Best Gillespie Poems
Tag words: advertising, bebop, bird, bottle, Charlie
Parker, Coca-Cola, Cole Porter, Dizzy Gillespie,
door, flag, heart, jazz, light bulb, Louis Armstrong,
Miles Davis, palette, Pepsi Cola, pluralism – found
object, retablo painting, sculpture
Arbitrary or subconscious, Saunders picked six.
Man created on the sixth day from darkness;
we came into the light, of knowing, of naming.
Satan, sin held within, black of skin. Oh,
Africa chopped up bleeding, the third world’s
doors shown black, nailed shut. With the skin
of drums, the heel of hand, he pounds the nails
on the trail of the carpenter.
Kept in place, biblical wives of Lot turned to salt,
white-line the globe. White powder, white power,
sugars the unpalpable, addicting, coca leafs and
caffeine, doping the public, the poor for dimes.
Reinforcing the lure of the bottle; the cola bottle
that fell unbroken to earth from the sky in The
God’s Must Be Crazy. Some have always used their
addictions to create. Like a found objects, we too
fall calling to Mother Mary.
After: The Gift of Presence Raymond Saunders 1993
First Published by Ekphrastic Art:writing and art on art and writing
*Lot the nephew of Abraham, husband of Edith
who was turned to salt.
Categories:
gillespie, art,
Form:
Ekphrasis
Carroll O’Connor
from Bunker to Gillespie
and a whole lot more
Categories:
gillespie, tribute,
Form:
Haiku
one of a series of color poems written with a pink craylo pen purchased from our local post office-red, pink, yellow, blue, black, green, silver, brown, gray
I love a deep purple jazz poem.
A trumpet blowing, soothing,
Dizzy Gillespie jazz poem.
A plum colored, egg plant colored,
Twilight hued poem.
A deep purple falling over sleepy garden
Walls poem.
My mother sure love that song, "Deep Purple"
Hope she loves this purple poem.
Humm, Ma! me and my purple poem and
My pink pen,
Feeling the love baby, feeling the love!
Cynthia
one of a series of color poems written with a pink craylo pen purchased from our local post office-red, pink, yellow, blue, black, green, silver, brown, gray
Categories:
gillespie, music, love, poems,
Form:
Free verse
Nu-Jack Kerouac/Tony Adamo 2010
Miles, Monk, Bird, Dizzy Gillespie & Train
Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsburg, Mingus and the Duke/
Wrote Music books and poetry that had the power to change our musical written word/
They walked the walk baby and be-boped the talked/
Miles , Monk they dreamt in jazz time
(BRIDGE)
You got Ta be kool Nu-jack Kerouac
You got to be right with jack n’ jazz
You can see the light man it’s soo damn hip
To be where it’s at such a poet’s trip
Nine Miles of jazz blue’s
Jazz starts with a bite of kool
Turn around into a new sound/
You’ll be strutin’ the fellin’ baby/
Into a soul Funkin It’s a new thing
It’s somethin’ else man you know what I’m talkin bout/
Night trippin day dreamin’ Ohhh baby/
Let’s get down with it/
(Solo)
(BRIDGE)
You got Ta be kool Nu-jack Kerouac
You got ta be right with jack n’ jazz
You can see the light man it’s sooo damn hip
To be where it’s at such a poet’s trip
Nine Miles of jazz groove
Jazz starts with a bite of kool man all right
Let’s don’t forget Dex, the Pres, Ella, Sweet Pea/
They gave birth to a whole new school in a jazz o’ frame of mind/
That’s what I’m talkin bout/
You got Ta be kool Nu-jack Kerouac/Vamp out
From Tony Adamo’s Miles of Blu CD
Categories:
gillespie,
Form:
Lyric
Aint Throwin my'self off no bridges
God made the Ocean for the fish
And at the risk of soundin' religious
Suicide wont be gettin' his wish
Sister Mercer, sister Bailey,
Sing me through this
'Nough Blues in my suitcase
To make the Titanic sink
'Nough bills in my briefcase
To make a Nun drink
Family and friends say I'm on the brink
Therapist diagnosed me with RDSD
Said, Leave two hundred dollars at the desk
Two of these blue pills will alleviate your stress
I told her I beg to disagree
"No, I don't have RDSD."
