FOR  CHET  BAKER,  TRUMPET  PLAYER,

                   AT  AGE TWENTY  FOUR

 

I saw a picture

of you, in 1954

 

on the today t.v. show

with host dave garroway.

 

you both

looked so happy.

 

dave held up

his own trumpet too.

 

your trumpet playing

was being witnessed

 

& heard

by millions of people.

 

absolutely, no foreshadowing

seen here.

 

*****

 

here are a few ideas, chet had

in 1953, when he

 

was voted best trumpet player

in the country, by downbeat magazine.

 

*****

 

from chet: how do you find out

what to do in life?

 

definitely … find something

that you love:

 

that is, what you love doing

so, so, much.

 

*****

 

then keep playing it

over & over again:

 

until you

absolutely believe …

 

that you play

trumpet better

 

than anyone else!

anywhere at all.

 

*

 

by Alan Yount

 

 

_____

 

Alan Yount lives on the north bank of the Missouri River, just south of Columbia, Missouri, and has taken poetic inspiration from boating and floating the river for many years. His poems have been published in a variety of publications, including Palo Alto Review, Roanoke Review, Spring…the Journal of E.E. Cummings Society, Apostrophe Magazine, Columbia College Journal of the Literary Arts, Modern Haiku, Pegasus Review, and Tidepool Magazine. Alan also plays jazz trumpet, and has led his own dance band. He is a direct descendant of the famous frontiersman, Daniel Boone.