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June Jazz: ‘Sweet Jazz O’ Mine’

By Matthew Kreider 23 Comments

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Jazz-great Art Blakey #once said, “Music washes away the dust of every day life.” With a pair of drumsticks, he did just that, uncovering a new style of bebop drumming. He gave music a new shine.

Poetry scrubs us down with a back-and-forth hygiene, too. Its shifting rhythms and often abrasive refrains rub across #our dry skin like a pumice stone. But it takes some #obsession.

Movement. And repetition.

We wait for a jagged key to fit, for the molten brass to fill in the black holes. We listen for that sweet spot. “The most important thing I look for in a musician, said Duke Ellington, “is whether he knows how to listen.” Poets, can we tip a black fedora hat to that? It’s good wisdom.

Ellington became a legend partly because he understood the secret to a good shine: an artist keeps playing, until he hears that “Sweet Jazz O’ Mine”.

Let’s Play June Jazz!

All month long we’re swinging with poetry at Tweetspeak. We call it June Jazz. We write found poems and share them on Facebook, Twitter and personal blogs, though we always link back to here. Last week we wrote to the tune of “Three Trees”, a poem by Rachel Contreni Flynn.

Not only did Maureen Doallas hit the notes, she also hit most of Flynn’s words.

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.


Donna also heard the rhythm of pulling through. She wrote,

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


Rosanne Osborne heard something else out in the snow.

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.


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.

Want a little inspiration? Why not let Duke help you out …


Photo by Peter StraAina. Creative Commons, via Flickr. Post by Matthew Kreider.

___________

Buy a year of Every Day Poems, just $5.99— Read a poem a day, become a better poet. In May we’re exploring the theme Trees.

Red #9

  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Matthew Kreider
Matthew Kreider
Matthew Kreider is a former English teacher who loves pencils and poetry. He lives in Canada, where he reads a poem a day.
Matthew Kreider
Latest posts by Matthew Kreider (see all)
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Filed Under: Every Day Poems, poetry, Themed Writing Projects

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About Matthew Kreider

Matthew Kreider is a former English teacher who loves pencils and poetry. He lives in Canada, where he reads a poem a day.

Comments

  1. L. L. Barkat says

    June 11, 2012 at 12:49 pm

    *You*

    is my soul’s pleasure
    just like that.

    You and your jazz
    is (are)
    my soul’s pleasure.

    My.

    O how you pleasure
    my soul.

    Reply
  2. Maureen Doallas says

    June 11, 2012 at 6:18 pm

    Solitude Is Swell

    Converse not,
    and I may gladly
    let thee be
    my sweet pleasure.

    Mind thy thoughts
    of bliss; my spirits dwell
    in jumbled words
    and scenes with me.

    O solitude, to thee
    I flee.

    Reply
  3. Connie Cornwell Chipman says

    June 11, 2012 at 8:38 pm

    Walk With Me

    What Can I do for thee
    who dwells in solitude,
    how can I give comfort
    to you? Let it not be
    among the murky shadows
    that hug.

    Walk with me
    through mingled light
    and scented shade,
    that makes passer’s by inhale
    at the splendor in the air,
    and fountains palpitating
    in summers shine.

    By each other’s side– lovelier made
    Will our presence be.

    Reply
  4. Matthew Kreider says

    June 11, 2012 at 9:48 pm

    O my! Listen to the sound of those push-pipes! It’s gonna be a good show, daddy-O’s! 😉

    Reply
    • Connie Cornwell Chipman says

      June 12, 2012 at 1:01 am

      “Daddy’s-O’s.” Nice one:)

      Reply
  5. Connie Cornwell Chipman says

    June 12, 2012 at 1:12 am

    Daddy-O

    It’s gonna be a good show
    let it not be
    among the jumbled heap.

    Give me daddy-O
    until that happy morning.

    Reply
  6. Donna says

    June 12, 2012 at 9:16 am

    if i could have

    half a wish come true

    then every sorrow would leave you

    and your loneliness would

    would fly away too

    if i could have half a wish

    if i could have

    half a wish come true

    you’d blink through the tears in your eyes of blue

    and glimpse the power

    i see in you

    if I could have half a wish

    http://unmixingcolors.typepad.com/along_the_way/2012/06/-half-a-wish.html

    Reply
  7. Rosanne Osborne says

    June 12, 2012 at 11:37 am

    Deception

    When a dog startles the wild bee
    from the foxglove bell, it’ll be
    the devil to play. That dog
    will think twice before he goes
    sniffing around blossoms
    where danger lurks. Deceptive,
    those finger-like blooms carry
    no hope of caress, no promise
    of a scratch around the ears.
    He’ll learn. Not every fox wearing
    mittens is ready to romp or play.
    Some are tossing their gauntlets,
    a challenge that pits character
    and faith against consummate odds.

    Reply
  8. Rosanne Osborne says

    June 12, 2012 at 11:41 am

    Graduation

    Nothing is sweet in the converse
    of an innocent mind. The sugared
    coating of time has been bleached
    from the denim thighs of the young.

    World weary, they have seen
    the underside of the cockroach,
    the lifted tail of the scorpion’s sting,
    and they know more than they

    understand of a chaotic world
    where gowns and mortar boards
    only pretend adequate preparation.
    Their innocence soured before

    they left the public playground.
    College was merely a rehearsal
    of the mawkish stench of warm
    beer and cribbed education.

    They go now, the finest minds
    of this age, haltered by egos
    that shield reality, their success
    dependent on what they can reject.

