Angelee Deodhar Welcomes Us to the Fall

This evening I would like to begin the fall poetry with Angelee Deodhar's work that blends words and images.

Although we may not be ready for fall's workload, I am sure that we are ready for fall's cooler, crisper weather.  Certainly, I am ready for some autumn rains, too!

I am also including a larger-type version of this haiku sequence for those of us who should be wearing our reading glasses.  However, the "visual" above is beautiful, evoking autumn at its best.

Autumn Interlude

pail in hand

I trace the muddy path

of childhood mushrooms

in the twilight

against dusky bougainvillea

the white wall whiter

Japanese dance

in her fan

the changing seasons

crunching underfoot

the breakfast cereal

sounds of autumn

a sparkling cross

protruding from

myriad colored leaves

glowing pumpkins

through the windows

a Halloween moon

burning leaves —

the incandescent scarecrow

mumbles and grumbles

spider strands anchor

the wheels of a cannon

deepening autumn chill

moonless night —

from the harvested field

the hoot of an owl

autumn scrapbook—

I color in the leaves

with crayon stubs

Angelee Deodhar

http://terebess.hu/english/india.html

In addition, Angelee graciously created some visuals of poems that have previously appeared in this blog-zine.  I would like to start with Dr. Michael Anthony Ingram's "A Little Billie in the Morning," a poem that appeared in the Summer 2014 contest:  

http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2014/07/billie-in-morning.html

Catfish McDaris' "17 Cents a Year" is also very moving.  It was part of the Michael Brown contest:
http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2015/03/while-im-counting-votes.html

Will Mayo is writing mainly flash fiction these days, but his poem  "With Memories of the Valley" is well worth revisiting, especially with the addition of Angelee's images.  His poem appeared on July 11, 2015: http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2015/07/will-mayo-returns.html

Felino A. Soriano wrote his spectacular prose poem "Underneath" in response to the music of pianist Vijay Iyer: http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2014/11/monk-iyer.html 

I first met Angelee through poet and editor Karen O'Leary.  Here is Karen's "Riding Spring's Wings": http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2015/05/by-karen-oleary.html

Somewhere along the way I posted a link to my poem "After the Summer of Young Men in a Hurry," a piece inspired by the music of pianist Kenny Kirkland. A.J. Huffman published this poem at Pyrokinection: http://www.pyrokinection.com/2014/08/a-poem-by-marianne-szlyk.html

Martin Willits, Jr.'s entry in the Gene Clark contest truly evokes his song lyrics: http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2014/12/martin-willits-jrs-entry-in-gene-clark.html

Poet and translator Allyson Lima also entered the Clark contest with her poem "Turn":  http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2015/01/more-from-fall-contest.html

The prolific poet Pijush Kanti Deb concludes this series with his poem "Your Cat and My Dog," which appears in his book Under the Shadow of a White Pigeon and in the following entry at this blog zine: http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2014/12/poems-by-pijush-kanti-deb.html 

I'll finish with some music to inspire you for the contest ahead.

Let's start with Eddie Palmieri's "Puerto Rico":  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jn-Y8dHri4M

I feel like I've ignored the Brazilians, so here is "The Girl from Ipanema":  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5QfXjsoNe4

I'll add Antonio Carlos Jobim's version of "One Note Samba": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rzNLXxo01Q

Stan Kenton's "La Guera Baila" from his album Cuban Fire is a good transition to the other contest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4thjFjIWXs

In the previous entry, I mentioned Johnny Hodges.  Here is his version of "Don't Get Around Much Anymore": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgVm4NLMBcI

The video below pairs Hodges' "Daydream" with a black and white video of New York City:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iJU8ec0DWk

Enjoy!

Welcome to the Fall/Winter Contests!

Copyright 2014 -- Juan Tituana

This morning there is no looking back (although I will be in contact with those of you who won the spring/summer contests).  It's time to post the fall contests!

The first contest is for poems inspired by Latin jazz musicians like Tito Puente, Danilo Perez, Celia Cruz, Poncho Sanchez, Paquito d'Rivera, Eddie Palmieri, Chico and Arturo O'Farrell, Astrud Gilberto, Antonio Carlos Jobim, and Joao Gilberto.  Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz, and Stan Kenton have also worked in this genre.  I hope to see some wonderful poems in this contest!