What I do have is MMSJB
(Missing Me Some James Brown)
One CD and I’ll be gettin’ down
Not giving you or your receptionist a dime.
Respectfully lady, are you out of your mind?
...An hour of Loretta Lynn
Jus' let the record spin and spin
Again and again
The Coal Miner's daughter
Miss Joplin, Lena, Ethel Waters
Miss Ella leading the choir
Miss Leontyne taking us higher
Let me wade in the Muddy waters
Just let me wade in that muddy water
She said, We can try Abilify
Zoloft or Lexapro
Said, "Oh miss Therapist, I gotta go."
She said, "If Cymbalte doesn't work
Make an appointment and come back
...Two-hundred more and I'll put you on Prozac."
And don't look for me at Church on Sunday
Will be playin' these Blues straight thru Monday
Saint Armstrong Church of Divine Jazz
Rev Benny Goodman presiding
Therapist still lookin' for me
But I'm under the pews hiding
Thank You Reverend Ellington
Deacon Gillespie
All these people tryna stress me.
Therapist said if I don't take her pills
She'll send the Coppers to arrest me
Nat King Cole Baptize my soul
And don't try to size me up for no Coffin
I only like flowers I can smell
"No, no, I wont take Desyrel."
Can't think about no dying
Until I hear Sweet Aretha sing
Until then, I'll be doing this rhyming thing
Until I've given all that I can give
Until then
I'll live
and live
and live
Michael Ellis
Categories:
gillespie, anxiety, depression, endurance, extended
Form:
Rhyme
Bewteen two granite stones
large enough to keep Jesus
tucked away three plus days
lies a crack so thin
it doesn't allow shadows in
though water finds its
proper place.
In winter it freezes
Summer evaporates
its every molecule
It expands in fall
Renews in spring so when roses
bloom, crimson combines
pinks and reds.
May comes. Dizzy Gillespie
plays the blues and
heavenly tunes fall from heaven
sticking to my thoughts
like ants on picnic food.
Saturated with the idea of
being love drenched,
I took my clothes off
to skinny dip but slipped
and punctured my heart
supplying a stream
with flow.
When it rains is when God finds time
to remind me of life saving lines.
Forever combines, if only in the moments
when sun doesn't shine
and I stand in rain
shouting against the wind.
At the core of my foundation,
a woman's tears were at the heart of
my formation.
Even granite, must yield to this.
Categories:
gillespie, feelings, how i feel,
Form:
Free verse
Vent-ill-Station
I like the brain but my mind
Isn't real, take it
So I wield change in the face
And I will make a disgrace of
What humans made us
Shaped into, its true
Take some, its good for you
Trace the steps
Dwell on life, the past, the present
Make well of the future
Meditation
Pre-devestation
Devestated, useless
But a body needs a host so give it up
Be the reducement
Added fusion to the blueness
Sitting to cool for the movement
Needed to move with conceited
Use of an E and a You
D and an A, DNA left for two
Weeks in shoe
Walked on, horsin' around though straight two cents with an eye
For an idea, great music
Not finding a grate to sit
Or an apple or a grape to sip
Butane fixed just to fight the fact that you are lighter than
A star lighter, man
Lost sight of wishin' I would crash bright and bad
~Tyler L Gillespie
Categories:
gillespie, adventure, anger, anxiety, beauty,
Form:
Free verse
recurrent suicidal thoughts vain
gloriously wend
(o'er a death cab for cutie weeknd)
yanking zeal
becalming this crash test dummy rolling
stone temple pilot inxs
of maroon 5 plus decades long
perdition hellaciously slogging
slow as adam and the ants,
thru fifty shades of gray's
anatomy common weal
masterly baiting this motley crue (cutting),
beatle browed, beastie boy,
outre gee (bee) us, grateful dead,
mailer daemons inhabit
cavernous fist size vastness steel
via Herbie Hancock (Hermans Hermits)
cheesy Munster trap doors that steal,
deep purple swiftly tailored
culture club members squeal
hosted by mega death pack rat boston for real
