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photo by Bernard Gotfryd/Library of Congress/PDM 1.0
Thelonious Monk, 1968
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Thelonious Monk and Mama
Thelonious Monk paints a picture of Mama
with his piano, the way Monet or Matisse
would, with paint: loud, bright colorful
notes that are a Rorschach test, screaming
on the page.
Perhaps, Mama would’ve modeled for Picasso
in her spare time, when she didn’t dance
with Josephine Baker; her dark skin would’ve
been her calling card. Hemingway would’ve flirted.
with her, he would’ve have put her in a short story.
she would’ve given William Faulkner inspiration for a novel.
Or maybe T.S. Eliot would’ve encountered her; she
would’ve loosened him up; Prufrock would’ve
had a reason to smile.
My Mama walks the streets of Paris, like a 20s flapper
and race is a foreign concept to her; white men tell her
she’s beautiful and she knows.
She sits in a restaurant, treated like a queen
life and dreams and possibilities await her…
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The poet’s mother, who passed away earlier this month at age 85
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Erren Kelly is a three-time Pushcart nominated poet from Boston whose work has appeared in 300 publications (print and online), including Hiram Poetry Review, Mudfish, Poetry Magazine, Ceremony, Cacti Fur, Bitterzoet, Cactus Heart, Similar Peaks, Gloom Cupboard, and Poetry Salzburg.
Click here to read “Under Quarantine” — COVID-era poetry of Erren Kelly, published by Jerry Jazz Musician
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Listen to the 1965 recording of Thelonious Monk playing “Introspection” [Columbia/Legacy]
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Click here to read The Sunday Poem
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