So we sing these tatters
through inarticulate tears.

We remember how breath and sound
made mystery
…………….made magic
…………….…………….manifest our divinity
Thank you for being here with us
Sonny Rollins

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Listen to Akua Lezli Hope read her poem

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Akua Lezli Hope, a Grand Master of Fantastic Poetry (SFPA), is a multi- award-winning poet, creator, wisdom seeker & paraplegic in print since 1974 with 600+ poems published. Her honors include the NEA, NYFA & NYSCA, IGNYTE, ELGIN and RHYSLING awards. She edited NOMBONO, the first Anthology of BIPOC Speculative Poetry & created the Speculative Sundays Poetry Reading Series, now in its 7th year. Her short fiction has been published in Dark Matter, Africa Risen & AfroFuturism, among others. Her books are EMBOUCHURE (Writers Digest Award), Them Gone, Otherwheres (Elgin Award), Our 50th, & her new collection, TELEPATH, from Gnashing Teeth Publishing.

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Listen to the 1957 recording of Sonny Rollins performing his composition “Why Don’t I?” with Jay Jay Johnson (trombone); Horace Silver (piano); Paul Chambers (bass); and Art Blakey (drums). [Universal Music Group]

 

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“Where the Music Wasn’t Allowed,” Jane McCarthy’s winning story in the 71st Jerry Jazz Musician Short Fiction Contest

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