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Jazz Poetry
Black Sage (for Henry Grimes)
By
GORDON MARSHALL,
Published: July 17, 2011
Gordon Marshall
Poet, procrastinator unissued until now, in this deluxe edition on Blue Note.I have seen the stage lights play
the sly sagacity of Henry's smile:
the lightning on his lips, decades
dark with spattered starlight
coming back to his eyes.
To win words from that smile
that opens like a jackknife
drawing blood from parchment
spurting the sanguine melody
the black sage spun like spider
in fury wrapping Ayler's axe
—it is a dream, unless the song
of '66 wire its sound and touch
the new decade... Blade slices
again in air, olive wood in bloom:
I have seen it. He has indeed stood.
