“Our World”
by Positive Mark
As we all seek a world to be contained in, our peek-out is the news. For those of you less beautiful, I gift fried chicken and the blues.
Horns with a muted bellow for every dead fellow who never made it out. Tight dresses for baby’s mommas, so those bodies leave no doubt.
Pitches peak on slammaday and slumday, then dive by Monday.
Jazz strained by too much salt. It’s food called soul. It ain’t our fault.
I’ve had no chill since Emmit Till.
Percussion is dulled by a pocket of pills. Contained in a world where we’re killed.
Gorilla pimps and ‘rillo scents, when will our world be healed?
The beat never ends, it just changes hands.
The bright new kit
held my son’s face —
stick hands lifted,
feet poised on metal pedals.
2
Curiosity had stretched his reach:
from a school recorder
to a Casio keyboard.
Each with a short life,
abandoned, buried,
stumbled upon
in the lost corners of his room.
Daily reminders
of poked interests,
haunting the next iteration,
fearful of its fate.
3
An African workshop
had stirred his young soul,
binding rhythm
to the bongo skins.
A trance took hold —
a seance resurrecting,
dormant forces —
into a primal rhythm.
4
His bandmates fell
into the hammock woven,
between the beats,
winds shifted,
wildly into fills.
His drum snap —
with sticks of blood —
tore through the skins
with a ravenous grip
and a Ginger Baker stare.
The fills would not let go,
leading into the next set —
exhilarating, exhausting,
a bungee jump of emotion.
5
Then the cord slackened,
stretching to its inert end.
Playful children fill his time now;
a silent beat from the corner
keeps time with the keyboard.
I like my life symmetrical, but jazz is antithetical
How do I round out the sound?
He's A. *** DiNG DoNG ***
Duh-Dahhh-a-Deee-Ohhhhh...!
He's A DingDong Daddy-O Dummmmm...b.
And Spirits From Celestial Seas
To Call On Connections From
A Siren's Disease...
And Refreshing Surge Of The Surf
Leaves You Parched, And Struggling
To Understand The Warmth Of The Sea...
Darling Moonbeam, My One True Love...
Built From Sky...
-Gray Squirrel
10-14-2025
they are yours
and mines;
the hard-boiled
cookery of virtuous noise.
a polyphony wrapped
in aluminum foil
on a tedious shelf
w/bits of mythic statuary,
petite reliquary
of gastronomic demise,
and jars of jazz
sit motionless,
mummified
in gifted dishes.
they are the cool
epistemologies
that gel I the mixing bowl of life
that sudden slap
in the face of time
and the subsequent freeze.
Jazz Composition
Common Verses Free
French Free Form Overature Jazz
5th 3rd overature
Circles. 2 twice trumpet
Haunting 3rd brass instruction
From further below
Than rise
Chirps measure
Blackbird is the altered blues draw
Birds chirp in a paired 3 verses 3 top measure of 2 in line
Over 3 verses 3 verses 3
Bottom measure of 3 in line circling waters break in flight
3d's in a separated pair
Second pair drifts in to flight
Bottom row
3 b's lilting right lift
3 p's
Inverted taking notes
Hanging for eyes dear last measure
Forty five angled plight swoons seating oft
Canary yellow wings of warmth oil a canvas
Jails
Slaves
Waves at freedom
She at the door, too forgetful
Bothersome Invention war is
This is a far as a sound
As nearest minds kindly borrow
Works flat
And out the door
Slaves in jails
Forward my ship
On top and on back
Waters a ways to work
Laddles become hospitals
Without spoons
Only the together people
Lift down the cloths
Aprons run in country
We ain't had enough
Jails yet
This is beautiful
Your from that porcelain city
I'm New York poetry too
loving melody moving through me
a symphonic extravaganza of mellow jazzy passion
~ moonlight dancing through the night
Wordku: 5-7-5 words
AP: Honorable Mention 2025
The Jazz poem brothers, so hip and so way cool,
With their smooth jazz talk, they never play the street fool/
They snap their fingers and dance to the bass conga beat/
Their rhythm and rhyme are hip in time/man, they are kicking the verse and breaking it down/
They paint a mind collage with each word they say, Man, it just lays me out / What can I say/
Taking us on a word poem journey, in their special soul jazz spoken word way/
Get down to their word flow/ a slaughterhouse of jazz words/poetry from the jazz edge/let's go/
The brothers transport us to a place where the bebop Buddha shows his face/
Yo listen up tight, to what their jazz word orchestra has to say/
Let their words guide you to the jazz planet in the Milky Way/
The Jazz poem brothers know how to groove high/to the spoken word poetry/ in the simmering jazz Zen sky/
Their poetry word jazz will lift you/Man, it's a swingin' affair/ Miles, Trane, and Diz/ horn blowing word jazz and a gin fizz/The jazz poem brothers/in search of the new word vibe/Tossing a snow storm of words into the crowd as they wave by by/
He wo motto took a shield for the bettering of
Boy bubble kev
Upper right flange damage severe ordinance requirement of lifeline preserve cartography blissed out
Gregory Hines session energetic time card!
Currently the security profit programs is hesitant
Sista bad ways the masters degree premonition holder has eliquented us inside of the never growing fortress of people's passed economic struggles as mimes
Yet the obstructioni zing doth not permit a permit
Ye of vittles portion lacks the fortitude of good days in labor
Between Camarillo livibility lengths and Newbury Park rotations as the same
None may improvith stations whilst sista bad feelings goes into debt full idea administration worry
It was autumn
Before the round
Something shivered
Tools wasn't full
Vans change, tools out strange the work
All damseled
In respite
Shane apprehension grovel
Lost beside his print
Finding his father's name
April, too new city managers
Yorks and shires bereaved
I wasn't your only father's rent
The war counted on better rays
Rates add fits
In byes gondolas say
To write wrongs
Haven't worried sensibly
The round became my leaving board
A pond as his mother's springs
She sheltered little in life
Deathly burden to me
Manhattan Surrender my moons light
Listening to Jazz
Eating my egg, ham and cheese
So easy to please
Play that Saxophone for me, play a sweet Melody
Play the keys so smoothly , let the music sing for me.
As i close my eyes I feel so alive and hypnotised by the vibes it is sending to me.
It is driving me wild, sending shivers up my spine.
I have a natural high for I am in total bliss with this music.
Come with me and experience a jazz feast
Listen to the Saxophone, clarinet, the Spanish guitar,
Bass guitar, obeo,piano, chelo and more .
The world of jazz has so much to offer the heart, mind and soul.
Step inside yhe world of jazz let it translate you to a different land .
Smooth jazz, easy on the mind , nice and relaxed
Dim the lights and let yhe music take flight
With all that jazz.
Bluesy
swinging sipper—
Sax in fancy suede taps,
keys go snippety, ivory
sprinkles
it's not what i paid for
kind of blue spangalang
but the doctor was in good spirits
and told me he wasn't to know how rubbish
the radiologist was
as he laughed at my ultrasound
and asked my children if they're playing with slime
arco lounge toast
is there marmite on my face?
and drinking beer in the family stand at the cricket
"it's non-alcoholic pal."
"is it?" asks the member of staff
and the bloke in the urinal next to me
leans on the wall, yelling "come on!"
really profound stuff
give me a licorice stick
and you'll witness my jazz face
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