TheJaZz Poetry Anthology
EDITED BY Sascha Feinstein ana Yusef Komunyakaa
Indiana University Press BLOOMINGTON AND INDIANAPOLIS Contents
Preface xvn
Sam Abrams In the Capability 1 James Baldwin Le sporting-club de Monte Carlo 1
Amiri Baraka AMITRAK 2
George Barlow In My Father's House 7
Gerald Barrax The Singer 9
Marvin Bell The Fifties 10 Carol Berge" Piafand Holiday Go Out 12 The Recounting of Gods 13 Paul Blackburn Listening to Sonny Rollins at the Five-Spot 15 Horace Julian Bond The Bishop of Atlanta: Ray Charles 16
George Bowering Pharoah Sanders, in the Flesh 16 Edward Kamau Brathwaite Trane 17
Ray Bremser Blues for Harold 18
Sterling A. Brown Cabaret 22 Ma Rainey 24 New St. Louis Blues 26
Vll Richard Burns The Song of the Yellow Star 27
Hayden Carruth Paragraphs [Sections 11, 26, 27, 28] 28 Cyrus Cassells Strange Fruit 30 Maxine Cassin Three Love Poems by a Native 31 Grace Cavalieri The Liberation of Music 32 Fred Chappell The Highest Wind That Ever Blew: Homage to Louis 33 Wanda Coleman At the Jazz Club He Comes on a Ghost 36
Claire Collett Midsummer 37 Leo Connellan Mommy's Hubby 37 Gillian Conoley The One 39 Clark Coolidge The Great 40 Gregory Corso For Miles 41 Jayne Cortez Into This Time 42 Rose Solitude 44 Solo Finger Solo 46 Tapping 47
Robert Creeley The Bird, the Bird, the Bird 48 Broken Back Blues 48 Tom Dent After Listening to Monk 49 For Lil Louis 50 Owen" Dodson Yardbird's Skull 52
George Economou 33Vs RPM 53 Richard Elman Chefs Jazz 53 Drivine Home 54
Vlll John Engels In the Palais Royale Ballroom in 1948 55 Clayton Eshleman Un Poco Loco 56 Fatisha From Star to Sun We Are Going 57
Sascha Feinstein Buying Wine 58 Monk's Mood 59
Lawrence Ferlinghetti Sometime During Eternity . . . 61
Calvin Forbes Drum Crazy 62 Alice Fulton You Can't Rhumboogie in a Ball and Chain 63 Christopher Gilbert Horizontal Cosmology [Sections 1,4] 64 Resonance 66
Dana Gioia Bix Beiderbecke (1903-1931) 66
Elton Glaser Elegy for Professor Longhair 67 Vince Gotera Hot Club de France Reprise on MTV 68
Lee Meitzen Grue Billie Pierce's Jazz Funeral 69 Jazzmen 70
Marilyn Hacker Elegy 72
Michael S. Harper "Bird Lives": Charles Parker 74 Cannon Arrested 75 Dear John, Dear Coltrane 77 Elvin's Blues 78 Here Where Coltrane Is 79
Howard Hart Ben Webster and a Lady 80 Sonny Greer 81
IX Robert Hayden Homage to the Empress of the Blues 81 Soledad 82 David Hilton Blind Saxophonist Dies 83 Everett Hoagland Jamming 84 The Music 85 Andre Hodeir Outside the Capsule [Excerpt] 87 Garrett Hongo Roots 91
Langston Hughes Dream Boogie 93 Jazzonia 94 Morning After 95 The Weary Blues 95
Lynda Hull Hollywood Jazz 96
Lawson Fusao Inada Plucking Out a Rhythm 98 Ken Irby Homage to Coleman Hawkins 99 Rod Jellema Four Voices Ending on Some Lines from Old Jazz Records 101 Stop-time 103
Ted Joans Jazz Is My Religion 104 Jazz Must Be a Woman 105 Lester Young 106 Joe Johnson Cecil Taylor [Excerpt] 107
Steve Jonas One of Three Musicians 108 Bob Kaufman Bagel Shop Jazz 109 Battle Report 110 Walking Parker Home 110 War Memoir 111 War Memoir: Jazz, Don't Lis- ten to It at Your Own Risk 112 Sybil Kein Jazz 114 Jack Kerouac 221st Chorus [From Mexico City Blues] 115 239th Chorus [From Mexico City Blues] 116
Etheridge Knight For Eric Dolphy 116 Jazz Drummer 117
Kenneth Koch The History of Jazz 117
Yusef Komunyakaa Elegy for Thelonious 120 February in Sydney 120
Richard Kostelanetz STRINGFOUR 121 STRINGFIVE 122
Art Lange Blues Five Spot 123 Monk's Dream 123 Monk's Point 124
