• Home
  • Poetry Prompts
  • The Writing Life
  • Daily Poem-Subscribe!
  • Teaching Tools
  • The Press
  • Just for Patrons

June Jazz: Improv

By Matthew Kreider 25 Comments

Daily Disney - Balloon, Anyone? (Explored)

Light pours through the west end and floods the wooden floors of our home. James is in the front room, dancing. His clunky, horse-like heels stomp to a syncopated rhythm, following the dizzy-eyed direction of his four-year-old vision, rather than my music. His wobbly, outstretched arms crash up and down like cymbals, and his fingers chase after the bouncy melody playing over his head.

It’s improvisation with a white balloon. And his eyes, to me, look just like Louis Armstrong’s happy ones.

Jazz is hard to define, easy to feel. Its stimulating improvisation sways over our heads and wiggles into our hearts. It’s the jazz artist who knows how to play — and how to stay like a child.

Because May Play was such a romping good time at Tweetspeak last month, we want to continue playing all the way through June. So put on your old zoot suit, grab your swing dance muse, and toss out some big band grooves. We’re going to add a little jazz and chase some white balloons.

Don’t think too much. Feel it. Follow it. See where it goes.

Here’s how June Jazz works …

If you haven’t already, please consider subscribing to Every Day Poems.

1. On Mondays, the Every Day Poem in your inbox becomes a chord progression. Find your own tone. Build an idea around a single poem line. Just let yourself go and write a found poem, baby.

2. Tweet your poems to us. Add a #junejazz hashtag so we can find it and maybe share it with the world.

3. Or leave your found poem here in the comment box.

We’ll read your tweets and share some of your weekly play each week. At the end of the month, we’ll choose a winning poem and ask the playful poet to record his or her poem to be featured in one of our upcoming Weekly Top 10 Poetic Picks.

Here’s today’s Every Day Poem. Now go jazz it up.

Photo by Express Monorail. Creative Commons, via Flickr. Post by Matthew Kreider.

___________

Buy a year of Every Day Poems, just $2.99— Read a poem a day, become a better poet. In May we’re exploring the theme Trees.

Red #9

You Might Also Like

  • June Jazz: DanceJune Jazz: Dance
  • June Jazz: ‘Sweet Jazz O’ Mine’June Jazz: ‘Sweet Jazz O’ Mine’
  • May Play: StretchingMay Play: Stretching
  • May Play: ConversationsMay Play: Conversations
  • About
  • Latest Posts

Matthew Kreider

Latest posts by Matthew Kreider (see all)

  • Casting a Line for Surrealist Poetry - November 12, 2012
  • The History of the World in Beer - October 22, 2012
  • Journey into Poetry: Matthew Kreider - July 23, 2012

Filed Under: Every Day Poems, poetry, Themed Writing Projects

P.S., with love

We hope you found something inspiring here today.

Why not keep it going—for you, and the world?

Plus, you'll get access to our totally cool book clubs!

Comments

  1. Monica Sharman says

    June 4, 2012 at 4:12 pm

    Oh! I was just coming over here to say I was sad that it’s a non-May Monday. And then, this! Thanks for the cheery news.

    Reply
  2. Matthew Kreider says

    June 4, 2012 at 4:27 pm

    Monica – It’s pretty great news! Just goes to show you — one never knows what surprises will show up at Tweetspeak! 🙂

    Speaking of “cheery”, Monica, I must tell you: I love to hear your voice around here. You always get me smiling. 🙂

    By the way, don’t you just love the pic of the balloons?

    Reply
  3. L. L. Barkat says

    June 4, 2012 at 6:33 pm

    I love the idea of June Jazz. Just the sound of it tickles the tongue 🙂

    Reply
  4. Rosanne Osborne says

    June 4, 2012 at 11:10 pm

    Giving a Fig

    Wake up, Eve,
    it’s the day to name the trees.
    Let’s start with sycamore.

    Why, Adam, why call
    it sycamore? Looks like the tree
    of life to me.

    No, that’s a silly name for a tree.
    Look how tall it is? It wants
    a majestic name.

    But look at the fruit,
    those luscious figs, they promise
    life we’ve never known.

    Eve, you never see the beauty,
    those heart-shaped leaves,
    the variations of green. . .

    Adam, you don’t have a practical bone
    in your body. Always mooning
    over shapes and designs. . .

    Well, it’s my responsibility
    and I’m calling it
    a sycamore.

    Let’s not argue.
    Here, I’ve pealed a fig.
    Let’s eat its fruit.

