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photo by David via Flicker/Creative Commons 2.0

On the northern wall of the jazz club Bohemian Caverns off of U Street NW, Washington, D.C.; March, 2008

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The Blues

the
horns
blow
melodies
seduce
hairs
on the
back
of
necks
erect
tears
stream
rivers
down
cheeks
lungs
breathe
notes
of
wrong
doings
heathen
heartless
lovers
stabbers
cheaters
and beaters
woodwinds’
words fill souls
players air lungs out
sounds of agony emptiness
despair life once sated now sad
bellowed ends cry the blues

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Catherine Perkins, resident of Lexington, KY,  has poems printed in numerous locally published anthologies.  She wrote for the Jazz Arts Foundation blog, briefly, in 2016. Catherine was brought up listening to jazz, blues and swing and owes her deep connection to music and the arts to her mother, Antoinette.  Catherine likes to play with shape poems and “The Blues” blew into the clarinet as it was being written.   

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Listen to the 1962 Prestige Records recording of Eric Dolphy playing clarinet on “Warm Canto,” from the album The Quest (Universal)

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Click here to learn how to submit your poetry

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