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

Ms. Baptiste reads her poem at its conclusion.

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David Dellepiane, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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Jazz Within Me

I like Jazz playing within me.
……………….Record that never skips.

Since age sixteen, the songstress
……………………….resonates in my soul.

I recall the first summer Ella & Duke
…………………………………………..transported me
to beaches of the Cote D’ Azur.

………………I was basking in light of her voice.
Mom would yell, “Turn that noise down.”

She didn’t understand scatting.
“Where are the words?” She’d ask.

“She’s speaking in tongues.”
Mom thought Jazz was
………………..an obscure religion.

I imitated my songbird,
as I navigated Brooklyn on public buses.

I floated on sparkling
……………clear blue Mediterranean sea.

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Listen to Jerrice Baptiste read her poem

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Jerrice J. Baptiste, author, poet, educator, founder of Authentic Poetry. She’s the Poet-in-Residence at The Prattsville Art Center, NY.
Nominated as Best of the Net in 2022 by Blue Stem. Her poetry is published or soon to be featured in Mantis, The Yale Review, The Banyan Review, Black Fox Literary Journal, Kosmos Journal, The New Verse News, The Auto Ethnographer, Lolwe, The Minetta Review and many others. Jerrice has been facilitating Authentic Poetry workshops for eighteen years. She has left her footprints on many beaches. Their waves forever imprinted on her soul.

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Listen to Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington perform “Mack the Knife,” from their 1966 Cote D’ Azur concert [Universal Music Group]

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Click here  to view previous editions of  The Sunday Poem

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