Thursday, November 19th, 2009...9:52 pm

roger singer | 3 [jazz] poems

Jump to Comments

Art Pepper Quintet with Bob Magnusson, John Dentz and guest Lee Konitz at Donte’s North Hollywood 1982 | Photo: Mark Weber

NIGHT SPIRITS

It’s a shame
mornings gotta come up with
a bright bleaching, extinguishing the dark,
sending stars into hiding
and the moon to the other side of the earth.

An up sun provides the aroma of
breakfast, drowning out the flavor of
whiskey on ice and the gold of
beer flowing; bleary eyes full of jazz
yawn out the darkness.

The clubs open door invites in a brightness
like Christmas smiles, attacking gray corners
and faces shaded in shadows.

Slow steps scuff home where coffee
pots wait for shaky hands.

Morning is the enemy of night spirits.

Fred Katz, Father James Perrone & Hyman Katz 1979 | Photo: Mark Weber

FIRE WITHIN

Air notes of glass
slip sharp
through smoke,
cutting a path
to a crowd
lazy with music
sitting under willow trees
holding hard the jazz
like warm black
roads of summer.

Fat clapping hands,
long days of beer
and evenings short of gin,
cool his hands
into the drain of night.

He is the calling.
Dressed in black,
hat tipped down and
a lip wet cigarette
balancing his face;
the rising smoke is from
the fire within.

He feels the eyes
reaching into the spirit
of him.

Bobby Bradford 1976 | Photo: Mark Weber

FROM THAT HORN

The jazz
and the junk
crawled like
ants with cymbals
on their feet
jungle marching
inside his head
yelling to his
snazzy fingers
to blow notes
with pounding
and circling like
witchy winds
scratching hard
at the air
tearing a hole
and blasting
the music
smacking flat
into faces
smiling broad
from the sound
blowing upside
down and straight
with curves
escaping from
that horn.

some related articles are listed below:

  1. roger singer | 3 (more) jazz poems
  2. roger singer | a line of strings & other poems
  3. roger singer | fear of loss & inside the horn & teach me the jazz
  4. roger singer | more (jazz) poems
  5. roger singer | the hurt song & other poems
  6. roger singer | soaked on jazz | solid wind | with night
  7. roger singer | sorrow song & delta jazz & from her
  8. roger singer | pulling at me | brass bound | his jazz
  9. roger singer | 3 poems
  10. roger singer | separate colors
  11. roger singer | walking the dirt | unwrapped | that brassy thing
  12. roger singer | walls bow
  13. roger singer | a storm of force & we sing & slide and slap
  14. roger singer | round and round
  15. roger singer | the bank of blues and other poems
  16. roger singer | listening to angels
  17. roger singer | her gift of words
  18. mark weber | four poems from new york city
  19. roger singer | she cries of voice
  20. dorothea grossman | four poems
  21. mark weber | yoga + painting + jazz + traveling by air
  22. poetry & jazz | the south pasadena music conservatory
  23. todd moore | the central avenue rundown jazz radio show
  24. mark weber | on richard tabnik
  25. todd moore | the perfect
  26. mark weber | bip bop de biddly bip de bip de bippitty boo
  27. gary brower | chasin’ the trane
  28. tony moffeit | spirits
  29. todd moore | play it & judy christopher
  30. mark weber | hal mckusick and the finger snap of modernism
  31. mark weber | happy birthday for connie crothers
  32. dave church | drunk radio poems
  33. mark weber | did you get locked out?
  34. dante ocariz | four poems
  35. mark weber | world war two
  36. mark weber | move to the groove
  37. mark weber | tomorrow might be the day we get away from all that | ronald baatz | say a prayer for my dog
  38. mark weber & michael pierre vlatkovich | jazz is everything
  39. albert huffstickler | two poems for thanksgiving
  40. mark weber & gerald locklin | zerx chapbook No. 63
  41. tony moffeit | a piece of america’s heart
  42. mark a. murphy | eternity’s flow & other poems
  43. doug draime | five poems
  44. todd moore | dreaming the dream, paying the price
  45. gary brower | mahalia
  46. mark weber | weet anorso
  47. gary brower | ella and joe in westwood
  48. todd moore | reading the movies, watching the poems
  49. dante ocariz | 3 (more) poems
  50. mark weber | poetry band | zerx 068
  51. doug draime | miles
  52. gary brower | chet
  53. mark weber | poems and doodles
  54. victor schwartzman | they made me pay for my bad ways

Leave a Reply