Protest Matters: Haiku by Connie Johnson

March 18th, 2025

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The cover to Sonny Rollins’ 1958 Riverside album Freedom Suite

 

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Protest Matters: Haiku

“You can’t have jazz without protest”
– Sonny Rollins

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this America
(so rooted in Black culture)
what was Sonny’s view?

artistic freedom
and a call for civil rights
someone needs to speak

Sonny Rollins blew
a stream of consciousness jazz:
controversial

so political
activism in the genes
a sax colossus

‘50s…Freedom Suite!
a societal template
unprecedented

it’s euphoria:
a cutting-edge / truth-telling
enigmatic soul

art merged with protest
a holy obligation
honor the forebears

accelerating
this historical moment
we all need to speak

today’s dilemmas:
corporate greed / the planet…
what drives you to fight?

so many rights tread
upon / pick up the banner!
the fight continues

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Connie Johnson is a Pushcart Prize-nominated writer from Los Angeles, California whose poetry has appeared in several journals and anthologies. Her publishing credits include The Muleskinner Journal, Sport Literate, Writing in a Woman’s Voice, Sheila Na-Gig, Gargoyle, and Syncopation Literary Journal.  Everything is Distant Now (Blue Horse Press) is her debut poetry collection; In a Place of Dreams, her digital album/chapbook, was published by Jerry Jazz Musician.

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Listen to the 1958 recording of Sonny Rollins performing his composition “Freedom Suite,” with Rollins (saxophone); Oscar Pettiford (bass); and Max Roach (drums).  [Universal Music Group]

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Publisher’s Notes

Creatives – “This is our time!“…A Letter from the Publisher...A call to action to take on political turmoil through the use of our creativity as a way to help our fellow citizens “pierce the mundane to find the marvelous.”

In This Issue

Announcing the book publication of Kinds of Cool: An Interactive Collection of Jazz Poetry...The first Jerry Jazz Musician poetry anthology published in book form includes 90 poems by 47 poets from all over the world, and features the brilliant artwork of Marsha Hammel and a foreword by Jack Kerouac’s musical collaborator David Amram. The collection is “interactive” (and quite unique) because it invites readers – through the use of QR codes printed on many of the book’s pages – to link to selected readings by the poets themselves, as well as to historic audio and video recordings (via YouTube) relevant to many of the poems, offering a holistic experience with the culture of jazz.

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The Sunday Poem


“The Köln Concert,” by Martin Agee


The Sunday Poem is published weekly, and strives to include the poet reading their work....

Martin Agee reads his poem at its conclusion


Click here to read previous editions of The Sunday Poem

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Short Fiction Contest-winning story #67 — “Bluesette,” by Salvatore Difalco...The author’s award-winning story is a semi-satirical mood piece about a heartbroken man in Europe listening to a recording by the harmonica player Toots Thielemans while under the influence of a mind-altering substance.

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Interview Archive

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