The Sunday Poem: “Love & Monk,” by Carrie Magness Radna

October 29th, 2023

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

Carrie Magness Radna reads her poem at its conclusion.

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“Study-Monk,” by Martel Chapman

Love & Monk

La La Love,
even when the cold raindrops
pounded against the window,
we snuggled close like fuzzy cats,
purring with Thelonious Monk
as we drank our Guinness.

We imagined the Swinging Sixties
as Monk pounded his “Let’s Cool One,”
& he grooved so good in “Reflections”
in Monk’s Blues.

Would we had been the cool cats
grooving at the club
if we were born at the right time?

Or,
like the wallflowers
we became,
when we came of age
in the Eighties,

we’re still stuck at home,
just us two,
having Monk serenade us
on a rainy evening?

La La Love,
Who cares?

You are I are here,
together,
grooving to our own rhythms,
with Monk’s music egging us on.
We need nothing more.

.
Listen to Carrie Magness Radna read her poem

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Born in Norman, Oklahoma, Carrie Magness Radna (she/her) is an archival audiovisual cataloger at the New York Public Library, a singer, a lyricist-songwriter and a poet who loves to travel (when it’s safe). She won the Third Place Prize for “Pink (a Ghazal)” in the 91th annual Writer’s Digest Writer’s Competition (Rhyming Poetry). She’s currently an Associate Editor of Brownstone Poets Anthology (2022-) and was nominated for the 2022 Pushcart Prize. Her fifth book, Shooting Myself in the Dark, was just published by Cajun Mutt Press in January 2023.

Martel Chapman found artistic inspiration in Francis Wolff’s cover photograph of John Coltrane’s Blue Train album, and has been creating art honoring the artistic geniuses of jazz music ever since.

Click here to visit his website