Visionary Vibes: A Blog by Aberjhani

Revisited: Philosophy of the Midnight Skylark in a Jazz Suite Mode 2023

4/26/2023

("Midnight Magenta Skylark" art by Aberjhani)

Writers, poets, and artists often draw creative inspiration from each other in ways that produce memorable moments. Such was the case in 2012 when Death of a Bebop Wife author, Grange "Lady Haig" Rutan, happened upon a post of my poem, “Philosophy of the Midnight Skylark in a Jazz Suite Mode,” on the former Creative Thinkers International community website.

I was slightly familiar the music of her former husband, jazz pianist Al Haig. However, I knew nothing at all about her own work at the time, and consequently was stunned when she sent me a message to express the impact my poem had had on her.

What follows, in observation of Jazz Appreciation Month, National Poetry Month, and Poem In Your Pocket Day, is the poem Rutan found moving enough to write me about, and the response from her which I treasure still. The communication is presented in her original all-caps style:

Philosophy of the Midnight Skylark in a Jazz Suite Mode

          Hot rumbling notions of bittersweet blueswomen
          fog elegant sidewalks with the ghosts of tears
          howling saxophonic testimonies to lies
          told on history––and blame placed on love.

          Street lamps and big cats wear my face gently
          like a mask of painted poems and nude prayers.
          In a midnight skylark jazz suite mode
          the downbeat climbs its way back up to clarity.

          Perfumed adagios of purple lull twilight to sleep
          as rivers of winged reflections wake the power of dreams.
          Feather and bone unravel while tongues of song
          spit overloaded gigabytes of pain exploding faith.

          Stoned lions roar nuclear lyrics about the way
          it used to be never coming back again. Tough shit so
          truly uncool. In a midnight skylark jazz suite mode
          piano sorcerers translate prophecies of angst

          into silk equations of bebop equals mc/square sublime.
          by Aberjhani
          (from The River of Winged Dreams)

DEAR MOST TALENTED WITH A GOD GIVEN TALENT FOR WEAVING WORDS OF HEARTFELT WONDER,

DEAR ABERJHANI,

I AM IN A FESTIVAL OF AFTER DARK WITH YOUR WORDS RUMINATING AND FALLING OVER AN ONTO MY HEART, MY BEBOP HEART.

"PERFUMED ADAGIOS OF PURPLE LULL TWILIGHT TO SLEEP" HAUNTS ME AS I SPEAK ABERJHANI AND I AM HUMBLED.

"TONGUES OF SONG SPIT OVERLOADED GIGABYTES OF PAIN EXPLODING FAITH" BRINGS SUBTLE TEARS AS I WRITE.

"STONED LIONS ROAR NUCLEAR LYRICS ABOUT THE WAY IT USED TO BE NEVER COMING BACK AGAIN" AND I AM STILL HERE, STILL IN MY WORLD WEARY BEBOP JOINT NOW ELEVATED TO THE HIPPEST, JIVE GIG IN TOWN AT TAMM E. HUNTS JAM.

AND I WANT TO BRING YOU SOLACE; I WANT YOU TO FEEL GOOD ABOUT WHAT YOU WROTE BECAUSE IT IS EXQUISITE. I ALMOST FEEL YOU WERE THERE YOUR WORDS ARE SO AUTHENTIC AND I WANT YOU TO KNOW THERE IS NO BLAME TO BE PLACED ON "LOVE" BECAUSE THIS IS WHY YOU WROTE THIS "PHILOSOPHY OF THE MIDNIGHT SKYLARK IN A JAZZ SUITE MODE AND...

THIS IS WHY I WROTE DEATH OF A BEBOP WIFE: BIOGRAPHY OF AL HAIG: THE CHOSEN PIANIST OF CHARLIE PARKER AND DIZZY GILLESPIE...I DID IT FOR THE DOWNBEAT OF "CLARITY" AND MY LOVE FOR THE BITTERSWEET TAPESTRY WOVEN OF ALL THE PLAYERS THAT ARE NOW ON THE BIG GIG IN THE SKY .

