La Diseuse de bonne aventure (The Fortune Teller) by Caravaggio (The Louvre) |
John Grey's winning poem this month does not feature a fortune teller, but it does display the side of life associated with the noir.
On Jazz Street
Late
night feels like low tide, rainy streets
after the arousal of jazz, pools of water
collecting like shells on the sidewalk. All
shapes. All depths. Some I step over. Some
I splash right into. Not ready yet to let the
quiet back in. Surrendering man's jazz for the
jazz of the world, less brassy, more spread,
just as toxic. Like low tide. Like the world
spread out before me like something uncovered
just now. A woman rushing by. A crawling taxi cab.
A story here. A story there. Some stories written
so deep it takes a rain-washed manhole cover
to keep them down. Oh and there's my story.
All those dark shapes rolling in and me
at their mercy. Writhing, panicked deep inside
after the arousal of jazz, pools of water
collecting like shells on the sidewalk. All
shapes. All depths. Some I step over. Some
I splash right into. Not ready yet to let the
quiet back in. Surrendering man's jazz for the
jazz of the world, less brassy, more spread,
just as toxic. Like low tide. Like the world
spread out before me like something uncovered
just now. A woman rushing by. A crawling taxi cab.
A story here. A story there. Some stories written
so deep it takes a rain-washed manhole cover
to keep them down. Oh and there's my story.
All those dark shapes rolling in and me
at their mercy. Writhing, panicked deep inside
myself
and threatening to drown. And then some
jazz and a little of everything else edging away.
And then some rain and some dark streets and it
jazz and a little of everything else edging away.
And then some rain and some dark streets and it
all gone
and me left. No, it's me and all that jazz.
~ John Grey
This month's judge, Jenene Ravesloot has this to say about the winning poem: "This poem captures the essence of all things noir: the dark streets of any Big City; rain-soaked sidewalks; the narrator's story with "All those dark shapes rolling in;" the inevitable mention of jazz, the memory of it lingering like a hangover in this poem. Things sing here with gorgeous lines, the brilliant use of alliteration, repetition, and variation. It has been a real pleasure to read 'On Jazz Street.'"
Congratulations to John Grey, and thanks to the other poets who entered the April competition. John retains copyright ownership of his poem.
Bios:
John Grey is an
Australian poet, US resident. Recently published in Midwest Quarterly, Poetry
East and North Dakota Quarterly with
work upcoming in South Florida Poetry
Journal, Hawaii Review and Dunes Review.
Jenene
Ravesloot has written five books of poetry. She has published in The Ekphrastic Review, After Hours, Sad Girl Review, Caravel Literary Arts Journal, Connotation Press: An Online Artifact,
Packingtown Review, The Miscreant, Exact Change Only, THIS Literary Magazine, and
other online and print journals, chapbooks, and anthologies. Jenene is a
member of The Poets’ Club of Chicago, the Illinois State Poetry Society, and
Poets & Patrons. She received two Pushcart Prize nominations in 2018.
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