    Reply
  5. Donna says

    June 5, 2012 at 7:29 am

    She pulled through
    Like a small boat
    Refusing to lose
    Refusing to capsize
    Refusing to be small at all

    She pulled through
    Like a small boat
    As the big boats thrashed
    Against the waves
    Leaving this world
    All twisted and sinking,
    Wishing for
    A heart like that

    She pulled through
    Like a small boat

    Reply
  6. Chris Yokel says

    June 5, 2012 at 9:20 am

    The trees of October,
    are all nearly over
    the fire sparks,
    falls out
    in gold-orange-red.
    Yet standing audacious,
    its flamboyance outrageous
    it defies the onset
    of the blue, black, and gray.

    Reply
  7. davis nancy rosback says

    June 5, 2012 at 11:45 am

    a little haiku for juniejazz this week…
    http://alittlesomethin.wordpress.com/2012/06/05/bow-down/

    Reply
  8. Monica Sharman says

    June 5, 2012 at 12:06 pm

    A mother, silent
    and her baby, sick
    knew it was the wrong
    time for crying. Though
    her sadness was bigger
    than the soldiers, they
    were the ones with guns.
    A baby was one life, but
    others were in the bus hidden
    in the muck. What she did
    saved the others but required
    a shovel to bury the sacrifice.

    Reply
  9. Monica Sharman says

    June 5, 2012 at 12:13 pm

    By the way, I didn’t start that poem with this in mind, but as I wrote the first few words, a scene in the final episode of M*A*S*H came to my head, and it became a poem about that. Funny how that happens to a poem.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodbye,_Farewell_and_Amen#Plot

    Reply
  10. Donna says

    June 6, 2012 at 8:46 am

    okay so doing EDpoems and Julia Cameron a the same time drags me a little bit (HA!) beyond the spaces I want to dwell… so I practice just visiting, not dwelling there. And I practice allowing, not forbidding. And yesterday’s poem took my breath away and that child… that child… i woke up today with that child still in my mind… and so i wrote a poem for her “as close as a promise” http://unmixingcolors.typepad.com/along_the_way/2012/06/as-close-as-a-promise.html

    Reply
  11. Rosanne Osborne says

    June 6, 2012 at 9:29 am

    Gone

    Mother will vanish like sleet,
    Cool, prickly sensations
    on the tongue you cannot taste.

    Memory will linger after
    her body has drifted down
    the hall and out the door.

    Impossible to recover
    the sense of embrace,
    the cord of birth’s binding.

    Receding into the sepia
    within an ornate frame
    dimensions collapse.

    You will become an orphan
    that a quarter of a century
    cannot place in a foster home.

    Reply
  12. Maureen Doallas says

    June 6, 2012 at 3:44 pm

    Already it’s October
    and cold, the house sick

    with our outraged hoping,
    and silent in a clot of snow.

    We’re all maneuvering
    the sadness of brief summer

    passion, the wrong thing
    we made of ourselves;

    the baby, the goodness after.
    We, all of us, falter

    and yet, of the earth,
    pull through. Years vanish

    in the slow grim gray of time.

    Reply
  13. path of treasure says

    June 7, 2012 at 2:49 am

    Love the idea of June Jazz— glad you’re keeping it going!

    The days are breath
    freezing in mid-air,
    petrified, succumbing

    to the cold. We did not
    see her coming; pain slowly
    filling our house. Tears

    drip like sleet, slapping
    ground, filling our brief
    years with liquid hope.

    Reply
  14. Rosanne Osborne says

    June 7, 2012 at 8:28 am

    When Wars Begin

    Outraged in the snow
    at the sheer audacity
    of the attack,
    his anger burned
    through his mittens.
    The snow ball
    in his hand
    melting
    to an icy
    missile.

    Hands
    that created
    turned to hands
    of aggression.

    Kicking snow,
    a restless yearling,
    he hurled his charge
    at Mason’s innocent cat,
    tears of frustration freezing
    on cheeks softened by the touch
    of compassion and constancy of care.

    Reply
  15. Matthew Kreider says

    June 7, 2012 at 9:35 am

    I love all the poetry play and sharing here! 🙂 And we’re just a few days in! Welcome to June Jazz, everyone!

    Reply
  16. Liz says

    June 7, 2012 at 11:27 pm

    a poem-a small one

    Worms spill out onto the smoldering sidewalk

    Trees bow down to listen

    and even the dig sound of a shovel

    is keeping the beat with the sound of jazz

    from a decades old radio.

    Reply
  17. Matthew Kreider says

    June 8, 2012 at 12:01 am

    Liz – I just retweeted your poem and added the #junejazz hashtag because I didn’t want it to get lost in Twitter-space. But then I saw you had just posted it here also! 🙂

    Reply
  18. Matthew Kreider says

    June 8, 2012 at 12:03 am

    And, Rosanne, I’ve really been enjoying your poems!

