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Vidar Karlsen/Flicker/CC BY-NC 2.0
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Should I Take the Trane?
…or merely take Giant Steps?
I scramble! I step lightly / jump rope! / I crip walk
all the way to San Juan Capistrano because I heard
you playing sax in a dive bar in that city
some would call that defiant:
an anxious circle of 5ths / I end up with less
than what I started out with! Experimental chords
at a time when there’s a cost to ambling free
Wouldn’t you agree?
Still, I dig your muscular
post-bebop sprint / cacophonous!
I walk on air when it’s just the two of us
What key are we on, my love?
…………………..Yes
………………you answer:
………….yes and yes
…….and yes
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Listen to Connie Johnson read her poem
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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 1965 recording of John Coltrane performing “Compassion,” with Coltrane (tenor sax); Pharoah Sanders (tenor sax); McCoy Tyner (piano); Jimmy Garrison (bass); Elvin Jones (drums); Rashied Ali (drums). [Universal Music Group]
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Click for:
More poetry on Jerry Jazz Musician
“Bluesette,” Salvatore Difalco’s winning story in the 67th Jerry Jazz Musician Short Fiction Contest
More short fiction on Jerry Jazz Musician
Information about how to submit your poetry or short fiction
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Helping to support the ongoing publication of Jerry Jazz Musician, and to keep it commercial-free (thank you!)
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Jerry Jazz Musician…human produced since 1999
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