The Geography of Jazz. Lenard D. Moore

Publishers, 2013): "Raleigh Jazz Festival, 1986."

      Furious Flower: African American Poetry from the Black Arts Movement to the Present(University of Virginia Press, 2004): "Girl Tap Dancing," originally titled "Black Girl Tap Dancing."

      Swaying in Wicked Grace: A Collection Commemorating 25 Years of Furious Flower (James Madison University, 2019): "At the Train Stop."

      Poetry: An Introduction, 5th Edition (Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007): "Girl Tap Dancing," originally titled "Black Girl Tap Dancing."

      The Bedford Introduction To Literature, 8th Edition (Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2008): "Girl Tap Dancing," originally titled "Black Girl Tap Dancing."

      The Compact Bedford Introduction To Literature, 8th Edition (Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009): "Girl Tap Dancing," originally titled "Black Girl Tap Dancing."

      The Griot: "Sunday Evening."

      All That Jazz: "No Reply," originally titled "After Receiving No Reply."

      A Long And Winding Road: "No Reply," originally titled "After Receiving No Reply."

      Raleigh News & Observer: "Zora Shango."

      Frogpond (The Journal of the Haiku Society of America): "Jazz Suite."

      Near South: "Carolina Miles."

      Pembroke Magazine: "Nneena Freelon In Raleigh."

      Connotation Press: An Online Artifact: "At The Train Stop."

      Home Is Where: An Anthology of African American Poetry From The Carolinas (Hub City Press, 2011): "At The Train Stop."

      A Long And Winding Road: "At The Train Stop."

      Obsidian: Literature In The African Diaspora: "Ascension: John Coltrane" and "Cookin.' "

      Spillway 22: "Thursday Night."

      Broadside published in an edition of one hundred fifty for the author’s reading on March 21, 2000, at North Carolina Wesleyan College, with the title caption as From Word and Witness (Carolina Academic Press, 1999): "Raleigh Jazz Festival, 1986."

      A Note of Thanks

      For reading these poems in manuscript form, thanks to my former professor Gerald W. Barrax, Carolyn Beard Whitlow, Jan Zaleski Hilton (WSWG Member), Robin M. Caudell, DeLana R.A. Dameron (CAAWC Member), Adrienne Christian (CAAWC Member), Crystal Simone Smith (CAAWC Member), Ebony Noelle Golden (CAAWC Member), Tom Lombardo, Carolyne Wright and Gina M. Streaty (CAAWC Member). Also, thanks to Jerry W. Ward, Jr., Carole Boston Weatherford (CAAWC Member), Sally Ann Drucker (WSWG Member) Opal J. Moore, Bruce Lader (WSWG Member) and Jill Gerard for reading some of these poems and offering advice on them. In addition, thanks to the Carolina African American Writers’ Collective, the Washington Street Writers Group and Cornelius Eady, Toi Derricotte, E. Ethelbert Miller, Marilyn Nelson, Eugene B. Redmond and Everett Hoagland for encouragement and friendship. Thanks to Ce Rosenow and Allise Penning at Mountains & Rivers Press for their support of this book.

The Geography of Jazz

      Swinging Cool

      The bassist hugs

      the bass, plunks it.

      Ting, boom, ting boom—

      the drummer beats

      and booms. Saxophonist

      weaves notes, oscillates, blows

      and the pianist finger-dances

      on the keys: ‘Swinging

      at the Haven.’ Musicians spark

      the sheet music stands

      and angled microphones.

      Blue backdrop.

      Modulating that tempo,

      they work the tune.

      Drumsticks knocking time,

      piano plucking our ears.

      Bassman still hugging

      the bass, straight sets—

      walls thrumming—

      steady as the spring moon

      inciting the indigo sky.

      Raleigh Jazz Festival, 1986

      On Fayetteville Street Mall

      a lean man bobs his head.

      His sax shines—polished

      copper in a sunbeam,

      rhythm, a splendid rising

      echoing against concrete.

      The trumpeter inches

      across the homemade platform;

      his angled jaw swerves

      and slacks.

      His notes—perfect

      geometry for dancing.

      People snap their fingers;

      they are bassline

      vibrating autumn.

      Pigeons peck peanuts,

      drum beaks

      on the sidewalk.

      The musicians blast into sky,

      ripple red leaves loose

      from a stand of trees,

      glow in the sunset,

      play vamps

      as earthlings will do.

      Tanka Note

      Duke Ellington on piano

      shadows everywhere

      the black and white

      the thin bookmark

      against the door panel

      DECEMBER 28, 1996