National Poetry Month Meets Bukowski & Metaphor
Sean MurphyThis pic popped up in my Facebook memories today. Reminding me not only of the great Martha's Vineyard Adventure in 2016, via the Noepe Center for Literary Arts (RIP), but…
National Poetry Month Meets The Sweet Science
My thanks to the excellent journal 805 Lit + Art for publishing my poem Hagler and Hearns, 1985. I’m especially grateful because, let’s face it, arguably the only thing more esoteric than poetry about jazz is poetry…
National Poetry Month & Ron Carter
Another one from my new collection, "Ron Carter's Fingers" is also featured in the latest collection of poetry available at Jerry Jazz Musician, a wonderful site that celebrates jazz 24/7.…
Easter Sunday and Eric Dolphy
Eric Dolphy’s Avowal* Eric Dolphy’s alto is less a solo than an announcement: not unlike a boisterous child acting out in the rear pew, where everyone gradually comprehends, he is…
National Poetry Month Meets Marvin Gaye
I was aware (and in awe) of John Goodman before I reviewed his book (10 years ago!) Mingus Speaks -- an indispensable document of the great Charles Mingus (a lot…
National Poetry Month Meets Howlin’ Wolf
National Poetry Month rolls on. Thanks again to Decolonial Passage for publishing "Howlin' Wolf's Harp" last summer. This one appears in Rhapsodies in Blue (and I read it last week…
Original Poetry: Six Haikus for America
Just in time for #NationalPoetryMonth, the amazing team at Exterminating Angel Press has dropped the Spring 23 issue of their magazine on the theme of Recipes for Disaster. Tons of…
Original Poem: Charles Mingus’s Memento
It remains a blessing for this writer to find publications that “get” him –and what I’m attempting with my ongoing project (the first installment, of course, being The Blackened Blues, released…
Original Poem: Imagined Conversations with People I Love about Trauma
van Gogh, Vincent; Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear; The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust); http://www.artuk.org/artworks/self-portrait-with-bandaged-ear-207202 I appreciate that this one got picked up by Humans of the World, as trauma (experiencing…
Original Poem: Pharoah Sanders Donating Blood to Buy Food, 1962
A young Sanders with his mentor and bandmate John Coltrane Huge gratitude to the team at Decolonial Passage for including my work in their "Food, Power, and Powerlessness" issue. (It's…