The second contest is for poems inspired by jazz musicians born in the 1900s and 1910s.  These poets include Thelonious Monk (again) but also Mary Lou Williams, Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Ben Webster, Johnny Hodges, and, of course, Ella Fitzgerald.  Bea Garth will be starting us off soon with a poem inspired by Fats Waller.

The deadline for the contest will be January 30.  Previously published poems are accepted as long as you tell me where they have been published and you have the right to republish them.  I will be publishing the poems as I go and contacting you as I work out the schedule and before I publish them in case the poem is no longer available.  We will have judges for the contest since that worked out well this time around.  And there will be prizes.  

Please email me at thesongis (at) gmail (dot) com if you have questions.

Now here is some music to inspire you.  First is some Latin jazz.

I'll start with Eddie Palmieri's "Vamanos Pa'l Monte": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftQDhQ2UXo8

Here Tito Puente performs a solo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yT7nE1cwsjo

Here he performs with Celia Cruz: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEd9pjOlkDo

Charlie Parker performs with Machito here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qgF5Vd1mi4

I want to finish with Dizzy Gillespie's "Manteca."  This version is from 1970: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5tRGMHfKrE

With Dizzy Gillespie, let's move on to the jazz musicians born in the 1900s and 1910s.

I'll start with his "Night in Tunisia."  This version is from 1945 although I could have chosen his 1985 performance with Arturo Sandoval in Havana:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0PwxDtN22Y

I can't believe that this is my first link to Louis Armstrong (without his second wife).  Here is his version of "La Vie en Rose": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IJzYAda1wA

I'm also including a 1927 version of his "St. James Infirmary Blues," done with his Hot Five:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyT-FkWRweI  As you can hear, he sang even back then.

Ben Webster's version of "Willow, Weep for Me" is very stylish: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZmR3yuksLk

I'll finish with Benny Goodman's "Sing Sing Sing": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhyhP_5VfKM

It's a song to get you moving...and maybe even sending poetry!

Congratulations to the Winners of the Spring/Summer Contests

This evening I would like to announce the winners of the various contests for the spring/summer.  It is always difficult to choose winning poems from so many wonderful selections, some by poets I know personally, others by poets I know only through their work.  To change up the contest, I asked two poets whom I respect highly to help me judge the contests.  The judges were author Catfish McDaris whom you know from this blog-zine and many other literary sites online and poet, playwright, and performer R. Michael Oliver who contributes so much to the literary scene in DC.  (Thank you, gentlemen!)

We had so many poems this spring/summer that I divided Thelma's Prize into a spring category and a summer one.  Michael judged the spring whereas Catfish judged the summer.

The winner of the spring contest is poet, editor, and publisher A.J. Huffman for "The Barbie Formerly Known As."    Congratulations!  This poem truly pops.

Michael also singled out the following works for special praise (they were finalists): "The Talk" by Will Mayo; "For Dad" by Charles Clifford Brooks III; "Chicago, 1971" by Avis Danette Matthews; "Woman's Way" by Doug Mathewson; "Robert" by Bea Garth; "In Route to Metro" by Miss Kiane; and "Feminine Blues" by Ali Znaidi.

Local poet and member of the D.C. Poetry Project, Avis Danette Matthews won the local prize for "Chicago, 1971," one of the poems that I had nominated for Best of the Net.  You may remember that Avis' "Metaphorical" won several prizes last summer.  Michael (who judged the local poems and flash fiction) also complimented "In Route to Metro" by Miss Kiane, the dynamo behind The Gathering, a local event that brings together poetry and social activism.

Another local poet Ed Schelb won the summer contest for his graphic poem "Dogbelly Auditions for the Ghost of Elvis."  Continuing our trend of poets who win multiple awards, Ed also won the prize for women in music (judged by Catfish) and swing music (judged by myself) for his "Quixote in Cowtown."  I'd also like to mention British poet Bryn Fortey's poems inspired by Stan Kenton and Lil Hardin Armstrong respectively.