venue at Tokyo hotel, via en grave invitation
signed by Alice in Chains poison huss kiss
sing, which will spellbind
once contents unveiled, an instant app peal
immediately choking off air supply
then Alice Cooper egging bad company
to hypnotize the guess who sacrificial meal
supplanting raw primal scream from spinal tap
acquiescing self to abandon all hope,
especially if black sabbath joins
creed dance clearwater revival
dark shadows would demand one
(to take a knee) and kneel
before sacrificing oneself at the beck and call
of evanescent nirvana
experiencing permanent relief,
sans soul (twisted) sister riding a hansom
off phish hull heart shaped coffin
ample room enough for blind
melon collie 10,000 maniacs, their heal
ling powers profusely emanating
via m&m shaped talking heads
methinks averring obeisance
to judas priest and hooters with coldplay feel
ling of eternal sleep, where quiet pussy riot
joins carpenters, whose underground
sepulchral crowded house indicative
cynthesis iz a done dizzy Gillespie afterlife deal
and you bet your sweet bippy meme
an extra bonus for orthodox believers
(absent myself - a skeptic),
whose karma with long deceased will anele!
Categories:
gillespie, 11th grade, 12th grade,
Form:
The older I get the less that I fret
With my panties wadded up in a tizzy
As anyone could see I used to be
A mini-me of Dizzy Gillespie
I'd huff and I'd puff when I'd had enough
Like some Big Bad Wolf in a fable
Then let it all fly as the steam in me would rise
Right on time, here comes Old Faithful
No one hanging around at the bubbling sound
As it came close to the rim
No need to wait for the show, see you later gotta go
Afraid by flying debris they'd be hit
Thankfully those years are long gone as I've learned to calm down
Although I still have my moments
My family looks at me quite suspiciously
When I turn on the news at 6
Categories:
gillespie, anger, life,
Form:
Rhyme
Early in the day o’er in Eastern sky
Dawn comes, then sunrise =
Morning comes over the horizon
Into a new day filled with surprise
Standing in the country garden
While the grass is moist with dew
Pink roses emit their sweet perfume,
I watch the heav’nly canvas rise anew
There are colors beyond imagination
Pinks, lavender, reds and streaks of gold
The Master Artist at work for our joy
Providing all our eyes can behold
There, too, is the sun – big, yellow, bright
Ever so gently rising over the hill
This sun God’s creation to reveal Himself
The earthly reminder of the spiritual Father
As the yellow light gradually moves across the sky
I think of how I am the one rotating
Not the sun going around and around
It is planet Earth moving; I’m meditating
A song of long ago told of the sun being “lucky”
“He has nothing to do but roll around heaven all day”
God’s creation always has something to do
The sun gives light for us to find our way
‘”Oh good Lawd above, don’t you know I’m pinin’
Tears all in my eyes
Send down that cloud with a silver linin’
Take me to paradise…”*
Like the poor man “pinin’”
We can become miserable as we surmise—
We can forget to look upward
Failing to see God’s guidance with our eyes
In Psalm nineteen verses one through six**
“The heavens declare the glory of God,
And the firmament shows His handiwork”
We learn speech and knowledge without sound
The sun as a strong man moves as in a race
Going forward from the end of heaven
With his circuit unto the ends of it
Nothing is hid from the heat” of the sun
Meditation time is over; I am ever thankful
For the blessing of the sun’s steady movement
And my balancing myself on revolving Earth—
God reveals and teaches with His firmament
Pinin’ times will come, miserable we will be
Our Father God is aware of our humanity;
His sun’s painted canvases always
Opens and close the day for you and me
Nature reflects God - He planned it that way
We are the caretakers every day
-Evelyn Pearl Anderson
* " That Lucky Old Sun (Just Rolls around Heaven All Day) "