I DID IT FOR YOU, I DID IT FOR ME. AND I ASKED CHARLIE PARKER TO COME INTO THIS JAZZ NETWORK AND SPEAK TO YOU AND TO ALL OF US, CHARLIE TALK TO ABERJHANI:

CHARLIE PARKER:
"IT'S JUST MUSIC; IT'S TRYING TO PLAY CLEAN AND LOOKING FOR THE PRETTY NOTES BUT ITS

DISTINCTIVE FEATURE IS ITS STRONG FEELING FOR THE BEAT. THE BEAT IN A BOP BAND IS WITH THE
MUSIC,
AGAINST,
BEHIND IT,
IT PUSHES IT,
IT HELPS IT;
HELP IS THE BIG THING;
IT HAS NO CONTINUITY OF BEAT,
NO STEADY CHUG-CHUG JAZZ HAS,
AND THAT'S WHY BOP IS MORE FLEXIBLE (EXCERPT FROM TO BE OR NOT TO BOP BY DIZZY GILLESPIE AND AL FRASER).

THANK YOU FOR YOUR EXQUISITE POEM.

GRANGE LADY HAIG RUTAN - AUTHOR
CADENCE JAZZ BOOKS

In Jazz Suite Mode Conclusion

Why Rutan’s words moved me so deeply on a personal level should be evident enough. Beyond that, I celebrate her lyrical appreciation because it falls so solidly into the tradition of call-and-response that gives jazz music much of its vitality and artistry. Within the lines of Philosophy of the Midnight Skylark in a Jazz Suite Mode she heard a call to give voice to her own bebop inclinations. By doing so, she honored and contributed to a musical art form which continues to inspire and empower with exuberant creativity and humanity that she did.

Aberjhani
Author of These Black and Blue Red Zone Days
Co-author of Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance

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Reclaiming the Magic of Poetry in a 2021 Time Such as This

4/17/2021

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With April 2021 being the 25th anniversary of National Poetry Month, it is also the perfect time to share a shortened re-post of the article ‘Tis the Season for the Magic of Poetry Part 2: Angels and Poets. It was first published in 2014 as part of a series for my AXS National African-American Cultural Arts column.

When considering the recent shooting deaths of 13-year-old Adam Toledo and 20-year-old Daunte Wright, as well as mass shooting in Indianapolis, Indiana, and Atlanta, Georgia, poetry might seem to lack any real kind of serious significance in 2021. But as pointed out in the original first part of this series: One important reason poetry matters is because it often helps to expand humanity’s capacity for putting brutal and sublime experiences alike into usable, meaningful, contexts.

A Significant Utilitarian Role

The publication of an anthology such as Black Gold (compiled and edited by the late Ja A. Jahannes) is always an important event for a number of reasons. For one, it contributes to the preservation of a powerful literary tradition which has served to document the diverse poetic voices of different eras. Another is because it helps secure a niche market known to make traditional publishers somewhat nervous from a business perspective when it comes to investing in that same market. However, this being the digitalized information age, new traditions have formed in which established poetry organizations such as the Academy of American Poets will email subscribers poems on a daily basis.

In addition, online publications like Poetry Life and Times, edited by Robin Ouzman Hislop, publish contemporary poets on a fairly regular weekly to biweekly basis. Moreover, its sister digital venue Poetry Lifetimes, edited by Sara Russell, delivers poetry titles and headlines on a daily basis via the popular Paper.li content aggregation platform. Each of these, and others like them, demonstrates the significant cultural and utilitarian role that poetry continues to play in the lives of numerous individuals, organizations, and communities.

Angels and Poets

The book The River of Winged Dreams has gained some popularity since its publication in 2010 partly because more than half a dozen of the poems take their themes, and sometimes titles, from different holidays and other special occasions. The following, however, is presented at this time for its evocation of grace and compassion, two of humanity’s better qualities which even those who are fairly humbug on the holidays can appreciate when extended to them:

The Poet-Angels Who Came to Dinner
(from The River of Winged Dreams)

1.
Neither had been invited but both were welcomed.
They spoke through wordless intuition, cool nods of
“Peace-Be-Still,” and, “As-Goes-Love-So-Goes-Life.”
Their quiet burned my brain with inklings of wonders
to come––as I set my table with what I had:
half of a cheese sandwich left over from a lucky day.