    Reply
  19. Lane says

    June 8, 2012 at 12:10 am

    The shovel is my brother,
    a good companion
    as we play together
    in the dirt…

    and I am bigger
    for hoping—
    as I dig,
    as I turn soil
    upside down,
    and a few worms, too.

    I imagine
    the tiny roots
    climbing low, low, low,
    while tiny shoots
    climb high.

    Sunday’s sunny.
    Thursday’s rainy.

    And, in spite of the July fourth
    storm,
    all red rumbling, blue bruising winds, and hailstone white,
    the beauty
    pulls through,
    with small burst of bright passion.

    At first,
    silent and small
    as a hummingbird hovering,
    the shoots poke up their green heads,
    then, choose to linger a while.

    My garden,
    solid goodness,
    feeds me in hope,
    as pure as snow.

    Lane Arnold
    © June 7, 2012

    lanearnold.co/blog

    Reply
  20. Lane Arnold says

    June 8, 2012 at 12:20 am

    Shovels
    lean
    In the peach tree’s shade.
    Juice cascades,
    Down my chin,
    As I eat deliciousness and
    Join in
    Summer’s laughter.
    #junejazz

    Reply
  21. Rosanne Osborne says

    June 8, 2012 at 9:17 am

    Contentment

    A worm from a clot of dirt
    is relentless, even dogged,
    in pursuit of elemental living

    the champion of all things
    organic, he tills his own soil,
    aerates and fertilizes

    gives back as much as he takes,
    composting as he goes. Work
    has its own reward, survival.

    His inner drummer sounds
    a constant beat, and his life
    does its own dirt dance.

    Reply
  22. [http://catholicfamiliesusa.org/|Yulanda|Yuls|Yul|Yully|catholicfamiliesusa.org|www.catholicfamiliesusa.org] says

    August 24, 2012 at 2:22 pm

    Hmm it appears like your site ate my first comment (it
    was extremely long) so I guess I’ll just sum it up what I had written and say, I’m thoroughly
    enjoying your blog. I too am an aspiring blog blogger but I’m still new to the whole thing. Do you have any helpful hints for first-time blog writers? I’d really appreciate it.

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. bow down « a Little Somethin' says:
    June 5, 2012 at 12:10 pm

    […] summer for junie jazz with tspoetry Category : haiku, […]

    Reply
  2. This Week’s Top 10 Poetic Picks says:
    June 7, 2012 at 8:33 am

    […] Feed Recent CommentsL. L. Barkat on This Week’s Top 10 Poetic PicksRosanne Osborne on June Jazz: ImprovThis Week’s Top 10 Poetic Picks on Every Day PoemsMike on Eric Roberts on How to Make Book […]

    Reply
  3. May Play: Results | TweetSpeak Poetry says:
    July 9, 2012 at 2:10 pm

    […] loved your playful and personal participation last month. But it’s not over. June Jazz is already underway. We’re still reading and listening to every post and […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Take How to Read a Poem

Get the Introduction, the Billy Collins poem, and Chapter 1

Free with tweet

Many of Our Dedicated Readers Become Patrons—How About You?

Welcome all the patron-only goodness, when you become a part of a place that brings joy to your world.

Follow Tweetspeak Poetry

Welcome to Tweetspeak

New to Tweetspeak Poetry? Start here, in The Mischief Café. You're a regular? Check out our December Menu.

Recent Comments

  • Megan Willome on Children’s Book Club: “Dream Snow”
  • Laurie Klein on Poems to Listen By: Sharing the Canopy 02—Motherhood
  • Maureen on Children’s Book Club: “Dream Snow”
  • Laurie Klein on Poems to Listen By: Sharing the Canopy 02—Motherhood

A Novel for Our Time

Thoughtful and hilarious, both.

A novel for our time.

If You Want to Partner With Us in a Simple Way

Featured In

We're happy to have been featured in...

The New York Observer

The Huffington Post

The Paris Review

Tumblr Book News

Categories

The Inaugural Poet Laura!

Poetry for Life? Here's our manifesto on the matter...

Poetry for Life: The 5 Vital Approaches

Help make it happen. Post The 5 Vital Approaches on your site!

Learn to Write Form Poems

Whether or not you end up enjoying the form poem, we've seen the value of building your skills through writing in form.

One reader who explored the villanelle was even featured in Every Day Poems!