music by Beasley Smith and words by Haven Gillespie, 1949
** Psalm 19:1-6 Holy Bible
Categories:
gillespie, christian, environment, sky, sun,
Form:
Rhyme
Call me Gillespie
At the thought of choosing sides
This all makes me Dizzy
Where ones befuddled and the other lies
White toothed grinning alligator
Beady-eyed crocodile
Which will we regret later
We'll find out for sure after awhile
One to build a wall to keep us all
Safe from those who want a home
The other swinging doors wide open
Sweeping out deplorable's
Reading from the dictionary
They would make a lot more sense
Starting out with the B's
Blah, Blah, Blah, He said, She said
I wonder when we the sheeple
Will stand up and call their bluff
Give this all back to the people
Finally say enough's enough
Is this the best they have to offer
Who's to win this losing game
Will it be the constant cougher
Or the billionaire that's clearly insane
Sadly, this crazy train needs a conductor
To carry this fragile freight
Watch out for the Loco-motion though
As we jump track on this runaway
Categories:
gillespie, irony, political,
Form:
Rhyme
“We’re cleared for takeoff,” the pilot announced, “settle in, our flight time to Atlanta will be 9 hours.”
The Gulfstream roared down the runway and in a moment the tops of trees flashed by. We climbed quickly, and banked. Paris dwindled, the Seine became a string of blue, the world a patchwork of colors before we punched through a layer of hair-like cirrus clouds.
My roommates and friends were all a-chatter as we lined up on the runway but as we ascended, they grew quiet.
Thoughts of Peter ran through me and gripped me like a serpent. The last time I saw him he was dressed in a summer outfit I bought him - a short-sleeve, pale-pastel-plaid, seersucker shirt, kentucky-derby breaker shorts, pop color flip flops and a straw fedora. His sweet-face was all grin, he looked like a deck gillespie. Meow.
When I think about Peter, my skin tickles, my pulse accelerates, I’m confuddled. I think about the disturbance that moved through the air between us when we met. We were strangers, but a magnetic flux seemed to roll off him and break against me.
I didn’t let it show. I drew in, looked away and became quiet. What else could I do? Later, when I described it to Sunny, our meeting seemed like nothing. When I described it to Lisa, it sounded like too much.
Of course, my choices must be consistent with my ambitions, but I want Peter to come to Athens, so badly. He was a human placebo, for me, in otherwise stressful times. Now I want to be with him without school pressures - to see what that’s like - and get closer, a lot closer.
I don’t want commitment, but I’m saturated with desire. All I want is a fun July or August - with him. I seldom reveal the businesslike hardness I have buried inside. I want this and I’m ready for derp.
Peter worries - about money, about gender roles, social positions and what’s apposite. I don’t care about any of that. I want to give him a free month, like an amazing gift. He’s so male, so deceptively complicated, fragile and intoxicating.
I really need to think about this, and work it out - HA! - like I can think of anything else.
.
Slang
deck = cool
gillespie = hipster
meow = I want
confuddled = confused and befuddled
derp = anything and everything
Categories:
gillespie, emotions, feelings, friendship, summer,
Form:
Free verse
Julie was born with an abnormal right foot,
And this congenital disorder just meant that,
She decided on a prosthetic at the age of 5,
A 3S80 Ottobock prosthetic to give speed.
She came into the world in the year of 1998,
On November the 2nd, and she represented,
Great Britain in the 2012 Paralympic Games,
In sitting volleyball as a young team member.
But in the run-up to Rio Julie switched sports,
Got into sprinting which saw her participate in,
The 2015 IWAS Worlds in Stadskannal city,
Which is in Holland: she won bronze in 100m.
