Poetry

sing the song

2006-02-09T11:09:23Z

"sing the song"

sing the song a-
gain, we are gaining on it,
looks like every day now
the sun will shine a-

gain, the seasons
change, the seed with-
in the woman
swells & grows to

live within us all,
the seed within our earth
is the seed of all life,
all song is in the air,

the seasons change again,
the song will change,
our lives will change,
the changes will move us

as the music moves us, we
raise our lives to the sun
& sing of it, sing change, sing
the new year in,

it is ours

detroit
december 16, 1967

music by john Coltrane

I Talk with the Spirits

2006-02-09T11:08:18Z

I Talk with the Spirits 

after Rahsaan Roland Kirk

The hand of John Coltrane
seems never to have stopped
guiding his family,
says Leonard Feather,
quoting Alice McLeod Coltrane
in the Los Angeles Times, July 25, 1982:

Just two or three years ago
there was a definite conver-
stion with him,
while I was in a meditative state,
on the subject of life
after death, & living

in the particular existence
that he's in. I noticed
that he did have an instrument
it looked something
like a soprano, but much
longer

& larger & he was
quite absorbed
with looking at its structure.
I asked him, Do you think
about Earth life? He said,
not much.  I said,

Do you consider
that you might prefer
living on Earth
as opposed to your life
in the afterlife? & he said,
No,

I wouldn t prefer
living on Earth. So I said,
Really? Not with all
the acceptance, the
recognition, the fame?
His reply was, I prefer

the Spirit
life
to the way
life
is
on Earth

Detroit
August 1982

Vigil

2006-02-09T11:07:05Z

Vigil 

implies watchfulness.
Anyone tring to attain perfection
is faced with various obstacles in life
which tend to sidetrack him. Here, therefore, I mean
watchfulness against elements that might be destructive
from within or without.

John Coltrane

There are forces that will move against you
even though the world is yours. You must watch for them,
all ways, even though you should not have to. They will move

in ways you will not know,
for you are pure, & their movement
is not as yours is, straight & direct, as you move

all ways through the world. Oh they will strike you
as you move to grow, they will knock you down,
they will kick you in the face & smile,

they will have you understand
that the world is not yours, it is theirs they say, & you will
not know why they would have you die a

death like theirs, no, you will not come to
understand them, & they will keep at you. They will call you
their enemy, even though you know not

what an enemy is, you are not bent, you are straight,
straight & open to their blows, you cannot know
that they get their kicks that way, you go your own way

& it is good, it is only natural that you do, I don t try
to set standards of perfection
for anyone else. I do feel

everyone does try to reach
his better self, his full potential, & what that consists of
depends on each individual. Whatever that goal is,

moving toward it does require vigilance.
& you will watch for them,
you will be vigilant,

because you have to. You do what you have to. You are a meat
creature, moving in the world. You will move
as you have to move,

& they will move to stop you. You can not be stopped. They do not
know that, & they will move against you. Watch for them,
& be strong. They have the

world to lose. The world is yours.
Move in it as you wish,
& be strong. Yes. Be strong.

Detroit
February 9, 1967/
New Orleans
December 4, 1995/
Amsterdam
December 2, 2002

blues to you

2006-02-09T11:03:30Z

"blues to you"

for danny spencer

we wanted them to love us,
as a first term. to know that we knew,
& would tell them with our eyes,
& our pumping feet. would sit & stare

at the bandstand
or at each other, & grin. or get up from the chair
& walk smack into a pole
after 45 minutes of elvin jones. john coltrane

was a hero beyond legend, i mean
he was right there in front of us, right there
where we could see him, & know for ever
the whole thing was real.

or sit for days, literally days,
& play the records through our meat, & dream
of touching them, the musicians,
as they walked off the stand, & moved past us,

smiling, toward some secret place
we would never go. & loved them always
for a simple nod, as if we were really real.
we needed them to speak to us

of pure revolution. to put down their saxophones
& spout pure poetry, or our lives
weren't shit. were gobs of dream
splattered against the world.