2.
From the eyes of one, my meager offering drew
liquid letters and symbols that splashed into goblets
until they overflowed with flavors of wine.
The second stranger laughed. As he howled, their
sorrow and their joy set my table anew—laid it heavy
with glazed yams, marinated dreams, and aromatic breads.

3.
Then their wings spread and revealed feathers painted
with the names and words of poets known and unknown.
Echoes of vows and prayers exploded blinding songs of light.
By the time I could see again, my guests had gone.
I stared at the bountiful table they left, too stuffed
with awe, to feast on the generosity of their grace.

4.
A knock at the door made me think they’d returned.
It was instead an old grandfather, homeless, with three
children whose parents had been lost to war and disregard.

They had not been invited but all were welcomed.
I nodded through tears of wordless intuition:
“Peace-Be-Still,” and, “As-Goes-Love-So-Goes-Life.”

Also Check Out for National Poetry Month 2021:
‘Talks Between My Pen & Muse’ An Inspired Literary Debut from Poet Aurie Cole
Where to Find Poetry Fine Art Poster

Aberjhani
Co-author of Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance
Author of Greeting Flannery O’Connor at the Back Door of My Mind
Creator of Original Silk-Featherbrush Artstyle

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Floating along: A Review Essay on Duncan McNaughton’s Somewhere in the Stream (part 1 of 2)

11/26/2019

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(Postered Chromatic Poetics title art graphic by Aberjhani)

Just before I took off running from Hurricane Matthew as it slammed the southeastern United States in 2016, presumably courtesy of the still-raging global climate crisis, I wrote the following notes on Duncan McNaughton's contemporary poetry classic, Valparaiso (Listening Chamber publishing, 1995):

As seen through the lens of this reader's experience of his work, McNaughton is a hunter and gatherer of significant meanings, and names, obscured by time and human negligence. Both a dissector and a sculptor of forms (as well as formlessness), a skillful translator of elusive moments crammed as much with pointless absurdity as with essential insights.....

Three years later, following a very narrow miss from Hurricane Dorian, I opened a copy of his SOMEWHERE IN THE STREAM (Blue Press Books, 2019). With this latest addition to the impressive and too often overlooked corpus of McNaughton's titles--now in fact time is the time for publication of a volume of his collected works--for some reason I felt a little less threatened by upheavals of physical-world conditions. Hurricanes seemingly indicative of negligent environmental stewardship, flaming tempests of political corruption, and suicidal addictions to war and hate fueling suicidal addictions to drugs and violence all took less of a toll on my personalized corner of the world. Maybe there was a reason for that.

A reader contemplating the title of this most recent volume of grace, wit, wisdom, and genius from someone often dubbed a poet's poet might suddenly ask: "Somewhere in the Stream" of what exactly? Potential answers--at least for those unfamiliar with McNaughton’s earlier works or unaware of his connections to genre-influencing poets like Ezra Pound, Charles Olson, Robert Duncan, and Diane di Prima--could turn out to be as ambiguous or obscure as they might precise and informative.

Since the poet is McNaughton, stream of individual consciousness gives us one good possibility. So does stream of collective memory, or of human comedies, absurdities, tragedies, antipoetic ironies, and language. It makes sense also to consider the stream of life, or existence, in general. How it manifests, flows, diverges, halts, dims, or glows to the rhythms of its own self-determining frequencies with seemingly little, if any, regard for human intentions constitutes a recurring observance, if not an actual theme, in many of the 51 poems contained in this collection.

Published by Blue Press based in Santa Cruz, California, Somewhere in the Stream (2019) is the latest poetry collection by renowned poet and educator Duncan McNaughton.

