Catching up with Leslie McKay and Julie Naslund, Paying Tribute to Felino A. Soriano

I am always happy to publish Leslie McKay and Julie Naslund's rengay.  I just didn't expect for it to take so long!!  As you may have guessed from the picture above, their first collaboration was inspired by John Coltrane.



like telepathy

which direction ?
begin in the middle
and go both ways  J

still they salute him
no-one could catch trane  L

aural meditation
from the well of the heart
a love supreme    J

a pure state
moment to moment
only one instrument L

beyond the saxophone 
a new cultural landscape  J

like telepathy
a strong rapport
with inner history   L

I'm glad that they sent me a second rengay!  

eloping with sound

Miles in his Porsche

stopped by cops asking

who he stole it from

misunderstood brilliance

translating from his inner ear

blue into green

a leisurely unfolding

everything is one

discordant brew

beautiful cacophony

new directions

eloping with sound

untouchable

chasing it out

all the way to the edges

again and again

rengay by Leslie and Julie

Recently I received the sad news that jazz poet Felino A. Soriano had died.  Alison Ross is editing an extensive tribute to him, but tonight's entry is an impromptu tribute to him.  I am adding a couple of his poems.  The first poem is the last that I received from him, I believe.

Conversational whisper

                                   --after Ivar Antonsen (b. 1946)

  Where it was we’ve

                      become,

 more so an adaptation

     of age and what

 age in theory represents

                   within the

   behavior of our current

        manifestations.  Said

     of what we’ve forgotten,

  each mirror, when unobstructed

        by thick, fingering fog will

                            always

  reveal what the body bends

 toward:     :frequent spatial

    needs to determine fractions’

                        positional

      music, asymmetrical, altruistic with

   widened hands of a welcoming

                                 disposition--

__________

   warmth is what relocates oddities of noon’s winter holdings;

 elongated lines, tired strands of silken silence

     continue oscillating speech though

   when heat becomes apparition

                                 death

       is the grayed gradation crawl

   -ing to adhere to bone’s piano solo

                                   prelude

        to ash

__________

The second is his tribute to Geri Allen, who was also gone too soon.

Listening

—after Geri Allen’s Soul Eyes

each gate     wanders, opens          widens,

reopens

an interpretation     of a window’s

signature of contouring syllables
shaped by hands of popular
association, —a connected dedication
opens the visual hanker to
align purpose with the prose
of companionship’s configuration,     each
smile of an onlooker holds an embraceable
moment, an emblem stays, hovering
above what portends color to confirm
emotional clarification, and the eyes
will remember each chapter, each
page will ignite imagination’s pageantry,
consecrated contemplation

by Felino A. Soriano

I'll finish with a few songs for you.  Perhaps they'll inspire you to write.

Let's start with Geri Allen's "Soul Eyes": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFKpxFqqAqs

Although I haven't included any of Felino's poems inspired by Robert Glasper's music, I am including Glasper's "So Beautiful": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GS2Y_CkaXP0

I'll finish with Glasper's "The Worst": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GS2Y_CkaXP0