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photo by William Gottlieb/Library of Congress

Charlie Parker, Carnegie Hall, New York, N.Y., c. 1947

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Bird Lives!

The needle drops on Charlie Parker
………………………………………………………..playing “Relaxin’ at Camarillo”
the boy lies on the floor
……………………………………….of his room and listens to the gorgeous ease
the affirmation
buoyant…..love…..song
……………………………………….he reads the liner notes
Charlie Parker six months
…………………………………………..at Camarillo State Hospital
nervous exhaustion
………………………………..they called it

He listens every night
…………………………………….and knows his life is changed forever
and wonders why–
……………………………….How ………this music so alive
………………………………………………………………………………..tRiumphant
was made by so many
…………………………………….wasted by addiction

Who spent years
………………………….mastering their art unknown in America–
finally BIRD
…………………the luminary of Paris …..and would have played with
Stravinsky

……………………………………..He drifts off
as Miles’ ..muted trumpet
………………………………………turns notes into words
a soft-spoken grace ……………………………………………..not learned in school
the strength
…………………..of the solitary walker and thinker the human grace of
color
lips………….. slightly cracked
……………………………………………..A hopeful desert

…………………………………….this song the color of blood

………………………………………….and earth that moves
……………………………………………………………………………………..in …the… sudden
intimation of
a smile
……………….like the surprise of the traveler
……………………………………………………………………..seeing the glint of light
from a river in the dry land–

…………………………………………………He awakes from dreams beyond his
years
…………….The Bird of Time
hands curving the sax
………………………………………………..has but a little way
his fingers seek the language
……………………………………………………to flutter
the needle drops
…………………………….–and the Bird is on the Wing

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Geoff  Polk  lives in Cleveland, where he write poems, stories, and nonfiction, and plays jazz saxophone and clarinet. He teaches English composition and literature at Lorain County Community College. He attended Berklee College of Music and received an MA in creative writing from Cleveland State University. He was editor of the literary magazine Whiskey Island. Geoff’s poems and fiction have appeared or are  forthcoming in  Cobalt Review,  Brilliant Corners,  Voices of Cleveland, The Little Magazine, Context South, Black River Review, Green Fuse,  Coventry Reader,  and elsewhere. Nonfiction publications include articles and reviews  on literature and jazz. He has interviewed  David Foster Wallace (anthologized in  Conversations with David Foster Wallace, University of Mississippi Press), New Orleans music documentarian Stevenson Palfi, jazz trumpeter Benny Bailey, and authors Ken Kesey, Studs Terkel, Nat Hentoff, and others.

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Listen to Charlie Parker play “Relaxin’ at Camarillo”

 

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