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PJ Jan 2017
multicolored lights flashing
slowly, slowly, slowly
smoke from cigarettes wafting
slowly, slowly, slowly

you take in the smells and sights
of the small room that you're in
it's a crap hole, you cannot lie
perhaps that is why you're drawn to it

how can such lovely sounds
come from such a humble place
a place that makes you stink of
smoke and alcohol, sadness and joy  

I see their dark silhouettes against
the spotlights of the dim room
I see their fingers dancing across strings and keys
I see a single man keeping a heartbeat alive

he hits the drums and plays like
he's going to make the room fall apart
with a cacophony of loud crashes and
a choir of subtle tapping, all together

they play like they want the world to know
of the mess they hold within themselves
the mess that wants to create art for all
those who are willing to listen can hear it

not a single beat can ever be repeated the same way
not a single moment can ever be duplicated again
this is no song, this is no empty stream of notes and tones
this is a conversation between artists and dreamers

these are their hopes and wishes
these are their darkest secrets
things they will only ever share once
this is beauty and chaos as a whole

this is jazz
A poem of my experiences going to a certain jazz bar. Man, I love jazz.
Devin Ortiz Dec 2016
My Master died some time ago

But he left me 'The Ways of White Folks'
And he taught me about 'Democracy'

I recall the 'Dreams' and the 'Dreams Deferred'
And how he sang 'I, Too'

With less than a hundred years between us
His lessons are the same

America for him was brutal
America for me hasn't changed

So with the words he left me,
I craft my trade in his name

With artful thought, I pay my dues
Studying my master, Langston Hughes
Braxton Reid Nov 2016
According to me
Falling in love is a mid-tempo jazz swing
Where the air is chilly
But she is not

All I can see
I only have eyes for you and me
And I smile when the lights look bigger than they are

I could get along without you very well
But why would I squander such a grand tale
When you are here and very near
I can feel the swing ring in my ears
Jazz references
N Schlegel Nov 2016
Keep hold on the standing bass
and *** *** ba-dum us to a slow dance,
because the two step’s too quick
and I want to hear some sad trumpet improv;

The perfect impression of us in love.

It’s too humid here,
I can see sweat race down well-worn wrinkles
eroded into Ms. Carla from 30 years of cabaret.
She sways on the microphone,
while her deep voice hangs in the air,
fragrant, and ready to stifle the pairs
mixing love and lust beneath her stage

They move,
sweaty and close,
***** and dark,
familiar-passionate
slow,
but furious.

Another evening of Jazz and ***.

So this night passes,
a melody in my head
leading a world within my arms
as we rock,
ba-ba-ba-dummed by the bass.
Daisy Vallely Oct 2016
I baked your skin onto the asphalt with my oven eyes
Between Macdougal and Bleecker street
Where i first met you.
Everything gray reminds me of you.
I envisioned myself
Breaking into song and dance
With everybody down every cross road,
Belting a ballad of beauty and admiration
About what you and I once were.
I relived that moment when i cried,
“She’s really gone this time”...
Yet as much as i missed her,
all i did was sway in the traffic
Of business men and women
And homeless dogs and all those
Crazy jazz cats.
I stepped precisely on each crack
I swear i didn’t mean to break your back,
Or my word that bound us
As close as the moon and the sun.
A funny promise that made my nose
Shrivel up.
I lay on the hot asphalt between Macdougal and Bleecker street,
Heartless,
Dreaming of you to come back to me.


© 2016 D.M.V
Devin Ortiz Oct 2016
New Orleans, the French Quarter
Her eyes illuminate in the streets
Jazz bands dance with her spirit
As the enchantment of the night begins

Her soul, out of body, out of mind
Like water, boundless, dances with devils
Under street lamps, in our world
Marionette strings sever into liberation

Oh! What freedom, to be, to exist
As an experience, unable to be captured
Not by the words that bind her to the pages,
Nor world which demands of her

All the while she knows,
She doesn't owe it a **** thing.
Mosh Microbiomes Oct 2016
Trumpet made that jazzy sound
Anywhere is fine, noisy and not alone
Solace because the daydreams have ended
Away from trouble which is mostly my phone

Grey eyes gripping blue fairy lights; faces locked
Last call for drinks and the Trumpet stopped
Aggressively aware of the small room in between
Embraced the truth with a soul that's clean
Daisy Vallely Oct 2016
Her blue hips carry me into her womb,
where the melody of her crashing waves sound like the notes of an ethereal harp dancing through the chilled evening air.
Among all the lost messages in glass bottles floating through a liquid eternity, one read the name of her lover,
who ripped her heart from the sea.
Eventually, each bottle washed up into the arms the shore,
Yet,
The bottle that contained her lover’s name remained in the curves of the ocean, traveling through her body's maze.

My heart breaks at the sound of her faint, musical wheeping.
So I am with her, within her cold, salted embrace.
Submerged,
I open my burning eyes to watch her story.
I love the way her current cradles me with aching love-
And now I can see
That the strength within her current,
Can wash away the grief of a fractured heart.


© 2016 D.M.V
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