Finals

Finals

I work so hard for what I want
that I seem to neglect what I want

for example
I work so hard to have an education
that I forget to learn while roaming through my books.

Goosebumps

Goosebumps

I felt at one with the world
when I put my instrument to my lips
for I seemed to disappear
I was barely there
as the music washed over my hair.

Opportunities

Opportunities

While rushed with duties
bored with chores
and overwhelmed with work

one could realize the opportunities
the dream within a dream
learning from hard work.

Black Friday

Black Friday

I never understood
a day to get
after a day to give

opposites attract.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving

The house smells like love
on Thanksgiving

sugary and sweet
as a pecan pie steams out of the oven

crisp and roasted
as potatoes and carrots roll into my plate

smoked and fresh
as turkey tumbles over gravy

the house smells like love
on Thanksgiving.

Holiday

Holiday

The holiday isn't a day of the year
a day of the week
it's a place in our hearts
strong yet weak.

Who is left?

Who is left?

The world I live in scares me
for who is left to care for me?

Child at play

Child at play

Boom kaboom
vroom vroom
boom kaboom
crash crash.

Current events

Current events

When I see pain in the world
I get sad easily
to the point where everything
seems devoid of how it should be.

Freedom

Freedom

I wish I could write a poem from the heart
and put down the words I hear in my head

as I wish I could just scream to the hills
jump through hoops
dance the tango
sing as loudly as possible
in whatever key comes out

but what always gets in the way
is consequence
concern
criticism.

Like me

Like me

It terrifies me to think
that the only people that like me
are like me.

Marvelous

Marvelous

so there I was

dim
dull
dreary
packed
noisy
dark

and there you were.

Alone

Alone

In a packed room
full of chitter and chatter
I hear a voice in my head
scratching words into my ears.

How can you be positive

How can you be positive

How can you be positive
when clouds loom over the air?

how can you be positive
when circumstance doesn't care?

Voices

Voices

 I whisper poems in my head
and never write them down
for the music seems to stop
with any plop of ink or judgement.

A year ago

A year ago

Just a year ago
only a year ago

my perspective of life
was thin, jaded, strife.

Let's just simplify

Let's just simplify

Let's just simplify

I don't need this
I don't need that

what I need is time spent alone
time to sing to scat.

Without you

Without you

I'll make do
I'll get through
winter's blizzard
without you.

Pennies

Pennies

We always want success now

but what if we were given a penny a second?
and success came over time
with patience and consistency?

Please visit my jazz education website, Kind of Pink and Purple, where I create a multimedia resource for young adults to learn about jazz. 

Please subscribe to Without a Poem by email (top right of the page) and follow both Kind of Pink and Purple and Without a Poem on other social media: Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Google Plus, Pinterest. 

Since September 2015, I have been the JazzBoston newsletter writer/ editor. Please sign up for the monthly newsletter to learn more about the Boston jazz scene. 

Simplify

Simplify

Simplify

a concept so small
so deceptively simple

that if you encapsulate it
every beam of light
seems twice as bright
and ever star in the sky
shoots by
as if this world is all yours

simplify.

Please visit my jazz education website, Kind of Pink and Purple, where I create a multimedia resource for young adults to learn about jazz. 

Please subscribe to Without a Poem by email (top right of the page) and follow both Kind of Pink and Purple and Without a Poem on other social media: Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Google Plus, Pinterest. 

Since September 2015, I have been the JazzBoston newsletter writer/ editor. Please sign up for the monthly newsletter to learn more about the Boston jazz scene. 

Change

Change

Who ever said that
one person can't change the world?
for any one person living
can make a life out of change, change, changing.

Please visit my jazz education website, Kind of Pink and Purple, where I create a multimedia resource for young adults to learn about jazz. 

Please subscribe to Without a Poem by email (top right of the page) and follow both Kind of Pink and Purple and Without a Poem on other social media: Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Google Plus, Pinterest. 