oh we were young
& made of america. it made us
what we were. & are. &, if we are lucky,
we will live through it all. yes, & the music

will ring in our ears. & we will hear it,
& it will bring us through. we will wake up
singing
of a world of our own. a world

where they will love us, just as if
(& only if)
we are as real
as they are

detroit
january 3, 1967/
new orleans
december 22, 1993

/

the drum thing

2006-02-09T11:02:34Z

the drum thing 

for danny spencer, ronnie johnson, & don moye

caught between, drums (one set

to the side, as one is

above, blowing, as the other, measured, rolls

above me the horn is

played, for the ear, where i

live, here, with a drum aside (either side

of my head. as the music

defines this, our

home, here, where we play this (day

by day, the horns, drum, the music

in my head, as the broken pulse,

smooth pulse, the music, moves thru my head. as the

words, sing themselves, to the page. as

music

detroit
1965

like Sonny,

2006-02-09T11:01:37Z

like Sonny, 

like Ornette, like anyone
who takes himself
into the jungle of e-
motion, feeling, judge-

ments. find yrself some morning,
wake up at noon. the heat
that you feel, is yr own. the
friction, of movement. burning yr-

self up, out here, where the rain comes
too late, to save you. go away, run a-
way, back to (wherever it is
you came from. if you can stay there,

forget it. if you can
move, come out. if
you can stand it. this is really
where it's at. (motives

detroit
may 6, 1965

some other blues

2006-02-09T11:00:38Z

some other blues 

for jim semark

what do i have
to do, spell
it all
out for you? let my

poems be a
graph of me, & with
the poems, what other
actions (gestures) i make.

it starts out like
now's the time &
turns into whatever you
make it. if you can t make

yr own way, what
ever can i tell you.
who are you. where did you
come from, to get

this way. or
this far. how did you
ever make it. (& if you can t
make these changes,

make yr own. & if these ain t
yr blues, try something
else. this is the change
of the century. (dig it

detroit
1965

blues to elvin

2006-02-09T10:59:38Z

blues to elvin 

born with ears, even now, packed with garbage. the stuff
of dead men. wax, & elbows. sewage, seaweed, debris
of forgotten oceans, or shells. or
the shells & shit they beat the indians with.

for us to shut up, what they can offer. pitiful. so
small, can it bend the ear. paper, & shells. to fill
our ears, to make us forget. to sing,
made some improbable proposition. to get thru,

some genius we wanted to cry, to the moon, like
weird wolves of illusion. insanity. the stoppage.
drained, & collapse, on the floor, thru, with love, & un-
settled ears. to begin to go, where the music goes, out, to you

detroit
1965

Homage to John Coltrane

2006-02-09T10:58:36Z

HOMAGE TO JOHN COLTRANE

for David Sandburg

1

you are sorry you are born with ears 

or you are sorry. yr
ears. how they can become
the stuff of such lies.

how a man can stand, & fall. stand. a
coil
around things. a sound

(or a test
of what music
can bear. a

SCREAM

for the time

2

John Coltrane can do this for us :

teach us to stand
up right
in the face of the most devas-
tating insensi-
tivity. can touch us
where the hand or mouth or
eye

can t go. can see. can be
a man. make a love
from centuries of unplumbed music
& a common metal tool
anyone can misuse.

can make you think
of a lot of weird & wonderful things :

yrself.

beauty.

love.

gold & miles

of trees. elvin

jones. murdered

dreams. a-

pocalypse.

turtles.

the moon (& be-

yond.

ornette.

grapefruits.

silver pendulums.

M U S I C

t i m e .

Screaming,
jumping up & down, moaning
for some strange new dignity

before anyone can listen. before
time. before promises,
& lies. before it all collapses
on our heads.

before it's too late

3

If you ve ever sat in a Coltrane audience,
you ll understand
what I mean.

It could happen
to you, too, a loss
of control, a be-

ginning, a reshaping
of what they ve always told you
to believe, the old forms

& music, that we ve been fooled with,
the songs they taught you,
& lied.

when we begin to understand that
what we ve been told is
how they can put us exactly
where they have to believe
we have to be

4

man,

if you can t hear,

what can you do?

yr born

with ears

Detroit
1965

Quotations in italics from LeRoi Jones liner notes to
Coltrane Live At Birdland (Impulse Records)

Welcome

2006-02-09T10:54:18Z

"Welcome"

is that feeling you have
when you finally do reach an awareness,
an understanding which you have earned through struggle.
It is a feeling of peace. A welcome
feeling of peace."

John Coltrane

Welcome.
Please come in &
have a seat with us. Break bread. Yes. Sit with us,
hold the hand of that human
being next to you. Yes. You have come

a long long way,
we can see it in your eyes. And the way you stand,
the human grace that marks your movements.
Yes. Welcome. We have been

waiting for you. It is time you came to us.
Yes. It is time
for all to come. It is a time now
when all can come, to sit with us,

to sit with us in peace. You have come through
the hardest part, & you know it. Yes. You can
feel it. You wear it in your cells. Yes. Please,
break bread with us. A little rice. And pass

the pipe there
to your friend. Yes. And now we will sing,
we will sing together,
we will sing the song of our lives

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

YES

Detroit
February 9, 1967/
New Orleans
March 1995