So why does any of this matter? Because McNaughton's sensibility is one which surfs brilliantly through history, layered philosophical concepts, and rhythms of multiple languages with startling ease to collect observations well worth the attention of Gen-Z, Millennials, Baby Boomers, and Traditionals alike. Tagging along gives the feeling at times of accompanying an interdimensional space explorer seeking confirmations of intelligence and civilizations outside boundaries of known planetary systems. Or popular literary conventions. As such, his poemized captain's log (if you will) documents the many strange contradictions of what it means to be human.

Read the short title poem at the volume's beginning and you are immersed instantly in a sense of intimate familiarity:

Always an empty space out
front for my Rocket 88

The Blue Chrysanthemum, Rue Parallèle,
Joanne's boîte,
corner Rue de la Vieille Lanterne
I'm usually here, at the bar, about
this time of night, left foot on The Stone

Aznavour at the piano

Everyone who matters to me drops in

Arthur! Ça va?

Here, space in the physical (on the page) sense appears to underscore prominence in the emotional sense. A thorough embrace of human intimacy, romantic and otherwise, unimpeded by space or time, is one of the great gifts of McNaughton's poetry--and also one of its respectable challenges. On a planet home to billions where so many still find themselves condemned to a strangling sense of alienation, the poem lets readers share in the luxurious comfort of knowing a place exists where one is always expected and always welcome. It allows the narrator to become anchored in affirmations of community tinted with soul-sustaining beauty.

This sense of community as represented in McNaughton's poetry has never been restricted to zip codes, national boundaries, or even a single period of history. It has always welcomed the voices of different poets and thinkers grappling with the frequently-cruel and yet often-humorous demands of existence itself. With that in mind, his poems may read as engaged conversations, private letters, public editorials, or notes to a singular self taking inventory of a singular life. Many of those "who matter" the most do indeed "drop in" for cameo appearances in the pages of SOMEWHERE. Among them are both historic and more contemporary poets and authors such as: Bill Berkson, Emily Dickinson, James Baldwin, Jack Collom, Robert Grenier, Sunnylyn Thibodeaux, Jack Kerouac, Jack Spicer, Osip Mandelstam, Colin Christopher Stuart, Walt Whitman, and D.H. Lawrence--just to give a quick sense of the wide range of literary territory this astonishing title covers.

How a given society judges or misjudges some of the most powerful, if not necessarily most influential, voices humanity has produced is not always encouraging. In "AT THE HOUSE OF COMMONS,"(caps McNaughton's) for example, the narrator observes:

The small man alone in the corner is
William Blake. Interesting smile.
Fewer and fewer care.

With Blake, one of the original titans of Romanticism, sitting ignored in a corner, the elephant in the room is the huge unasked question about our modern times. When an over-dependence on technology methodically shortens attention spans and ruling oligarchs pass demagoguery off as democracy: how wise it not to care about the sustained life-example of a poet-artist such as Blake?

NEXT: Floating along: A Review Essay on Duncan McNaughton’s Somewhere in the Stream Part 2

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A Literary Craftsman Re-Discovers His Inner Visual Artist

4/22/2017

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Postered Chromatic Poetics art graphic by Aberjhani for new store at Fine Art America. Also available as print and in other art formats.

National Poetry Month might strike some as an odd time for an author to debut new work as a visual artist. It is in fact not so strange at all.

If you've had a chance to check out my current essay series at Charter for Compassion, then you know it deals in large part with honoring empowering traditions. But not only that. It is also about extending and tweaking them in ways that add to their value in the 21st century.

Poet-Artist Galleries at Fine Art America

What this means when it comes to my new online visual arts gallery is that I am making an attempt to participate in the tradition of literary-artists-as-visual-artists. It is a very rich legacy that includes both notable classic icons and outstanding contemporary talents. These include the following:

William Blake
Jean Cocteau
Kahlil Gibran
Matthea Harvey
Terri Windling

Before anyone feels the need to ask, I will state categorically that I do not consider myself anywhere near the level of artistic skill which these individuals commanded or command.

