“Saint Thomas and Sonny Rollins” – a poem by Michael L. Newell

February 23rd, 2023

Yves Moch, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Sonny Rollins, 2005

Saint Thomas and Sonny Rollins

Drummer do your thing, oh yeah, and here comes the man,
Sonny Rollins, hot, wild, with his tune always dancing; lift
your feet, brothers and sisters; feel the imaginative riffs move you
across the world, not floor; this dance covers more ground
than a mere floor tune; its rhythm needs full wild embrace;
that horn leaps up, down, round and round, side to side,
always alive, always finding new things to say; those drums

keep arriving at the right time, in the right ways; wow, what
is that madman seated there doing, so alive, alive-o, and your body
moves, grooves, flies through the air in uninhibited response;
oh, man, shake, rattle, and roll in communion; here comes
The Man back again in full tenor flight; never, never, never,
will you ever find yourself like this without diving into the notes
unleashed by the wild horn driven by the even wilder man;

ah, here comes the piano rippling along over a steady drum
and cymbal beat; the piano reminds us of how mellow things
can be when everything is right with the world, yet still there is that beat
lifting the feet and shoulders; oh my, Mister Rollins is back, and his horn
sings of life, beautiful life, and ends with an emphatic statement of life
everlasting, and its intrinsic worth; when the sound evaporates into silence,
we all are limp as discarded clothing; we slip into chairs, and reflect

on what has transpired over the last seven minutes or so, and smile.

___

Michael L. Newell lives in Florida. He has had seven books of poetry published in the last three years.

Listen to the 1956 recording of Sonny Rollins playing “St. Thomas,” with Tommy Flanagan (piano); Doug Watkins (bass); and Max Roach (drums). [Sonny Rollins/Concord Music Group]