The Sunday Poem: “Cobalt Blue Mood” by Amy Barone

July 9th, 2023

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

Amy Barone reads her poem at its conclusion.

___

Cobalt Blue Mood

It’s one of those moments.
She only has ears for Miles Davis.
Reflecting on things that never came to be—

missed trains and broken clocks.
Although the Fates dangled the lure of fresh starts,
she remained captive too long to the ambitions of others.

Brainwashed as a child
by someone plagued by confusion,
she trusted everyone anyway while hanging
on her mother’s every word and sigh.

She’s left with a fusion of bittersweet feelings,
engulfed in a swell of saudade,
that Portuguese condition of longing
from a culture of Fado music and vibrant blue-and-white tiles.

Bewildered by “if onlys,”
she discovered truths at such a late stage.
You were really OK all along.
It was them.

So she voyages to exotic realms,
reality obscured by her desires
and nocturnal illusions. Why don’t exhilarating
moments overpower the Now?

A trumpet pierces the silence.
The unfulfilled longing subsides.
Resignation meets contentment.
Saved again by the blues.

Listen to Amy Barone read her poem

___

Amy Barone’s poetry collection, Defying Extinction, was published by Broadstone Books in 2022. New York Quarterly Books published her book, We Became Summer. She wrote chapbooks Kamikaze Dance (Finishing Line Press) and Views from the Driveway (Foothills Publishing). Barone belongs to the Poetry Society of America. She lives in NYC.

Listen to the 1955 recording of Miles Davis performing “There’s No You,” with Britt Woodman (trombone); Charles Mingus (bass); Teddy Charles (vibes); and Elvin Jones (drums). [Universal Music Group]