Jazz of a Sunny Day
This mental work, what’s the point,
Working over things
Kneading my flesh
Like bread dough
Bread is always on my mind
The money’s running out
Even Picasso
Worried about money
Ready, steady, cash
Sometimes it works like this
Just snap your fingers
It’s there… So there you are,
Plus the worries about
Everyday things,
Sexuality, and the kind
Ways of making a living
But it’s the living that counts,
How you spend your day
Let’s just relax, I say,
Let the day just pay
Love and let love,
The jazz of a sunny day
Bop
Bop in the head,
Song you can sing
Jazz on jazz
Wedding ring
Easy on the ear
Hard to hear
Time for another
Call to your mother
Drum beat loud
Echo strong
Breaking in cloud
There all along
Pull of the Valve
His eminence J.J. Johnson
On trombone, putting his own
Stamp on bop, a swing-smooth
Pull of the valve, with some
Pops and pulse
Exotic conga action
On the inside lane,
Bass as graceful
As the carved wood
Of which it’s made
What is this brass thing
Too long to be cool,
To hoarse and dusky
In its inside out revelations
To be anything but a romantic
Revolution… So the cool bop
Swings, the piano ching-chings,
Tunes for a summer evening
Boston-based poet Gordon Marshall has published 29 collections of his works, which can be obtained by contacting him at gchm@mac.com. He blogs at The Flash: Notes on the Boston Music Scene.