Philip Larkin For Sidney Bechet 124
Philip Levine On the Corner 125
Larry Levis Whitman: 126
Lyn Lifshin Alberta Hunter 127
N. J. Loftis Black Anima [Section 9] 128
John Logan Chicago Scene 132
Mina Loy The Widow's Jazz 133
Nathaniel Mackey Ohnedaruth's Day Begun 135
Clarence Major Un Poco Loco 138
Dionisio D. Martinez Three or Four Shades of Blues 142 Three or Four Shades of Blues (2) 143
xi\ William Matthews Alice Zeno Talking, and Her Son George Lewis the Jazz Clarinetist in Attendance 144 Blues for John Coltrane, Dead at 41 146 Bmp Bmp 146 Bud Powell, Paris, 1959 147 Coleman Hawkins (d. 1969), RIP 148 Listening to Lester Young 148 Unrelenting Flood 149
Victoria McCabe For Albert Ayler 150
Kenneth McClane At the Bridge with Rufus 151
Colleen J. McElroy The Singer 152 Heather McHugh Sleep, after Ray Charles Show and Hurricane Report 153
Jack Micheline Blues Poem 153
Vassar Miller Dirge in Jazz Time 154
Roger Mitchell For Stephane Grappelli 155
John Montgomery Snowmelt from Yesteryears 156
Jack Mueller Death Jazz: A Review 157 Lisel Mueller January Afternoon, with Billie Holiday 158 Harryette Mullen Playing the Invisible Saxophone en el Combo de las Estrellas 159 James Nolan Jazz Poem for the Girl Who Cried Wolf 160 Presenting Eustacia Beau- chaud: Ward 3 1T50
XII Frank O'Hara The Day Lady Died 162 Kenneth Patchen Latesummer Blues 163 Robert Pinsky History of My Heart [Section I] 165 Sterling D. Plumpp I Hear the Shuffle of the People's Feet 167 Ishmael Reed Poetry Makes Rhythm in Philosophy 173
Kenneth Rexroth Written to Music 174
Kate Rushin The Black Back-Ups 179
Ira Sadoff At the Half-Note Cafe 182
Sonia Sanchez alcoltranelpoem 183 Carl Sandburg Jazz Fantasia 187
Robert Sargent Tin Roof Blues 187 Touching the Past 188
Mandy Sayer Choofa 189 Asger Schnack Aqua [Excerpt] 190 Jan Selving Dancing to Ellington 191
Leopold Sedar Senghor Blues 192 New York 192 Kazuko Shiraishi Dedicated to the Late John Coltrane 194 Aleda Shirley Ellington Indigos 198 The Last Dusk of August 199 21 August 1984 200
John Sinclair humphf 201 Gilbert Sorrentino Broadway! Broadway! 202
Xlll Jack Spicer Song for Bird and Myself 203 Wallace Stevens The Sick Man 206 Michael Stillman In Memoriam John Coltrane 207 John Taggart Coming Forth by Day 207 Melvin B. Tolson Lambda [From Harlem Gal- lery] 208 Mu [From Harlem Gallery] 210
William Tremblay Song for Jeannie 215
Jon C. Tribble Anaximander Lewis 217 Quincy Troupe The Day Duke Raised; may 24, 1974 219 Four, and More; for Miles Davis 220 Snake-Back Solo 223 Jean Valentine Coltrane, Syeeda's Song Flute 224 Anne Waldman Bluehawk 225 Eric Dolphy 226
Joy Walsh Ferguson's Conquistadores 77 226
Marilyn Nelson Waniek It's All in Your Head 227 William Wantling A Plea for Workmen's . Compensation 229
Jerry W. Ward, Jr. Jazz to Jackson to John 231 Paulette C. White Nina Simone 234 Sherley Anne Williams Any Woman's Blues 235 1 Poem 2 Voices A Song 235
William Carlos Williams 01'Bunk's Band 237
David Woiahn Satin Doll 238
XIV Joel "Yehuda" Wolk Elegy for Kenny Dorham 239 C. D. Wright Jazz Impressions in the Garden 240 The Substitute Bassist 240 Treatment 241 Robert Wrigley Torch Songs 242
Al Young A Dance for Ma Rainey 243 Jungle Strut 244
Bill Zavatsky Elegy 245 To the Pianist Bill Evans 245
Paul Zimmer The Duke Ellington Dream 248 Zimmer's Last Gig 248
Biographical Notes and Statements of Poetics 250 Music Appendix 279 Acknowledgments 285
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