    Reply
  9. Grace Marcella Brodhurst-Davis says

    June 12, 2012 at 2:22 pm

    “Treasure”

    To him, it seemed he had to stumble from
    The shy observatory he stood upon
    To seek that secret soul’s pleasure
    To be everyone’s idolized treasure

    He opted for the liquid measure
    Tasted highest bliss in his endeavor
    Down murky halls he slithered anew
    After drinking the witch’s bold brew

    Atop the smoky, jumbled heap he drew
    Crowds of kindred spirits to woo
    ‘Mongst age-old musical souls he crooned
    The musky notes of a jazzy blues tune

    Reply
    • Matthew Kreider says

      June 12, 2012 at 3:17 pm

      Grace, I love the sound of “musky notes”! 🙂

      Reply
      • Grace Marcella Brodhurst-Davis says

        June 13, 2012 at 7:21 pm

        Thanks Matthew:)

        Reply
  10. Rosanne Osborne says

    June 13, 2012 at 10:18 am

    To read today’s offering to Keats and jazz with correct spacing, go to my blog: http://poetryhawk.blogspot.com.

    Reply
  11. Donna says

    June 14, 2012 at 8:09 am

    someone turn me off, baby
    leave me where it’s still
    fill the place with quiet, baby
    go against your will
    and let me be
    just let me be

    someone turn me off, baby
    take these blues away
    i’d rather have a coma
    than this heartbreak everyday
    let me be
    just let me be

    until my tears run dry, baby
    and my heart is free,
    please turn me off for just a little while
    and let me be
    oh let me be

    inspiration poem: “to be an inanimate object, by ruth mowry

    Reply
  12. Rosanne Osborne says

    June 14, 2012 at 5:03 pm

    Perspective

    Descending…
    the jumbled heap
    of murky buildings
    reaches up
    and grabs us
    from the air.

    Our plane blends
    with life below
    and we become
    what they are.

    Plans crystalized
    in the air melt
    into the stasis
    of landlocked life.

    Airy illusion
    is wrenched
    from our psyches
    and we become
    mold-stained
    bricks and mortar.

    Reply
  13. Donna says

    June 14, 2012 at 6:54 pm

    Grace…. love your piece… this line grabs me!

    “‘Mongst age-old musical souls he crooned
    The musky notes of a jazzy blues tune”

    Reply
    • Grace Marcella Brodhurst-Davis says

      June 15, 2012 at 8:07 pm

      Thanks Donna:)

      Reply
  14. Rosanne Osborne says

    June 15, 2012 at 10:26 am

    O Solitude

    Solitude is the operation
    of the soul in search of itself.
    It’s in the dead center
    of soundlessness
    that vitality’s insistent
    reminder can be heard.
    The crunch of ant feet
    descending into dust,
    their mission mandated
    by singular intelligence,
    beating a rhythm
    that the soul knows.

    Reply
  15. Tracy Seffers says

    June 16, 2012 at 12:57 am

    Here’s my O and tree poem in one–hope it’s not too late.

    The Root Defiant
    (for Katy)
     
    The gardener toils and, splicing strength to strength,
    engrafts the sturdy root of apple tree
    to graceful weeping crab. The grafted tree
    is planted; grows as planned; but in its shade
     
    another grows: a girl, apple-blossomed hair
    and feet bird-swift; laughter brimming, spilling . . .
    until the years of darkness slow their flight,
    dam up the stream and dim her radiant hair.
     
    O Tree-girl. O Girl-tree. In the silence
    of your roots is held the truth of who you are.
    Go there. Listen. Embrace and be embraced.
    No time remains for this trailing habit:
     
    See the long-diminished root express its branching hunger for the light,
    Declare in greenest strength, I will no longer weep, but stand.

    Reply
  16. Rosanne Osborne says

    June 16, 2012 at 10:20 am

    Solitude with an Age Bias

    Keats and Twain were tailored
    from different cloth,
    but on solitude, they agreed.
    Twain named it contemptuous
    when his neighbors
    turned against him,
    their hardness cutting
    him to the quick, that soft
    flesh below the growing nail.

    It would be his hands that suffered,
    his writing intricately interwoven
    with his sense of self, a singular fabric.
    His was the solitude of age, life
    betraying life, scissors cutting
    errant patterns for ill-fitting
    garments. For the youthful Keats,
    solitude was the vestment
    worn by a suitor kindred seeking.

    Reply
  17. Rosanne Osborne says

    June 17, 2012 at 3:51 pm

    Connection Is Where You Find It

    The only possible connection
    between my father and John Keats
    rests on their joint recognition
    of the deer’s shift leap. For Keats,
    that deer is little more than a conceit
    to complete a sonnet’s line,
    but for my father, that deer’s leap
    figured the elusive target
    in a hunter’s late initiation.
    Not born to hunt, he moved
    us to a rural Missouri community
    in the forties where the currency
    of male social exchange spun
    on the eye’s dime sighted down
    a rifle barrel. Each year, the men
    waited for the three-day season
    to fill their waiting freezers
    with meat for the winter. Each year,
    my father’s errant shots did little more
    than accelerate the leap of wily bucks,
    the cunning of six-point patriarchs.
    For him, the doe’s sudden bolt
    across the car’s light at night
    became the stuff of sacred magic.

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. This Week’s Top 10 Poetic Picks | TweetSpeak Poetry says:
    June 14, 2012 at 8:02 am

    […] begins John Keats’s ode to solitude, which is this week’s prompt for Tweetspeak’s June Jazz found poetry and play-with-words contest. Kindred spirits […]

    Reply
  2. Poet’s Penance (Part 2) | TweetSpeak Poetry says:
    September 27, 2012 at 1:46 pm

    […] exotic imagery, and the dailyness of life; Ginsberg wrote free verse, based upon the riffs of American Jazz, the rhythms of the Old Testament (as transmuted through Walt Whitman and Kaddish), and Buddhist […]

    Reply

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