Since September 2015, I have been the JazzBoston newsletter writer/ editor. Please sign up for the monthly newsletter to learn more about the Boston jazz scene. 

Splendid

Splendid

The beauty of it all is
once you decide that you want to be great
that you even deserve to be great in the first place
everything becomes splendidly marvelous.

Please visit my jazz education website, Kind of Pink and Purple, where I create a multimedia resource for young adults to learn about jazz. 

Please subscribe to Without a Poem by email (top right of the page) and follow both Kind of Pink and Purple and Without a Poem on other social media: Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Google Plus, Pinterest. 

Since September 2015, I have been the JazzBoston newsletter writer/ editor. Please sign up for the monthly newsletter to learn more about the Boston jazz scene. 

Imagined barrier

Imagined barrier

It isn't about age
or where you're from
it isn't about your gender
or who you love
it isn't about money
class, race, or position
it's about passion
for if you have that 
any imagined barrier
dissipates like mist. 

Please visit my jazz education website, Kind of Pink and Purple, where I create a multimedia resource for young adults to learn about jazz. 

Please subscribe to Without a Poem by email (top right of the page) and follow both Kind of Pink and Purple and Without a Poem on other social media: Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Google Plus, Pinterest. 

Since September 2015, I have been the JazzBoston newsletter writer/ editor. Please sign up for the monthly newsletter to learn more about the Boston jazz scene. 

Melody

Melody

I feel it in the air
the leaves as they change
the ghost of a melody
that leaves me unnamed.

Please visit my jazz education website, Kind of Pink and Purple, where I create a multimedia resource for young adults to learn about jazz. 

Please subscribe to Without a Poem by email (top right of the page) and follow both Kind of Pink and Purple and Without a Poem on other social media: Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Google Plus, Pinterest. 

Since September 2015, I have been the JazzBoston newsletter writer/ editor. Please sign up for the monthly newsletter to learn more about the Boston jazz scene. 

What is the point of poetry?

What is the point of poetry?

What is the point of poetry?

Poems don't stop war
people are still fighting

they don't cure diseases
cancer and HIV aren't solved

they don't stop time
it is always going on

they don't let us live forever
we're getting older day by day

they don't feed the starving
so many are out there hungry

they don't provide shelter
so many are out there without shelter

they don't teach how to
balance a checkbook
pay the mortgage
get insurance
save up for retirement
create a college fund

and what about the other pinnacles of life?
getting married, having kids, grandkids  -
I have to figure that out for myself

what can poems do
other than observe
just as you or I?

Please visit my jazz education website, Kind of Pink and Purple, where I create a multimedia resource for young adults to learn about jazz. 

Please subscribe to Without a Poem by email (top right of the page) and follow both Kind of Pink and Purple and Without a Poem on other social media: Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Google Plus, Pinterest. 

Since September 2015, I have been the JazzBoston newsletter writer/ editor. Please sign up for the monthly newsletter to learn more about the Boston jazz scene. 

If I couldn't see

If I couldn't see 

If I couldn't see
how could I go to the
art museum every Wednesday at noon?

would I notice any difference from a
CD or a concert?

could I still tie my shoes?

would I still care enough to
buy new clothes each season?

or to wear red lipstick and
purple eyeshadow?

would I be able to find your
lips to kiss you?

could I still fly a kite
or marvel at the deep blue sky?

would I have to give up painting,
sewing, knitting, drawing, sketching?

could I still read a book each night
before my dreams take over?

If I couldn't see
could I look in the empty mirror
and feel my own presence?

Please visit my jazz education website, Kind of Pink and Purple, where I create a multimedia resource for young adults to learn about jazz. 

Please subscribe to Without a Poem by email (top right of the page) and follow both Kind of Pink and Purple and Without a Poem on other social media: Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Google Plus, Pinterest. 

Since September 2015, I have been the JazzBoston newsletter writer/ editor. Please sign up for the monthly newsletter to learn more about the Boston jazz scene. 