Prosthetist Jamie Gillespie says “Julie is a very
ambitious and focused young woman who has
that ability to overcome the fear of trying, [to see],
something new. She’s…confident but modest.”
Categories:
gillespie, sports, strength,
Form:
Blank verse
Natural soporific narcotic
Recurrent suicidal thoughts
vaingloriously wend along winding road
within windmills of my mind
(o'er a death cab for cutie weeknd)
yakking, yanking, and yawking zeal
becalming this crash test dummy rolling
stone temple pilot inxs
of maroon 5 plus decades long
perdition hellaciously slogging
slow as adam and the ants,
thru fifty shades of gray's
anatomy common weal
masterly baiting this motley crue (cutting),
beatles browed, beastie boy,
foo fighters kickstart new edition
quickening reo speedwagon treadwheel
outre gee (bee) us, grateful dead,
mailer daemons inhabit
cavernous fist size vastness steel
via herbie hancock (hermans hermits)
cheesy munster trap doors that steal,
deep purple swiftly tailored
culture club members squeal
hosted by megadeth
pack rat boston for real
venue at tokyo hotel,
via en grave invitation
signed by alice in chains poison huss kiss
sing, which will spellbind
once contents unveiled,
an instant jane's addiction peal
immediately choking off air supply
then alice cooper egging bad company
to hypnotize the guess who sacrificial meal
supplanting raw
primal scream from spinal tap
acquiescing self to abandon all hope,
especially if black sabbath joins
creedence clearwater revival
dark shadows would demand one
(to take a knee) and kneel
before sacrificing oneself
at the beck and call
of evanescent nirvana
experiencing permanent relief,
sans soul (twisted) sister riding a hansom
off phish hull heart shaped coffin
ample room enough for blind
melon collie 10,000 maniacs,
their healing powers profusely emanating
via m&m shaped talking heads
methinks averring obeisance
to judas priest and hooters
with metallica linkedin with mötley crüe
coldplay feeling of eternal sleep,
where quiet pussy riot
joins carpenters, whose underground
bunker with golden arches
resembles empyreal
heavenly vault wreathed soundgarden
with electric light orchestra
sepulchral crowded house indicative
cynthesis iz done on a green day,
whereat dizzy gillespie afterlife deal
and you bet your sweet bippy meme,
an extra bonus for orthodox believers
(absent myself - a skeptic),
whose karma credit Suisse
with long deceased meatloaf
with soul asylum and heart to anele!
Categories:
gillespie, addiction, adventure, age, analogy,
Form:
Free verse
The Kennedy Center is known to the world
For honoring those in the arts –
From Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, Astaire,
Whose talents top all of the charts.
Sinatra, Gene Kelly, L. Bernstein, Kazan
And Benny and Lena and Merce,
Ray Charles, Lucille Ball, Isaac Stern and George Burns,
The list both profound and diverse.
Belafonte and Ailey and Hepburn and Peck,
Gillespie and Sondheim, the Who;
Aretha and Dylan and Kander and Ebb,
Judith Jamison, Chuck Berry, too.
Baryshnikov, Quincy, Paul Simon and Cash,
Warren Beatty, James Taylor and Cher;
Tina Turner and Spielberg and Barbra and Tharp,
Yo Yo Ma, Dustin Hoffman – all there.
Al Pacino and Elton, De Niro and Streep,
Lily Tomlin, Santana and Sting;
LL Cool J and Reba and Joni, Mel Brooks,
Lionel, Dick Van Dyke, Carole King.
There are more I’ve not mentioned, but going ahead,
It is going to be quite a shock
When the Kennedy Center will honor, perhaps,
Village People or maybe Kid Rock.
Oh, I fear for this country in so many ways
And it feels we’ve been stabbed in our hearts
With the Kennedy Center now being run
By a man with no stake in the arts.
Categories:
gillespie, art,
Form:
Rhyme