I am someone who once upon a time as a child enjoyed a fondness for drawing characters from the comic books I read, and, for creating abstract labyrinths with cryptic symbolism. Without means during childhood to develop any real skill as an artist, the impulse to draw gave way to the need to write.

Creative Labors Beget Creative Possibilities

"Dare to love yourself" coffee mug with quotation and artwork by Aberjhani. The coffee mug is one of many formats available for framing the art and text.

My current adventures in the world of constructed visualizations--Postered Chromatic Poetics-- have, I believe, ironically enough been stimulated mostly by my writings on and with professional award-winning contemporary artists. Some have been subjects of my journalism, inspired specific poems, provided covers for books, or been clients for whom I wrote text to accompany their splendid exhibits. Among them:

Gustave Blache III
Amiri Geuka Farris
Allen Fireall (1954-2014)
Jack Leigh (1942–2004)
Jerome Meadows
Jaanika Talts
Luther E. Vann (1937-2016)
Michele Wood

Others have simply, blessedly, been good friends who allowed me the pleasure of witnessing their creativity in progress. Or: who shared with me important moments of aesthetic or spiritual breakthroughs which led to brilliant creations.

An Enhanced Way of Seeing

Serious historians, poets, playwrights, novelists, journalists often try to present their work as useful lens through which people may view or vicariously experience an unfolding moment. One might even get lucky enough to capture a meaning in the process of taking shape.

For me, working with visual art has helped refine the focus on how that lens should be designed. It is the kind of enhanced way of seeing that teachers of the creative arts have often suggested artists cultivate in order to render their perceptions of the world in uniquely-styled colors and voices.

The Postered Chromatic Poetics format emerged as a natural one that, for now at least, accommodates the advantages of social media marketing and helps secure hard-earned intellectual property rights.

The two biggest bonuses are: 1) it has allowed me to grow as a creative being. And 2) I am able to share the adventures intrinsic to such growth. This latter is accomplished through a variety of practical products made beautiful by Fine Art America's customizable production operations: very fine prints, cups, shower curtains, hand bags, towels, t-shirts, and considerably more.

That I am far more prone to immersing myself in individual creative projects than I am to working overtime on marketing strategies is, to those who know me, not a secret. The Postered Chromatic Poetics art shop helps minimize any tension between the two equally-important labors while increasing the maximum benefits of both. To define that as a win-win situation--which any creative is always grateful to experience--would not be wrong.

Author

Aberjhani is an American poet, historian, essayist, editor, journalist, social critic, and cautious artist. His many honors include the Choice Academic Title of the Year Award, the Notable Book of the Year Award, and Poet of the Year. He is currently completing final edits on a work of creative nonfiction about the cultural arts, race relations, immigration, and human trafficking in his hometown of Savannah, Georgia.

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Poetics and Jazz of Compassion Presented with a Creatively Maladjusted Twist

4/7/2017

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Detail of "Big Band" portrait by Leroy Neiman used as part 1 of special series of posters for Jazz Appreciation Month. Among iconic talents seen here are: Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Lionel Hampton, and Louie Armstrong.

April, when both Jazz Appreciation Month and National Poetry Month are observed, is always a special time at Bright Skylark Literary Productions. This year it is doubly special because in addition to featuring several re-posts of classic articles and essays about poetry and jazz on this site, we have also teamed up with our Charter for Compassion partners to present the timely new 4-part series: Poetic Traditions of Compassion and Creative Maladjustment.

The celebration of Jazz Appreciation Month actually got underway with Jarreau Jazz-riff Earth-tunes for the Angel of Compassion, the poem and essay published in tribute to the late great Al Jarreau after his passing earlier this year. Jarreau in recent years had been among the headliners for the annual International Jazz Day concert and one of the premier talents of the modern jazz era. You can check out part 1 of the tribute by clicking here and part 2, which includes the poem, by clicking this Postered Poetics artwork:

"Jarreau Jazz-riff Earth-tunes for the Angel of Compassion" JAM 2017 tribute to Al Jarreau in conjunction with National Poetry Month and Earth Day.