Confrontation

Confrontation

I passed three hundred people today
just walking through town
maybe even one thousand
in my eyes, a singular viewpoint

the mother with a child tugging
for attention - Mom! Mom! Mom!

the teenage couple
laughing and starry-eyed - Isn't
that so funny? Right? Oh my!

the middle-aged
man tense and anxious - Oh no,
I have ten more years until retirement!

the young girl
oblivious and impatient - Why do I
have to go to this class? I just want to sleep!

the homeless man, tired and
forlorn - Change? Spare change?

all echoing each footstep, hurried,
marked with caution, nervousness

Who are these people?
Oh no, I better not run into that man.
Let me just walk on this side of the street.
Oh, what's next on my schedule?

and so it goes
passing by
as I pass myself
each day
just hoping to get by
without confrontation.

Please visit my jazz education website, Kind of Pink and Purple, where I create a multimedia resource for young adults to learn about jazz. 

Please subscribe to Without a Poem by email (top right of the page) and follow both Kind of Pink and Purple and Without a Poem on other social media: Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Google Plus, Pinterest. 

Since September 2015, I have been the JazzBoston newsletter writer/ editor. Please sign up for the monthly newsletter to learn more about the Boston jazz scene. 

Atop a rainbow

Atop a rainbow

In the midst of much
happiness and success what
isn't so apparent is
the overwhelming sorrow
trapped within that world
clouds atop a rainbow.

Please visit my jazz education website, Kind of Pink and Purple, where I create a multimedia resource for young adults to learn about jazz. 

Please subscribe to Without a Poem by email (top right of the page) and follow both Kind of Pink and Purple and Without a Poem on other social media: Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Google Plus, Pinterest. 

Since September 2015, I have been the JazzBoston newsletter writer/ editor. Please sign up for the monthly newsletter to learn more about the Boston jazz scene. 

Here's a little secret

Here's a little secret

Here's a little secret
for all my friends old and new:
to forget about the past
and start finding joy in life,
in love, in living, in you!

Listen to Mulgrew Miller play, "I Love You":

Please visit my jazz education website, Kind of Pink and Purple, where I create a multimedia resource for young adults to learn about jazz. 

Please subscribe to Without a Poem by email (top right of the page) and follow both Kind of Pink and Purple and Without a Poem on other social media: Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Google Plus, Pinterest. 

Since September 2015, I have been the JazzBoston newsletter writer/ editor. Please sign up for the monthly newsletter to learn more about the Boston jazz scene. 

Passion

Passion

Passion - where does it come from?

it doesn't come to you in a jar
you can't spread it on toast

why it doesn't even come in a store
like the rarest rubies, diamonds or sapphire

it doesn't come to you with old age
or pop out of a birthday card like confetti

you can't even get it in a lottery
by any amount of gambling or good luck

oh and it certainly doesn't come to you through others
the force of family or friends

Passion - where does it come from?

why it's innate, it's real,
it's genuine, it's fate!

Inspired by Clark Terry playing, "Stardust":

Please visit my jazz education website, Kind of Pink and Purple, where I create a multimedia resource for young adults to learn about jazz. 

Please subscribe to Without a Poem by email (top right of the page) and follow both Kind of Pink and Purple and Without a Poem on other social media: Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Google Plus, Pinterest. 

Since September 2015, I have been the JazzBoston newsletter writer/ editor. Please sign up for the monthly newsletter to learn more about the Boston jazz scene. 

Joy

Joy

If I could capture one word in a jar
and hold it up to the light
it would be joy in its small package to
carry the town, city, night.

Inspired by Erroll Garner playing, "Misty":

Please visit my jazz education website, Kind of Pink and Purple, where I create a multimedia resource for young adults to learn about jazz. 

Please subscribe to Without a Poem by email (top right of the page) and follow both Kind of Pink and Purple and Without a Poem on other social media: Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Google Plus, Pinterest. 

Since September 2015, I have been the JazzBoston newsletter writer/ editor. Please sign up for the monthly newsletter to learn more about the Boston jazz scene.