While judging Thelma's Prize (summer), Catfish also praised Martin Willits, Jr.'s "Janis Joplin: Listening to Little Girl Blue"; Ed Schelb's "Quixote in Cowtown"; Will Mayo's "Solitude's Passing",  "Love of Learning", and "Checking In";  Lynne Viti's "Harp Music"; Miriam Sagan's "Etudes";  and Sheryl Massaro's "New Spell."  "Janis Joplin: Little Girl Blue" and "Harp Music" were also the finalists for the women in music contest.

I would also like to award Angelee Deodhar Callie's Prize for her visual contributions to The Song Is..  Angelee's poems and "visuals" (as I call them) will also start off the fall/winter contest very soon,  but I will also link to some entries that have featured her work:
http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2015/08/john-mcdonald-and-angelee-deodhar.html
http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2015/07/angelee-deodhars-poetry.html

Finally, there is one last contest: the summer music contest.  I'm pleased to see how much interest this contest attracted.  I would like to award the prize to Lynne Viti for "I Can't Get No" and John McDonald for his haibun "Jazz Streets." 

To sum up, here are the results of the spring/summer contests:

Summer Music:  Lynne Viti, "I Can't Get No" and John McDonald, "Jazz Streets."

Callie's Prize:  Angelee Deodhar

Women in Music: Ed Schelb, "Quixote in Cowtown."

Swing Music: Ed Schelb, "Quixote in Cowtown."

Local Poetry:  Avis Danette Matthews, "Chicago, 1971"

Thelma's Prize (Summer):  Ed Schelb, "Dogbelly Auditions for the Ghost of Elvis.

Thelma's Prize (Spring):  A.J. Huffman, "The Barbie Formerly Known As."

Congratulations to each prize-winning poet, and thank you again to judges Catfish and Michael.  More importantly, thank you to everyone who participated!  I hope that you will continue to send your work to The Song Is..  The next contest is coming up very soon, and you could be among the prize-winners.

Although this is a very long entry, I am going to conclude with some music for you.  Although I should probably find some punk rock, I am going to post "La vie en rose" by female saxophonist Anat Cohen and her quartet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6Efs3nH154

Totally switching gears, I am moving on to Michael Nesmith and the First National Band's cover of "One Rose": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuPSDy_G_UU

They also did a song called "Calico Girlfriend": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SarFTj_Ojs

Enjoy!

Looking Back on Spring/Summer 2015 at The Song Is, Part 1

This evening while the judges are mulling over the poems I'd like to begin looking back at the poems published this spring/summer at The Song Is...  Although you won't be voting on the poems, feel free to go back to them. A good poem is always worth reading.   A great poem is always worth rereading.  

Kavon Ward (spoken word):
“I Am Michael Brown”
“I Am Trayvon Martin”

http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2015/02/kavon-wards-i-am-michael-brown.html

Jerry A. Scuderi:
“Frivolous Fury”
“A Morning of Manna”
“Drizzled Darkness”
“Green Pea Soup”
http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2015/02/a-winter-wonderland.html

“Men in Blue”
http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-mourningmemory-contest-continuesand.html

“Yellow Bird”
“Working for Carrots”
“Abigail”
“Soggy Doggy”
“Pizza Pup”

http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2015/04/jerry-scuderis-pet-poems.html

Joan McNerney:
“Dream House”
http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2015/02/poetry-by-joan-mcnerney-and-flash.html

Will Mayo:
“Alone”
“What Lurks in These Woods”
“Smitten”
http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2015/02/poetry-by-joan-mcnerney-and-flash.html

“The Talk”
“Last Gasp”
“Edge of Night”
“The Night”
“The Raven”
"Notes on a Man Made Mad"
http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2015/04/flash-fiction-and-poem-by-will-mayo.html

Charles Clifford Brown III
“Promise to Momma”
“For Dad”
http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2015/03/promise-to-momma-and-for-dad-by-charles.html

David S. Pointer
“Beyond Eugenics Laws”
http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-mourningmemory-contest-continuesand.html

