Welcome to Douglas Malan and a tribute to Geri Allen

Recently I held a contest for poems and prose about not driving.  Tonight I'd like to post Douglas Malan's poem about aggressive driving, a subject we know all too well these days.  This poem is set in November, but it is still very timely!

Hateful Waterbug Hurtling Beyond

In somber mist tickling a cool November morning,

I cruise serenely past charcoal trees bleeding out

the last ounces of autumn colors

and dip my brain into the spaces of a Coltrane album

to feel, and not plan.

Meditation comes in unexpected spurts

along the open road. 

Thoughts spray and disperse like droplets disturbed by

the smooth violence of high-speed radial engineering.

The morning is mine – quiet and malleable.

Until herky-jerky swerving
glossy black smear of an SUV

in my rearview mirror

derails the glorious disconnected groove and

puts me on alert—tense, defensive, vigilant.

Hands flying off the wheel, electrified and irritated,

damning glares shot from eyes hot with despise,

burning through the scowl,

the driver of the luxury nameplate presses incessantly

through a vehicular slalom.

No regard for break-neck ramifications.

No concern for the peril of impatience.

This person

probably refuses to park near commoners’ cars

at risk of too much ‘regular’ rubbing off

on European-designed superiority,

yet never hesitates to drive 70 miles per hour

five feet from my bumper;

whipping out to the passing lane,

slapping me in the face

with a well-positioned bumper sticker that advises:

“Human dignity is reverence for self and all others.”

-- Douglas Malan

Recently the pianist Geri Allen died, so I am going to post some of her music as a tribute to her.  

Her "I'm All Smiles" with Charlie Haden and Paul Motian is a bit ironic, but let's start here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4cMaekDgCg

"Wanna Be Startin' Something"  is probably more appropriate:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6SinmvRKh0&list=PLFCBLGWFdq8_AEk1Wx1dUUulrAk4Wd_Pe

I like the title "In The Year of the Dragon":  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIPkM_NUses

Let's finish with her "Feed the Fire" from 1994:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6qS05TZmME

Felino A. Soriano also wrote a poem inspired by her music during the women in music contest:  http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2015/08/sheryl-massaro-and-felino-soriano.html