Long Ella fitzgerald Poems

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...

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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...

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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...

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Protective Lyricism for the Ages Part Two 

Martin Luther King creating a path to dessimate discrimination 
An angel earning his wings from an epiphany of prophetic elation 
Listening to Ella Fitzgerald sing while learning a litany of...

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Celestial Zodiac Jazz 
 In the constellation of sound, Where Miles Davis breathes celestial blue/
 A Gemini's whim dances through the air/His notes like shooting stars
 Twisting notes like a lover’s embrace/ His horn whispers...

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#A GIFT...AN UPLIFT! A GLORIOUS SHIFT  OCCURS WHEN HAVING BEEN PRIVY TO AN OUTSTANDING SINGER! THE NEXT THING YOU KNOW, YOUR HEART FEELS A GLOW...
BECAUSE A SINGER HAS MOVED YOU SO...

"A SINGER HAS M...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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Some called the radio station demanding they throw them out of the studio.
Others called to brag about their talents, their arrangements, their sass.
Boswell sisters had been singing together since their Vaudeville days as teens.
Connee played...

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Ella Fitzgerald (1917 – 1996)

In the midst of stale fog – Is it day or night?
The dimmed dishevelled lights don’t give a bass clef 
Whilst notes made syncopated love at the bar
A tsunami of discord,
blew...

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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...

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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...

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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,...

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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...

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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...

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