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CC BY-SA 4.0 <>, via Wikimedia Commons

Victims of the 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing, Birmingham 1963; Carole Robertson (14), and Carol Denise McNair (11), Addie Mae Collins (14), and Cynthia Wesley (14)

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On Coltrane: 4th of July Reflections

Audible pain
Introspective
Like the composition he wrote called
Alabama about the 4 little girls from
Birmingham:

Addie Mae Collins / Denise McNair
Carole Robertson / Cynthia Wesley

A mournful prayer, a meditation on 4
lives lost in a 1963 church bombing:
haunting, grief-stricken; Coltrane
bearing witness as tears flow
from his saxophone

“Jazz speaks for life,” said
Dr Martin Luther King, Jr, but who’s
still listening when the stories of pain
are unabated and never-ceasing?

Jazz is the soundtrack for culture shifts
and tipping points. But Coltrane utters
not one single word on Alabama; the
prayerful moan in his saxophone
speaks for itself

Imagine being born guilty based on
race / color / class. Imagine feeling like
a perpetual target in a land that equates
Blackness with the Blues

Times change
Progress is made
And yet, some things remain the same:
4 little girls / countless more losses since then;
Imagine a soaring rhapsody for James Bird Jr.
a concerto for Trayvon Martin / a symphony for
Breanna Taylor / a tender sonata for Tamir Rice

Mournful, spiritual, transcendent
like Alabama! Coltrane bearing witness
and reminding us: “Jazz speaks for life”
but what happens when we become
too numb to hear?

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Listen to Connie Johnson read her poem

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Connie Johnson is a Los Angeles, CA-based writer whose poetry has appeared in publications such as San Pedro River Review, Cholla Needles, Iconoclast, Rye Whiskey Review, Glint Literary Journal, Sport Literate and Writing in a Woman’s Voice. In 2023 she was twice-nominated for a Pushcart Prize.  Everything is Distant Now  (Blue Horse Press), her debut poetry collection, is available on Amazon;  In a Place of Dreams, her digital album/chapbook, was published by Jerry Jazz Musician.  Click here to read it.

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Listen to the 1963 recording of John Coltrane performing his composition “Alabama,” with McCoy Tyner (piano); Jimmy Garrison (bass); and Elvin Jones (drums).  [Universal Music Group]

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Click here to read  The Sunday Poem

Click here to read “A Collection of Jazz Poetry – Spring/Summer, 2024 Edition”

Click here to read “Ballad,” Lúcia Leão’s winning story in the 65th Jerry Jazz Musician Short Fiction Contest

Click here for information about how to submit your poetry or short fiction

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Jerry Jazz Musician…human produced (and AI-free) since 1999

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