DROWNING IN HER
by Roger Singer
The heat of her footsteps
raises my eyes and hands into
wanting.
I greedily spill my breaths toward
the stage where the weakness of me
drowns without struggle.
A magnolia blossoms on the side of
her hair; a fragrance I own.
Her songs become the fiber of my shirt.
She raises the falling within me.
I am cooled from the breeze
of satin when she moves.
Her flavor spreads sweetly through
the microphone, seasoning the black
and tan, the old and once young,
the weary and searching.
The floor feels the weight she releases.
She is greater than us all.
_____
_____
PASSION
by Roger Singer
He pulled her in with music,
fishing for her eyes to focus
on lines he extended.
She fingered pearls about her
neck, turning them over like
wet thoughts of the man
on stage.
Black ties and buttons hold
shirts in place. Cuff links
with initials fawn for attention.
Hat pins point into the mystery
of thick hair. A high heel shoe
slips its covering, exposing a
waiting weakness. Earrings sway,
making hips jealous.
The music creates a pool of
captured souls feeding on the
passion of jazz.
__________
Roger Singer is a prolific and accomplished contributing poet who we have proudly published for well over ten years. Singer has had almost 800 poems published in magazines, periodicals and online journals — 400 of which are jazz poems — and has recently self-published a Kindle edition of his book of jazz poetry called Poetic Jazz.
“Jazz poetry flows out with such ease,” Singer writes on his blog. “The people and places, the alleys and sawdust jazz clubs. The stories that bring jazz alive with horns and voices, from sadness and grief to highs at midnight and love gone wrong. The jazz is within us all. Find your poem and feel the music.”
A great variety and a splendid collection of jazz
Gorgeous poem, Patricia! So much richness in so few words.
To bring from the lips to the ear or the fingers to the ear and into the body so much of life and love is such a fine thing that the poet and the musician have married here that all we can do that is celebrate and hallelujah.
I’m very happy to be part of such a fine collection. I particularly enjoyed Michael Newell’s ‘Vintage Inn ..’ and Lawrence Koumas’s lovely little anecdote.
This collection has too many good poems and poets to acknowledge every poem and every poet worthy of attention. I will, therefore, single out a handful of poets who moved me deeply. The list would include Gannon Daniels, Robert Nisbet, Susana Case, Dan Franch, Patricia Carragon, John Stupp, and Aurora Lewis. If I went back and reread all the poems for a fourth or fifth time, I would likely expand this list considerably. I tip my hat to all the fine artists in this collection, and I thank Joseph Maita for putting all these fine poems together in such an appealing way.
Michael,
I especially like the way the way the two settings, outside and inside the Inn in the first poem, as in these lines:
outside the night is filled
with cigarette smoke lightning
and Lithia Creek swirling over rocks
In the second poem, I hear the music playing in the background of the second poem.
I am pleased that I was able to participate in a poetry writing event which includes the deeply felt emotions of jazz music and love and its individual expressions in form and format. I will read these with great pleasure. This idea to showcase it on Valentines date was terrific.