Leslie McKay, Julie Naslund, and Indunil Madhusankha!

Tonight's entry features a variety of poets and styles.  I'd like to start with New Zealand poet Leslie McKay's "Louis Armstrong's Wink," a poem inspired by her mother's seeing him perform in Christchurch in the 1950s.

Louis Armstrong's Wink

She kept Louis Armstrong's wink in her evening bag

for her Child to employ and grew fountains

of wisteria and magnolias the world came to see

When Child waltzed off a flight from New Orleans scatting

and singing, She exhaled a long, slow breath before 

the swagger of youth and forecast a summer of mayhem 

Wearing her father's empty gun belt slung around her hips

Child followed her rhythm downtown, to find the dark blue music

she heard through half open window panes, above old veranda's

knocked on doors, until she found the accomplices she craved

When they jammed, her hungry face was light

her voice a liquid instrument, a thousand years deep

in her eyes, a cache of dreams on hold, as day imposed

On a rare night of solitude, She watched a magnolia bud unfurl

sat in wonder, breathing nectar, until the morning tide brought Child

hand in hand with her new Italian scholar of the universe love

who waved a divining wand as he smiled and said the nectar 

would ebb and flow until She's resistance ceased

As the intelligence arced and whirled She left for the botanical realm

from the green depths, heard Child singing Summertime

found her by the lily pond where lazy goldfish blew 

where Child said ache in her was love, her voice a mystery 

driving her further from the garden that aligned her

And She said the root of the world was the adult blues 

in the dancing of summer, burning inside her

as she cut Child a stem of wisteria

She was born quiet, she often craved silence to a holy degree

but the murmuring dreams of plants kept her real

Child's recklessness didn't become her, it drove She insane

but her voice was a pearl of the sonic world

and below the wisteria vine, their colliding rhythms swayed

Leslie and Julie Naslund have also sent me a rengay inspired by the music of 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

Above is a picture of a service at the Saint John Coltrane African Orthodox Church in San Francisco.  (Thank you, Martin Willitts, Jr., for telling me about this church.)  Freimut Bahlo is the photographer.

I'd like to add Sri Lankan poet Indunil Madhusankha's poem.  (Thank you for your patience!)

Autobiography of the Poet

 I am the poet

 carrying a luggage of roles

 all of which I play with equal interest

 I am the talkative lover

 who knocks on the door of your heart

 and having entered,

 bursts into a torrid tete-a-tete

 with your inner self

 and sings fantastic flirtations

 I am the justice in the court

 betokening perfect impartiality

 and never guilty of distorting the truth

 None receives the least pardon from me

 for any offence

 I am the policeman

 following the thugs

 with a baton

 and filing a case against them 

 I am the overpowering magician

 My virility, more ebullient

 than that of a gunman or a swordsman

 In case they can only kill a person

 Yet I influence the latter

 and charge the battery of his heart

 I am the labourer

 digging out moth eaten rubbish mounds

 and recycling them

 Yet, I am the poet,

 the very slight poet,

 still struggling for perfection. 

Biography of Author

Indunil Madhusankha is currently an undergraduate reading for a BSc Special Degree in Mathematics at the Faculty of Science of the University of Colombo. Even though he is academically involved with the subjects of Mathematics and Statistics, he also pursues a successful career in the field of English language and literature as a budding young researcher, reviewer, poet and content writer. Basically, he explores the miscellaneous complications of the human existence through his poetry by focusing on the burning issues in the contemporary society. Moreover, Indunil’s works have been featured in many international anthologies, magazines and journals. 

I'll start tonight's music with Louis Armstrong's "A Kiss to Build a Dream On":  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSe1Takt5FU

This version of "Dinah" is from 1933.  The band is playing in Copenhagen, which fits nicely with Leslie's poem.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhVdLd43bDI

Here is a live version of "Green Dolphin Street" featuring John Coltrane, Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers, and Jimmy Cobb: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePScRElDHOY

In this video, Coltrane and Monk play "Evidence": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqdO8-JxAYQ

Enjoy!