How to Write an Acrostic

How to Write a Ballad

How to Write a Catalog Poem

How to Write a Ghazal

How to Write a Haiku

How to Write an Ode

How to Write a Pantoum

How to Write a Rondeau

How to Write a Sestina

How to Write a Sonnet

How to Write a Villanelle

Featured Literary Analysis

Poem Analysis: Anne Sexton's Her Kind

Poem Analysis: Adrienne Rich's Diving into the Wreck

Poem Analysis: Matthew Arnold's Dover Beach

Character Analysis: Romeo and Juliet

Order and Disorder in Macbeth

Tone in For Whom the Bell Tolls and Catch-22

Tragedy and Comedy: Why People Love Them

Was Hamlet Sane or Insane?

Shakespeare Resources

Poetry Classroom: Sonnet 18

Common Core Picture Poems: Sonnet 73

Sonnet 104 Annotated

Sonnet 116 Annotated

Character Analysis: Romeo and Juliet

Character Analysis: Was Hamlet Sane or Insane?

Why Does Hamlet Wait to Kill the King?

10 Fun Shakespeare Resources

About Shakespeare: Poet and Playwright

Top 10 Shakespeare Sonnets

Book Promotion, Platform, Publicity

Author Platform: Where to Start

Ten Surprising Secrets to Make Your Book Go Viral

How to Host a Successful Book Launch

Simple Tips on Finding and Working with a Book Publicist

How to Get Your Poems Published!

Pride and Prejudice Resources

5 Amusing Pride and Prejudice Quotes

Infographic: Simpleton's Guide to Pride and Prejudice

10 Great Pride and Prejudice Resources

Happy Birthday Mr. Darcy: A Pride and Prejudice Playlist

Featured Top 10 Poems

Top 10 Chicken Poems

Top 10 Chocolate Poems (Okay, Minus 3)

Top 10 Fairy Tale Poems

Top 10 Funny Poems

Top 10 Laundry Poems

10 of the Best Love Poems

Top 10 Poems with Make or Break Titles

Top 10 Mirror Poems

Top 10 Question Poems

Top 10 Red Poems

Top 10 Rose Poems

Top 10 Summer Poems

10 Great Poems About Work

Children’s Poems, Children’s Books

Llamas in Pajamas and Ten Great Children's Poetry Books

A Children's Poem on the Playground

Come Again: Teaching Poetry to Children

Poetry With Children: What's in Your Journal

Teaching Poetry to Children: There Are So Many Blues

Take Your Poet to Work Day: Poet Treasure Hunt in the Library (Callie's Story)

6 Benefits of Reading Aloud to Your Children

Top 10 Children's Books and YA Books

Little Red Riding Hood: Graphic Novel

14 Reasons Peter Rabbit Should Be Banned (Satire)

Featured Infographics

Infographic: How to Write an Acrostic Poem

Infographic: How to Write a Ballad

Infographic: How to Write an Epic Poem

Infographic: Ghazal for a Gazelle

Infographic: Boost Your Haiku High Q

Infographic: Pantoum of the Opera

Infographic: How to Write an Ode

Infographic: Poem a Day

Infographic: How to Write a Rondeau

Infographic: Simpleton's Guide to Pride and Prejudice

Sonnet Infographic: Quatrain Wreck

Featured Playlists

Playlist: Cat's Meow

Playlist: Doors and Passageways

Playlist: Fairy Tale and Fantasy

Playlist: Purple Rain and Indigo Blues

Playlist: Surrealism

Playlist: Best Tattoo Songs

Playlist: Trains and Tracks

All the Playlists

They Bring Poetry for Life

Meet our wonderful partners, who bring "poetry for life" to students, teachers, librarians, businesses, employees—to all sorts of people, across the world.

About Us

  • Our Story
  • Meet Our Team
  • Poetry for Life: The 5 Vital Approaches
  • Contact Us

Writing With Us

  • Poetry Prompts
  • Submissions
  • Writing Workshops

Reading With Us

  • Book Club
  • Dip Into Poetry
  • Every Day Poems
  • Literacy Extras
  • Moms on Poetry
  • Poets and Poems
  • Quote a Day
  • VerseWrights Journal

Public Days for Poetry

  • Poem on Your Pillow Day
  • Poetic Earth Month
  • Poet in a Cupcake Day
  • Poetry at Work Day
  • Random Acts of Poetry Day
  • Take Your Poet to School Week—National Poetry Month!
  • Take Your Poet to Work Day

Gift Ideas

  • Give the Gift of Every Day Poems
  • Our Shop
  • Everybody Loves a Book!

Connect

  • If You’d Like to Easily Partner With Us—Donate
  • Blog Buttons
  • Put a Poem in Your Heart, Or a Story in Your Soul
  • Shop for Tweetspeak Fun Stuff

Copyright © 2019 Tweetspeak Poetry · Site by The Willingham Enterprise · FAQ & Disclosure

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.OkRead more