The DC Poetry Spot

This evening I would like to feature another collaboration, an exquisite corpse poem that the members of the DC Poetry Spot created on June 12.  If you are in the DC area and would like to learn more about this wonderful group, please email me at thesongis@gmail.com .  We meet on the second Saturday of the month from 10:30 to 12:30 at the William O. Lockridge Library in DC.

I wish that I could post a picture of the library as it is a charming place.  Instead, here are some pictures from various meetings of the DC Poetry Spot.  The first is from our haiku workshop .  The second is from the August meeting on personification in poetry.

A collective effort...

Strong...TALL

Amazingly calm

Peace flowing from within

SON and FATHER

He’s not in the crooked houses I wander through.

There’s a breeze sweeping through the room

A warm gentleness that comforts

even the angriest of us all

Proud I palmed my son’s head like a Spalding

Knowing that he would escape the curse

He’s not in the crooked houses I wander through

Bless the Lord for bringing him through

bypassing the ups and downs

I myself fell victim to

When Daddy wasn’t  around

-- nowhere to be found

Nowhere to be seen

Bless the lord for this son of mine

-- my joy, my everything

No crooked paths  for you,  my son

Oh No-- no such thing

Only college degrees and victories -- if it ends

up being my last dream

my last will and testament

I’ll proclaim ‘til the day I die

This breeze that sweeps through this empty house

will be the last time we seem..

Because the strengths of ancestors will

prevail

albeit, life will present ups and downs, failures and triumphs, joys and sorrows

the victory is in persistence, it is in

fortitude, it is in courage, it is in

resilience

[no this will not be the last time]

of the breeze that beckons us

to stand tall and soar.

Because the strength of ancestors

                                    will prevail

we wander through

yet are not lost.

Because the strength of ancestors

                                    will prevail

We return home,

We build our lives.

so different from theirs

yet the same.

We wonder what lives

they would have chosen

if they had lived in our times

of travel and technology,

of triumph and danger,

of want and worry.

We do not live for them, though.

                                    K~K~M~me

DC Poetry Spot ~ 2016 June 12

I'll finish with some music on the theme of ancestors.  Let's start with bassist Derrick Hodge's 
"Dances with Ancestors."  He has played with the Robert Glasper Experiment, but this piece is from his solo album.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOC8ToQJyVw

I want to add his version of "Solitude" from a tribute to the late pianist Mulgrew Miller:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHj5sOcG0qU

Here is the Yellowjackets' "Ancestors":  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YK5lSh-lTg8

Shabaka and the Ancestors is a collaboration between a British musician (Shabaka) and a group from South Africa.  The song is "Joyous": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwjWrrYQFoQ

I'll finish with their song "The Observer": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lkq_CZhLrII