“Smokeless Windjammers”
“Agelast Syndrome Overtime”

http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2015/05/two-more-by-david-pointer.html

Avis D. Matthews
“Chicago, 1971”
http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2015/03/in-place-of-memory-trying-not-to-be-in.html

Doug Mathewson
“Which Goodbye”
“Sequenced Dream”
“Woman’s Way”
http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2015/03/which-goodbye-and-other-work-by-doug.html

Catfish McDaris
“Elizabeth”
“Animal Crackers”
“17 Cents a Year”
“700 People Dancing Somewhere”http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2015/03/while-im-counting-votes.html

“Aida”
“61 Winters”
“California”
“We All Go Away Like an Echo of Sad Laughter”
http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2015/04/get-ready-for-next-blogtalk-radio-show.html

Bea Garth
“Robert”
http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2015/04/get-ready-for-next-blogtalk-radio-show.html

To finish up, here is some music for you.  Continuing the theme of the poems, I'll look back at some of the music I posted this spring/summer.

Lately I have been listening to John Coltrane and Tommy Flanagan's album The Cats.  Here is "Minor Mishap" from that album:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAhal_-lNdI

Bud Powell's "Lullaby of Birdland" is here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PW9EVC9Yv70

I am also going to bring back Ahmad Jamal's "Poinciana":  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cytUz9KkK9M

As it is Sunday night, I'll finish with Ben Harper and the Blind Boys of Alabama's "If I Could Hear My Mother Pray Again": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ca1vnGfIWVo

Bryn Fortey Completes the Spring/Summer Poems

As the spring/summer contests wind down to a close, I'm pleased to see how British poet Bryn Fortey has "brought us home," as they say.  Both of his poems invoke important women in jazz music, so they are wonderful poems to end the spring/summer with.

FINDING NINA SIMONE

Listening to firmly struck keyboard

And voice capable of horny seduction

Able to bludgeon or soothe

From song to song

From mood to mood

She can grab me by heart or balls

I don’t complain

Just as long as next tune kicks in

The chords and structure

Of her interpretation

Sweeping me to an orgy of adulation

Praise be to you Nina

I hope in death you found your god

I’ve found your music

And that will have to do for me

Bryn Fortey

Previously published in MERRY-GO-ROUND And Other Words (The Alchemy Press) 2014.

THE SECOND MRS ARMSTRONG

Lil Hardin ranked with

Such as Jelly Roll Morton

Among the greats

Of early jazz piano

Playing for King Oliver

She tutored the unsophisticated Louis

Becoming ambitious on his behalf

Hot Fives

Hot Sevens

Solo Stardom

She was the gal who guided

While he just wanted to play

Their friendship lasted

Surviving divorce

And she herself died

After performing at a 

Louis tribute concert

Amen, sister

Bryn Fortey

Previously unpublished.

Let's start with some of Lil Hardin Armstrong's music.  As Margaret Moos Pick points out, the "second Mrs. Armstrong" was not only a skilled musician but also a composer.  If you'd like to learn more about LHA, by the way, here is a link to Ms. Pick's essay:  http://riverwalkjazz.stanford.edu/program/my-heart-story-lil-hardin-armstrong

I'll start with her "Got No Blues," which she recorded in 1927 as part of the Louis Armstrong Hot Five:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1DNA4q14fM

After the breakup of her marriage, she continued to performs.  Here is one of her songs, "It's Murder," done with the swing orchestra that she led:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atkxCwt_pmM

Another of her songs was "Oriental Swing":  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIMhJjEl90A

I do want to return to Nina Simone's music as well.

I'll start with her "Mississippi Goddam": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVQjGGJVSXc

This version of her "Work Song" was done on the Merv Griffin Show:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfQNdwgvJMw

I'll finish with her "I Put a Spell on You": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ua2k52n_Bvw

Thank you for a wonderful spring/summer!  I will be posting the winning poems in these contests soon.

Sheryl Massaro and Felino A. Soriano

As the spring/summer contests wind down, I would like to welcome Sheryl Massaro to The Song Is...and to welcome back Felino A. Soriano.  Both of their poems celebrate women in music.

