“First Light” — a poem (after Freddie Hubbard) by Jessica Lee McMillan

May 5th, 2022

Freddie Hubbard; Rochester, New York, 1976

First Light
……………After Freddie Hubbard

first light skims on green wing
like sprouts strobing for ray
climbs from soils of night,
through damask-leafed curtain
a gateless gate, come home
from crescendo of star-gazing
to dew of earth shiver

soft landing the late hour
spectrum writhes low sparkle;
lyrical shade, the last paint
of moon, slow light
before sky turns cotton,
before landscape melts
in sun’s imperial gold

and the morning bird tells you
from the tree growing from shadow
the light is what you bring
when the dark barely weighs

___

Jessica Lee McMillan is a poet who expects to be buried under her shelves of books and records. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Blank Spaces, Pocket Lint, Pinhole Poetry, Rat’s Ass Review, Tiny Spoon, The South Shore Review, Dream Pop Journal, and Blue Heron Review, among others. Jessica lives in New Westminster, British Columbia. She can be reached at https://twitter.com/JessicaLeeMcM

Listen to the 1972 recording of Freddie Hubbard playing “First Light” [Columbia]