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The Sunday Poem is published weekly, and strives to include the poet reading their work.
Steve Trenam reads his poem at its conclusion.
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photo via PxHere/CC0 Public Domain
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Leap of Faith
I take my daughter to the ballet studio
at a former convent in Marin.
She will be dancing for hours.
At the edge of the church’s property
is an old gymnasium.
I ascend the stairs and find the door
unlocked. The gym is empty.
Through a long expanse of windows,
improvisational sunlight flows—
dust particle adagios in the slipstream.
I can almost hear A Love Supreme
in the sonorous morning air.
Two small birds enter
through a broken window
and sing their way up
to a nest in the rafters,
riffing on a Coltrane refrain.
I notice a rack of balls
at the far end of the court
and start shooting free throws,
expand to twenty footers,
and finally, the fantasy
of a half-court shot.
Reminded of my distant past
scrimmaging the Warriors—
Rick Barry in his prime
driving the baseline,
gliding like my daughter
as she glissades across her floor—
effortless and magical.
I retire to the stands
to reflect on my spent youth,
my daughter making music visible,
her grand jetés,
higher than I could ever leap,
even in my heyday.
My reflective soul resides
in this dusty relic of a building,
playing court to my form of ballet—
as close as I will ever come
to a place of worship.
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Listen to Steve Trenam read his poem
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Steve Trenam, writing poetry in Tuscany
Steve Trenam teaches poetry writing for Santa Rosa Junior College. Blue Light Press published his An Affront to Gravity in 2021. His work appears in Pandemic Puzzle Poems and in the ekphrastic poetry book, Canyon, River, Stone and Light. He is a founding member of Poetic License Sonoma. Other poems appear in the Redwood Writers poetry anthologies of 2022 and 2023; California Writers’ Club Literary Review, Issue No 11, 2022; Moonlight and Reflections, Nine Sonoma Poets, Valley of the Moon Press, Dec 2022; as well as Larry Robinson’s and Jerry Jazz Musician’s online publications. His work will also be part of Reverberations III, an upcoming ekphrastic art show at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts.
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Listen to the 1964 recording of John Coltrane playing “Acknowledgement” from A Love Supreme, with McCoy Tyner (piano); Jimmy Garrison (bass); and Elvin Jones (drums). [Universal Music Group]
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Click here to read previous editions of The Sunday Poem
Click here to read “A Collection of Jazz Poetry – Summer, 2023 Edition”
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