A Confluence of Compassionate Sensibilities

In addition to commemorating NPM 2017, the series showcased on the Charter for Compassion website does two important things:

1) It explores the conceptual relationship between Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s call for a creative-maladjustment approach to civil disobedience and author Karen Armstrong’s recommended strategy for living a compassion-empowered life.

2) It utilizes as lens through which to examine poetic traditions of compassion, short biographical profiles of the Sufi genius Jalal al-Din Rumi, the great Pulitzer Prize-winning Harlem Renaissance and Chicago Renaissance poet Gwendolyn Brooks, and the Prague, Czech Republic-born author of Duino Elegies, Rainer Maria Rilke.

You can begin enjoying the series by clicking either of the following graphics:

"Love is the bridge between you and everything." quote by Jalal al-Din Rumi. Postered Poetics by Aberjhani.

Author

Author-Poet Aberjhani is currently completing a book of nonfiction narratives addressing race relations, histories of erasure, the cultural arts, and practices of slavery in his hometown of Savannah, Georgia, USA.

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Revisited: Philosophy of the Midnight Skylark in a Jazz Suite Mode 2023

Philosophy of the Midnight Skylark in a Jazz Suite Mode

DEAR MOST TALENTED WITH A GOD GIVEN TALENT FOR WEAVING WORDS OF HEARTFELT WONDER,

In Jazz Suite Mode Conclusion

Aberjhani
Author of These Black and Blue Red Zone Days
Co-author of Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance

Contact Aberjhani at Bright Skylark Literary Productions

Reclaiming the Magic of Poetry in a 2021 Time Such as This

A Significant Utilitarian Role

Angels and Poets

Aberjhani
Co-author of Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance
Author of Greeting Flannery O’Connor at the Back Door of My Mind
Creator of Original Silk-Featherbrush Artstyle

Contact the Author

Floating along: A Review Essay on Duncan McNaughton’s Somewhere in the Stream (part 1 of 2)

Contact the Author-Artist

A Literary Craftsman Re-Discovers His Inner Visual Artist

Creative Labors Beget Creative Possibilities

An Enhanced Way of Seeing

Author

Poetics and Jazz of Compassion Presented with a Creatively Maladjusted Twist

A Confluence of Compassionate Sensibilities

Author

Aberjhani

Archives

Categories

Revisited: Philosophy of the Midnight Skylark in a Jazz Suite Mode 2023

Philosophy of the Midnight Skylark in a Jazz Suite Mode

DEAR MOST TALENTED WITH A GOD GIVEN TALENT FOR WEAVING WORDS OF HEARTFELT WONDER,

In Jazz Suite Mode Conclusion

AberjhaniAuthor of These Black and Blue Red Zone DaysCo-author of Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance

Contact Aberjhani at Bright Skylark Literary Productions

Reclaiming the Magic of Poetry in a 2021 Time Such as This

​A Significant Utilitarian Role

Angels and Poets

AberjhaniCo-author of Encyclopedia of the Harlem RenaissanceAuthor of Greeting Flannery O’Connor at the Back Door of My MindCreator of Original Silk-Featherbrush Artstyle

Contact the Author

Floating along: A Review Essay on Duncan McNaughton’s Somewhere in the Stream (part 1 of 2)

Contact the Author-Artist

A Literary Craftsman Re-Discovers His Inner Visual Artist

Creative Labors Beget Creative Possibilities ​

An Enhanced Way of Seeing

Author

Poetics and Jazz of Compassion Presented with a Creatively Maladjusted Twist

A Confluence of Compassionate Sensibilities

Author

Aberjhani

Archives

Categories

Aberjhani
Author of These Black and Blue Red Zone Days
Co-author of Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance

A Significant Utilitarian Role

Aberjhani
Co-author of Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance
Author of Greeting Flannery O’Connor at the Back Door of My Mind
Creator of Original Silk-Featherbrush Artstyle

Creative Labors Beget Creative Possibilities