New Spell
          for Nina Simone



In the silences in between
her old soul contralto trails
I am momentarily dazed,
lost like one of those children
centuries ago
who were led by a piper,
a male siren who knew much
about pain and cared less.

In them, the meditations
on adaptations
to the closed worlds of others
bring her to the keys
to sit in judgment
with Bach.


by Sheryl Massaro

Sheryl Massaro’s poetry and translations have been called “moving, beautiful,” yet they are grounded in the deceptively simple paths of daily living. Massaro has an MFA in Creative Writing and has had residencies at Yaddo and St. Peter’s colonies. She has studied under Stanley Kunitz, Allen Ginsberg, Galway Kinnell, and many others. Several of her poems have been published in literary journals as well as The New York Times. Massaro now lives in Frederick, Maryland. She teaches occasional small-group poetry writing classes and is an accomplished painter, photographer, and gardener.

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

Let's start with some of Nina Simone's music.
Here is her version of "Little Girl Blue": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8yIpH_VI50

At the same concert (Montreux 1976), she performed "How It Feels to Be Free."  You can watch her improvise on the piano:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dlrXCYrNYI

Her "Feelin Good" is certainly compelling:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5Y11hwjMNs

I know you want to hear Geri Allen's "Soul Eyes":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFKpxFqqAqs

On "Lonely Woman," she plays with Paul Motian and Charlie Haden:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aI-L0HjXNbc

She is also known for her work with Esperanza Spaulding and Teri Lyne Carrington:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHs-pNjC4eo

Enjoy!

Lynne Viti

This evening I'd like to welcome Lynne Viti to The Song Is...  I hope that you will enjoy her poems inspired by music.  I certainly have!

The picture above is of British pop star Kathy Kirby.  However, I like the look of the photograph.  She could be the subject of Lynne's poem.  Interestingly, one of Kathy Kirby's hits was "Secret Love."  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pmk2G7sn_00

Note: “Diva” originally appeared in Foliate Oak Literary Magazine  May 2015

Diva

Get up in front of your third grade class,
on a rainy day when everyone’s done the seatwork,
with twenty minutes to kill before  the bell.
Sing Secret Love or
Young and Foolish— unaccompanied.

Bother Mrs. Smith till she lets you sing solo,
What Child Is This in the Christmas concert
in the gym, everyone in white shirts,
the boys in dark pants,
the girls in navy blue skirts,
yours  is a cheap one
from Epstein’s in Highlandtown
because your mother
says you’ll only wear it once,
why spend more money?

Sing the Telephone  Hour from Bye Bye Birdie
at the first assembly in your all-girls school,
Eight  girls in summer uniforms, fists to ears
Crooning into imaginary handsets,
hi Penny, hi Helen, what’s the story?
–on the stage that rises up
from the gym’s polished floorboards.

Then the singing stops, at least in public.
Singing in the shower doesn’t count, nor does
singing at rallies, ain't nobody goin to turn me round
where have all the flowers gone,  one, two three,
what’re we fightin for, don’t ask me.

In the car on the way home from the play,
slaphappy and tired, sing the Marseillaise,
Sing show tunes, that was a real nice clambake,
At home, sing Surabaya Johnny  along with Bette Midler
On the stereo, the last record on repeat, repeat.

When the babies come, sing old Beatle songs, sing Sinatra,
It happened in Monterey a long time ago, sing Girl Scout tunes,
I’m happy  when I’m hiking, baby’s boat’s a silver moon,
sing Raffi, Rosenshontz, can you tell me how to get,
how to get to Sesame Street.

Now it’s quiet in the house. Everyone’s
out or has moved away. Leave the radio off,
keep the Ipod silent. Sing
whatever you please.

Harp Music

He said you haven’t really lived

till you get a death threat

from a guy with a cell phone

just over the state line, someone who

maybe read about my work,

found it sinful, against his principles,

shaking the foundations of

whatever it is he calls his religion

or ideology. But I felt 

much better when the cops 

paid him a visit, and he faded away.

With you, it was the phone calls

from a harpist, slight and pale,

ebony-haired, tearful.

