SELECTED PROSE & POETRY
Writing is easy. All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.
-- Gene Fowler
We work in the dark – we do what we can, we give what we have.
-- Henry James
The light we see in the sky comes from a distant burning, as does poetry.
-- Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Writing gives words a chance to sing, to laugh, to dance, and thus. . . to live.
-- mS
I fell in love with writing decades ago. I won’t muddy the waters in this setting because I believe that such boring minutiae will put you to sleep. My teachers continue to be well known in literary circles, and each very gently kicked me in the posterior numerous times when it was justified. They helped me to understand and appreciate the value of being an avid reader of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry -- and to choose those whose writing really inspired me.
What you will find here in this section will be some of my poems, ruminations, and stories which move from the sublime and wistful, to the utterly satirical and at times even lugubrious. The entries included at present are few, but I can assure you that there’ll be more to come. And there’ll also be lots of jazz stuff about my experiences on and off the bandstand. It’s easy to write about the jazz life when one has been an integral part of it. So stay tuned. Once we pull this site together and is fully functioning, I hope it will be an interesting and enjoyable journey.
-- Michael
About Resurrection
Perhaps it’s the time of year. . . . I’ve been thinking a lot this morning about the concept of resurrection, given that Easter is coming in springtime; however, for me, the concept of “returning” moves beyond religion or reincarnation, into the realm of the purely spiritual…particularly as it relates to the arts – specifically to jazz and those of us players and listeners who have made it such an integral part of our lives.
It seems to me that what we jazz musicians do when improvising is to resurrect our predecessors – our musical fathers and mothers – and bring them back into the light of the present moment, using what gifts they have bestowed upon us to extend our musical vocabularies as we dig deep to shape and sculpt our feelings into notes and rests, into instant songs we’ve never played before.
The beauty of resurrection lies in its inherent gifts to us, both as musicians and as listeners. Each time we play or listen, we resurrect Pops, Bird, Mary Lou, Dizzy, Miles, ‘Trane, Bill Evans, Ornette, Sass, Lady Day, Elvin, Newk, Max, Mingus, Wayne Shorter, Brookmeyer, Clark, Jim Hall, and many, many others, we bring them to life and they fill our hearts with gladness. They live through us in so many ways.
Please consider going to “experience” some jazz at a music venue near you. Listen to the voices of those gone from this plane, channeled through the voices of their progeny. The magic has always been there. Be a part of it.
Nietzsche was right when he said that without music, life would be a mistake. Music that comes from the heart is a profound example of resurrection and spirituality in action. I hope that it enriches your lives as it has mine.
~ mS
All There Is
still lives: street lamps and dogwoods
rust & rural gas stations in the outer dark
faded neon ringed clocks shaving the years
valve trombone cries & whispers
head & heart - the old road leads home
orange crescent dips its horn out west
first & last kisses matter most
what she said with her eyes – the words
not words – the song unsung
manhattan1961 blue and green
heart breaks in b-flat minor: coda and out
gone south into the dusty drylands
slower slower flat-lined slow freight
goodbye in dusky morning, dream train
pulling away into the mist
me left behind
these clumsy words strung together
hopelessly seeking redemption in
the stillness of a blank page
these lines, all there is
~ mS
