new year's eve...

all night long...

philip levine poet...

These people understand.
This person understands.

lantern sketch #1...

lantern sketch #2...

lantern sketch #3...

for Jean...

This quiet morning
The furnace is on
The coffee is done
I look at those things I have rhymed
Especially you
All this long wonderful while

Sounds like a song?

It is

lantern shine sketch #3...

the last haiku of 2013...

Inverness is far
in whispers branches and boats,
a staggering march.

In miles to go too.

book jacket close-up...

sap green cape blue sea...

The thin snow last night
Now
The light from the headlights on the street
Cold streets
But
Christmastime
And
Charles Mingus's Flowers For A Lady
On the cold streets
In the thin snow
Point poignant
Bass and drums piano
And
Tenor
Saxophone and
Altos
Point counterpoint poignant
Jazz!
Burnt!
Sienna!
Sap green Cape blue sea
Orange pop paper lantern bright
Lots of jazz!
All The Things You Are
Pretty good jazz
Pretty good jazz, Jack!

arnie krakowsky tenor...

with verve...

Strings
Of light fall from a window painting
Over
The Venetian blinds
In
Front
Of
A Christmas morning still dark
Quiet
And
Full

Sing a song
With verve

redux here on bow ties Merry Christmas! -jean & peter...

cranberry glass and a boat going by...

Lights reflecting in the coral trees
The ship's clock melting snow
And leaf
Gone from the street and branches
Bare
Still
Quiet
Gray
Light and coffee writing now
After a silence
...
Cranberry glass and a boat going by

paris 1959...

poetry is...

"Poetry is an echo,
asking a shadow to dance."
                 -Carl Sandburg

jazz blooms...

book jacket...

quiet now...

I just heard that train whistle
I hadn't heard for a while
The 5:40
Quiet now
Before the day rain snow
Quiet
A sound at crossings
A horn
Fading
Distant circles stars and moons
Morning that looks like night
In Scotland

kimberly gordon jazz singer jazz writer...

daylight black...

Cold snow on the red maple branches
Cold moon
Daylight black
And a crow on the movie house roof
And a crow on the spoon factory roof
Cold crow
Cold roof
Cold moon
Daylight black

And
Christmas stockings hanging by the fire


*Inspired by a Sherry Ashby Cunningham woodcut on paper hand colored, "Cold Moon Crow"

jazz alto...

freida...

arthur cadieux...

here on bow ties...

fishing weir...

sublime...

Sublime
The orange and gold sunrise
On
A
Snowy
Hill
Cars speeding by
Running
Turning
Hurrying
Hurrying
Hurrying

Never seeing it

that blue on the window and bop...

That blue on the window
A moon
A world
A song
For the day
And the sunrise in the pine
On the maple oak and elm
A sunset
A world
A moon

Jack Kerouac is in town
There's a linen bop at the club
Jacket and tie the color of wheat
And reading in the park
Streetlights and Café Neon
Hotel Neon too
And the movie house bulbs are blinking
Here in the city
Be,
Bop!

the jazz bums...

nostalgic...

Chimes and ways
Rhymes, paths
And
Fog

Orange in the boughs and trunks of trees
And
A
Blue
Sunrise

And Thelonious Monk

thank you, kimberly...

zinno bass and song...

outward there...

Shifting sand
Pastel
&
Flower
Outward there
Lyric
&
Jazz
In
Teaneck,

New Jersey

Albuquerque, New Mexico!

A

Circle

Mandela (1918-2013)...

the long water...

The long water
Sails
Trails
Deserted shores stony paths
Sparse grasses sun though
Rising and setting in the rest of the world
Colors and words walk to far places

The long water
Ends one day

"I knew that if I did not... "

"As I walked out the door toward my freedom, I knew that if I did not leave all the anger, hatred and bitterness behind that I would still be in prison." -Nelson Mandela (1918-2013)

Nelson Mandela (1918-2013)...

brigitte zarie's new cd l'amour... whoa! wow! outstanding! and elegant!...

To paraphrase Peter Bonventre of Newsweek magazine on his leaving the Boston Garden and a Hagler fight in 1978, "Marvelous Marvin is a beautiful fighter!" - well, "Brigitte Zarie is a beautiful singer."  Oh, that bass!  And Randy Brecker featured on 2 tunes.  Oh, that horn!  First class production.  Big orchestra sound.  Nice instrumentation.  Now, Brigitte, it's Good to Be Home listening to this on Quiet Nights with Nobody Else - 12 tunes impeccably swinging - crisp and beat.  My favorite female vocalist Anita O'Day.  Brigitte is a new favorite - not with the edge of a Miss O'Day, but as full voiced, vibrant and lyrical.  And sincere.  I see myself at Charlie's Gone By listening to both.  Whoa! Wow! Outstanding! And elegant!  Brigitte is an extraordinary songwriter too - except for Walk the Line and Quiet Nights (Corcovado), she wrote all of the songs on L'amour - music by Brigitte Zarie and Neil Jason; lyrics by Brigitte Zarie.  I'm hearing standards all over the place.  To paraphrase Bonventre again, "Brigitte is a beautiful songwriter."  L'amour highly highly recommended.  It is a story.  And it is jazz.  L'amour is available at iTunes, Amazon, and Brigitte's website http://brigittezarie.com/  -Peter DeVeber

thanksgiving...