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The Sunday Poem is published weekly, and strives to include the poet reading their work.
Readings of the poems are available at their conclusion.
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photo by Duncan Light/via Pexels
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Wall Street Wailing (For My Mother)
This old Brunswick 78 spins into
my aging mind.
Mom liked ‘Mood Indigo’ best
but I always played the flip
‘Wall Street Wail’,
Ellington’s paean to
the crash
that didn’t even tickle
Cotton Club gangsters.
Wall Street Wail:
A racetrack flurry
of solos with Charleston
intervals and a bit
of Tiger Rag to boot.
I was about 10
when I first heard it,
and despite the love
she gave me
of all things Duke
Wall Street Wail
made a singular end run
into my subconscious.
It’s been
six years
since Mom died, almost
a centenarian. Annual
spring Lobelia remind
me of her,
and this mornings
Indigo sky.
And I think of
the freedom she gave
to discover my
own choices.
Outside my sunrise window
a squirrel runs
up an elm tree like
a Barney Bigard
ascending scale
and I look through
my shelves
under ‘E’ for Duke’s
signature of exuberant youth,
a sound we were
both allowed
to find
in our own way
he and I,
Wall Street Wail.
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by Daniel Warren Brown
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Listen to Jerry Jazz Musician editor/publisher Joe Maita read Daniel’s poem
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Listen to the 1930 recording of the Jungle Band (a pseudonym for the Duke Ellington Orchestra) perform the Ellington composition “Wall Street Wail” [Universal Music Group]
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Thelonious Monk and Mama
Thelonious Monk paints a picture of Mama
with his piano, the way Monet or Matisse
would, with paint: loud, bright colorful
notes, that are a Rorschach test, screaming
on the page.
Perhaps Mama would’ve modeled for Picasso
in her spare time, when she didn’t dance
with Josephine Baker; her dark skin would’ve
been her calling card. Hemingway would’ve flirted
with her, he would’ve have put her in a short story.
she would’ve given William Faulkner inspiration for a novel.
Or maybe T.S. Eliot would’ve encountered her; she
would’ve loosened him up; Prufrock would’ve
had a reason to smile.
My Mama walks the streets of Paris like a 20s flapper,
and race is a foreign concept to her; white men tell her
she’s beautiful and she knows.
She sits in a restaurant, treated like a queen
life and dreams and possibilities await her…
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by Erren Kelly
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Listen to Erren Kelly read his poem
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Listen to the 1954 recording of Thelonious Monk performing his composition “Think of One,” with Sonny Rollins (tenor saxophone); Julius Watkins (french horn); Percy Heath (bass); and Willie Jones (drums). [Universal Music Group]
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Whispers of the Heart
My mother, voice colored by the hint of Virginia
even after decades away, softly talks of years past,
friends, parents, deceased spouse, siblings,
all lost to mortal frailty, swallowed by time.
Her monologue has the gentle beauty of a solo
by Bill Evans at his most introspective. His musings
deftly drawn on a keyboard and her murmurs
to listening sons are as one, quiet music that soars.
It sometimes seems that all life, whether muted or lived
with abandon, is an elegy for time’s relentless movement,
whether past, present, or future. No matter how restrained
or uninhibited, life expresses whispers of the heart.
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by Michael L. Newell
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Listen to Joe Maita read Michael’s poem
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Listen to the 1962 recording of Bill Evans performing his composition “Person I Knew,” with Chuck Israels (bass); and Paul Motian (drums). [Universal Music Group]
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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.
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Erren Kelly is a three-time Pushcart nominated poet from Boston whose work has appeared in 300 publications (print and online), including Hiram Poetry Review, Mudfish, Poetry Magazine, Ceremony, Cacti Fur, Bitterzoet, Cactus Heart, Similar Peaks, Gloom Cupboard, and Poetry Salzburg.
Click here to read “Under Quarantine” — COVID-era poetry of Erren Kelly, published by Jerry Jazz Musician
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Michael L. Newell lives on the Atlantic Coast of Florida. His most recent book of poems is Passage of a Heart. Click here to read “What is this Path” – a collection of his poems recently published on Jerry Jazz Musician
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Click for:
Information about Kinds of Cool: An Interactive Collection of Jazz Poetry, Vol. II (featuring women poets)
More poetry on Jerry Jazz Musician
“Where the Music Wasn’t Allowed,” Jane McCarthy’s winning story in the 71st 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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