“Beat The Drum” — a poem by Roger Singer

December 2nd, 2022

Carol M. Highsmith’s America, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division/via picryl.com

Carol M. Highsmith's America, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

French Quarter; New Orleans

Beat The Drum

there’s a raising
at the French quarter
with crowds
dancing and
colliding like
changing tide waters
crossing streets
drinking with passion
while cable car singers
and corner horn players
beat a noise
under a dreary
humid mist
as the sweating
and smiling
celebrate for
any reason
without a holiday

___

Dr. Roger Singer was in private practice for 38 years in upstate New York. He has four children, Abigail, Caleb, Andrew and Philip and seven grandchildren. Dr. Singer has served on multiple committees for the American Chiropractic Association, lecturing at colleges in the United States, Canada and Australia, and has authored over fifty articles for his profession and served as a medical technician during the Vietnam era. Dr. Singer is the Poet Laureate of Old Lyme, Connecticut. He has had over 1,070 poems published on the Internet, magazines and in books and is a 2017 Pushcart Prize Award Nominee. He is also the President of the Shoreline Chapter of the Connecticut Poetry Society.

Listen to the 2005 recording of Jon Batiste playing “Township”