Sunday, February 20, 2011

runes & tunes: "Here Where Coltrane Is" and "Sir Duke"

Soul and race
are private dominions,   
memories and modal
songs, a tenor blossoming,
which would paint suffering   
a clear color but is not in   
this Victorian house
without oil in zero degree
weather and a forty-mile-an-hour wind;
it is all a well-knit family:   
a love supreme.
Oak leaves pile up on walkway
and steps, catholic as apples
in a special mist of clear white   
children who love my children.   
I play “Alabama”
on a warped record player
skipping the scratches
on your faces over the fibrous   
conical hairs of plastic
under the wooden floors.

Dreaming on a train from New York   
to Philly, you hand out six
notes which become an anthem
to our memories of you:
oak, birch, maple,
apple, cocoa, rubber.
For this reason Martin is dead;
for this reason Malcolm is dead;
for this reason Coltrane is dead;
in the eyes of my first son are the browns   
of these men and their music.

2 comments:

Robyn Ryle said...

Gorgeous poem. Love Songs in the Key of Life. I hadn't listened to that album in a long time and just had it out last week.

Sarah Reads Too Much said...

Sir Duke is one of my all time favorite songs. Thank you for sharing the poem...

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