TheJaZz Poetry
Anthology
EDITED
BY
Sascha Feinstein ana Yusef Komunyakaa
Indiana University Press
B L O O M I N G T O N
A N D
I N D I A N A P O L I S
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
The Recounting of Gods
12
13
Paul Blackburn
Listening to Sonny Rollins at
the Five-Spot
15
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
Ma Rainey
New St. Louis Blues
22
24
26
Horace Julian Bond
Vll
Richard Burns
The Song of the Yellow Star
Hayden Carruth
Paragraphs [Sections 11, 26,
27
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
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
Rose Solitude
Solo Finger Solo
Tapping
42
44
46
47
Robert Creeley
The Bird, the Bird, the Bird
Broken Back Blues
48
48
Tom Dent
After Listening to Monk
For Lil Louis
49
50
Owen" Dodson
Yardbird's Skull
52
George Economou
33Vs RPM
53
Richard Elman
Chefs Jazz
Drivine Home
53
54
Wanda Coleman
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
Monk's Mood
58
59
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Sometime During Eternity . . .
61
Calvin Forbes
Drum Crazy
62
Alice Fulton
You Can't Rhumboogie in a
Ball and Chain
63
Horizontal Cosmology [Sections
1,4]
Resonance
64
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
Jazzmen
69
70
Marilyn Hacker
Elegy
72
Michael S. Harper
"Bird Lives": Charles Parker
Cannon Arrested
Dear John, Dear Coltrane
Elvin's Blues
Here Where Coltrane Is
74
75
77
78
79
Howard Hart
Ben Webster and a Lady
Sonny Greer
80
81
Christopher Gilbert
IX
Robert Hayden
Homage to the Empress of
the Blues
Soledad
81
David Hilton
Blind Saxophonist Dies
83
Everett Hoagland
Jamming
The Music
84
Andre Hodeir
Outside the Capsule [Excerpt]
87
Garrett Hongo
Roots
91
Langston Hughes
Dream Boogie
Jazzonia
Morning After
The Weary Blues
93
94
95
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
Stop-time
101
103
Ted Joans
82
85
Jazz Is My Religion
Jazz Must Be a Woman
Lester Young
104
Joe Johnson
Cecil Taylor [Excerpt]
107
Steve Jonas
One of Three Musicians
108
Bob Kaufman
Bagel Shop Jazz
Battle Report
Walking Parker Home
War Memoir
War Memoir: Jazz, Don't Listen to It at Your Own Risk
109
110
110
111
105
106
112
Sybil Kein
Jazz
114
Jack Kerouac
221st Chorus [From Mexico
City Blues]
239th Chorus [From Mexico
City Blues]
115
116
Etheridge Knight
For Eric Dolphy
Jazz Drummer
116
117
Kenneth Koch
The History of Jazz
117
Yusef Komunyakaa
Elegy for Thelonious
February in Sydney
120
Richard Kostelanetz
STRINGFOUR
STRINGFIVE
121
122
Art Lange
Blues Five Spot
Monk's Dream
Monk's Point
123
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
Three or Four Shades of Blues (2)
142
143
xi\
120
123
124
William Matthews
Alice Zeno Talking, and Her
Son George Lewis the Jazz
Clarinetist in Attendance
Blues for John Coltrane, Dead
at 41
Bmp Bmp
Bud Powell, Paris, 1959
Coleman Hawkins (d. 1969),
RIP
144
146
146
147
148
Listening to Lester Young
Unrelenting Flood
148
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
Playing the Invisible Saxophone
en el Combo de las Estrellas
159
Harryette Mullen
James Nolan
Jazz Poem for the Girl Who
Cried Wolf
Presenting Eustacia Beauchaud: Ward 3
XII
160
1T50
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
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
Touching the Past
187
188
Mandy Sayer
Choofa
189
Asger Schnack
Aqua [Excerpt]
190
Jan Selving
Dancing to Ellington
191
Leopold Sedar Senghor
Blues
New York
192
192
Kazuko Shiraishi
Dedicated to the Late John
Coltrane
194
Aleda Shirley
Ellington Indigos
The Last Dusk of August
21 August 1984
198
199
200
John Sinclair
humphf
201
Gilbert Sorrentino
Broadway! Broadway!
202
Ishmael Reed
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 Gallery]
Mu [From Harlem Gallery]
208
210
William Tremblay
Song for Jeannie
215
Jon C. Tribble
Anaximander Lewis
217
Quincy Troupe
The Day Duke Raised; may
24, 1974
Four, and More; for Miles
Davis
Snake-Back Solo
219
220
223
Jean Valentine
Coltrane, Syeeda's Song Flute
224
Anne Waldman
Bluehawk
Eric Dolphy
225
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
1 Poem 2 Voices A Song
235
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
The Substitute Bassist
Treatment
240
240
Robert Wrigley
Torch Songs
242
Al Young
A Dance for Ma Rainey
Jungle Strut
243
244
Bill Zavatsky
Elegy
To the Pianist Bill Evans
245
245
Paul Zimmer
The Duke Ellington Dream
Zimmer's Last Gig
248
248
Biographical Notes and Statements of Poetics
Music Appendix
Acknowledgments
XV
241
250
279
285