She looked at you across the wide desk 

covered with case files, foolscap pads,

ball point pens. She told you 

her  father had died and her husband had left, wanted

nothing more to do with her. You

counseled her to mediate.

When she got home, she phoned the office

for hours, starting at midnight, 

careening along into dawn.

Twenty-five messages on the tape

each more high-pitched and insistent

her voice growing hoarser each time

letting you know just what miseries

she’d  visit on you. And yes, she knew

you had children, and she had them, too

in her sights.

A couple drinks later, you stood

behind home plate 

at your son’s little league game,

trying to forget about it,

wondering what she thought when

the police showed up at the door,

hauled her away to the cold hospital room.

You told someone the story, then told

Someone else

hoping it would amuse.

The police said not to worry.

Her psychiatrist said it’s just disordered thinking

Nothing more. But she wouldn’t

give  blood samples, 

take meds, insisted

 the judge come to the hospital,

where she  sat, docile, polite,

hands folded, refusing treatment.

Wait another ten years, your friend said,

pointing to the ball her son knocked

out of the park into the woods.

You’ll laugh about it, you’ll see.

Months, perhaps years later

you chanced to see her

on stage with her instrument, 

stroking the harp so gently,

pulling sweet tones from the strings,

steel core with wire wrap.

You glanced down at the program

Ran your thumbnail under her name,

Wondered that she found her way back

from four point restraints,

soft, padded, leaving no marks.

She’s better now, you thought,

Settling back in your seat,

Closing your eyes, fighting hard

to let the music engulf you. 

This picture doesn't quite go with Lynne's poem, but it is very sweet.  

I Can’t Get No

Satisfaction, we danced in the basement to the Stones. 

Your mother introduced us to her boyfriend.

They sat upstairs drinking iced tea.

The August night was humid,

The lightning bugs were already out dancing

Across the wide lawns.

You’d survived a year of college.

I’d  slimmed down, in preparation for it.

I grew my hair long.

pinned it up into a French chignon

Trying to look like a girl in a Truffaut flick,

You were the only one who noticed

No satisfaction, no satisfaction.

You danced with everyone at your party

Beach boys or Stones or Smokey

Robinson and his Miracles

You kept your hair short, close

To your head. You still favored the

Madras shirts, khaki pants, 

Boat shoes, no socks, you were

the preppiest guy I knew

I never saw anyone who

Could dance like you so abandoned,

it could be Mersey sound, blues beat, r&b.

You were an equal opportunity 

Music loving dance machine

At midnight when I knew I had

To collect my girlfriend and get on home

Though I wanted to stay and dance on with you

I threw my arms around you

Turned my cheek so my ear

Was up against your clavicle

You were breathless, smelling of 

Lark cigarettes and soap

Call me tomorrow, you said.

I walked up the stairs to your mother’s kitchen

I drove across the city in my father’s Chevy

To my part of town.

My hair had come unpinned.

I slipped into my nightgown

Washed my face. I felt so lucky

You were my friend,

One who asked so little,

Who made me laugh and shared

His cigarettes and his scotch with me

His fake cynicism and his jokes.

You were never my boyfriend,

Never my lover. You were

The companion  who years later

left me a poem

Handwritten but rolled

Into my old typewriter, 

Blue-black ink, corrasable bond.

Lynne Viti teaches in  the Writing Program at Wellesley College in Massachusetts. She  writes  about law, television, gardening, yoga, and anything else that comes into her vision field, and has published poetry, fiction and nonfiction. She blogs at stillinschool.wordpress.com. 

This might be a good evening to include links to some 1960s songs, starting with Dusty Springfield's "Son of a Preacher Man."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dp4339EbVn8

She also covered "Another Piece of My Heart": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhV3Ual2HGA

Dusty's version is different from Janis', but I hope you'll enjoy it.

Another song that Dusty covered was the Byrds' "Wasn't Born to Follow."  It's not a dance song, though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bh_DoIXec-Q

I'll finish with her "Just One Smile," a song by Randy Newman:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J55WDyQ2KB0

I could post many more songs.  Perhaps another time!