Best Ella Fitzgerald Poems

Sang like a whippoorwill, up high on a hill
   Played trumpet like Satchmo, with panache and skill
To watch that man tap-dance, gave even Gregory Hines a thrill
   As Ella Fitzgerald told us, 'Sammy's pure talent' distilled



     ...

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Sitting here in my room 
   Listening to Ella Fitzgerald 
(on what would have been her 90th birthday)
Not so bad to be alone
Health worries bother me 
but I have a pen and paper(thank God)
Continue to persist 
   with my literary efforts
...

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He wipes the tables clean
Picks up the dirty wears
Take out the garbage
Stock the fridge with beers

Cleans the bath room
And mops the floors
Sweep outside on the sidewalks
 Before he the doors

Sounds like a lot of work
But he enjoys it everyday
It’s the cotton club
With great jazz music...

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Thank god I finally was caught and cited
for doing something that I didn't do.

Just think how much worse I would feel
if I actually had done it,
as I have done so many stupid thoughtless things
without getting caught,
at least not by the judicial system.

I hope it all...

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A few nights before Christmas
all was quiet in the apartment
except for a few ghosts milling about in it

Before I went to bed 
to rest my head
I thought of the words of a friend
who once said 

You are not out of your mind
dreaming you are wide...

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My daughter,
with Oppositionally Defiant Chaotic Disorder,
has taught me a role-play therapy,
in which we Both-And build a back-and-forth story,
she plays me,
more or less,
and I play her
Mulatta as I inductively feel her
in my RightBrain resonant positives 
and double-binding humorous negatives
kind of cooperative-regenerative way.

So the structure of our...

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BY STREET CRIES

READING BOOKS TO THE SOUNDS OF JAZZ 
ABSORBING TUNES TO A HYPNOTIC PAST

WHERE HORNS ARE BLOWN AND KEYS PLAYED
AT JUST THE RIGHT TONE

ITS A SOULFULL VIBE THAT CREATS A RELAXING
ZONE
PROVIDING THE LATE GREAT DUKE ELLITON A 
PLACE TO CALL HOME

MILLES DAVIS RELEASES RHYTHM...

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As I dusted off an old jazz LP
A musical genie appeared to me
With seven notes in his hand
And a  wish for each one
So I  wished  to see some singers and bands

Then I traveled back in time 
On a C note
To hear the...

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Many times when I would here a song, I would get an almost joyful longing, but I could never pinpoint the moment in my past that I wished for so deeply.

I would feel a certain peaceful joy, hovering just beyond my reach.

And as I stared...

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That's not my elephant that you see.
My elephant is skinny and likes to watch TV

He also has a thin spaghetti trunk.
And likes to kneel and pray like a Monk.

My elephant likes to snort the bill of rights.
While riding 2nd graders day and  night.

When my...

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When you play a little Marvin Gaye,
And you mix it up with some Tupac.
You throw in a little Whitney and then
You add just a little Mariah Carey,
Some Ludacris, Some Mary Mary.
Throw in some Fred Hammond,
Aaliyah, Tank, Kirk Franklin,
And Raheem Devaugn's "Woman".
A little Dwele and Common,
Mos...

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Coltrane with Giant Steps coming downstairs after two-weeks
King going up the mountain and dreaming as he speaks 
Miles said, So What... Kind of Blue
Malcolm, By Any Means Necessary, seeing it through 

Michael, a Dancing Machine getting Off the Wall for a Thriller 
Ali's Rope-a-Dope and...

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She turns me around
Forty years ago
At High School graduation
And she says…
Something I can’t remember

It was probably something like,
‘Well, lookit that!’ or
‘Boy, Howdy!’ or
Some such encouragement

And… though I cannot remember it
Now, I would not part with it
For all the treasures riding
In all the ships on the...

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Sitting here in my room listening  to Ella Fitzgerald (on what would have been her 98th birthday)
Not so bad to be alone 
Health worries 
 trouble me 
but I have a pen and paper (thank God) 
Continuing to persist with my literary efforts 
...

Continue reading...

That’s not my elephant!
No way, no how.
That elephant’s a bull -
Mine is a cow!

That’s an African elephant;
Everyone can see.
My elephant’s Italian -
Not from the Serengeti.

Don’t read to me the bill of rights;
I know my elephant by sound and sight.
Ella Fitzgerald may use Memorex,
But my elephant...

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