POEM: sing me a Haitian song

Posted 20 December, 2011 in Jazz, Music, My poems, Poetry

Photo source

sing me a Haitian song

sing mules and horses on the mountainside
          a calabash of river water to wash in
          another to drink

sing to me of the climbing tree
          four uncles on the summit waiting
          for the return of the prodigal nephew

sing me an African rhythm
          drawn from the source of the one true river
          that became the ocean and surrounded the islands

sing to me of proud women with straight backs
          burdens atop their heads as they appear and disappear
          on the peaks and in the valleys

sing me a policeman’s song
          a wide-brimmed hat his badge of office
          his horse weary from climbing

sing me a Brooklyn dance, no music but the drum
          to remake their lost island in an old meeting hall
          filled with vegetable stew and mountain stories

sing me sixty-odd years since then
          the boy once mesmerized by the drummer
          returning to old ground as a man of the drum himself

/ / /

This poem is inspired by an interview I conducted with drummer Andrew Cyrille. You can hear the interview here.

POEM: post office, Sunset Park

Posted 16 December, 2011 in My poems, Poetry

post office, Sunset Park

digging on Mississippi John Hurt
the definite article
watching a guy try and fail
to zip his leather jacket

Italian-American bus driver tells
African-American postal clerk
he’s looking for Tony Bennet stamps
“I’m still stuck with these Kwanzaa stamps.”

“Lucky for you it’s Kwanzaa again.”
          Laughter.
Mississippi John Hurt is singing about
fish and money. But not really.

POEM: Orion on Prospect Avenue

Posted 13 December, 2011 in My poems, Poetry

Orion on Prospect Avenue

sharp sword dangling from his belt
swinging back and forth
above the Chinese grocery
the Middle Eastern restaurants
the yarn shop with its scarves-to-be

I’m walking up the hill wondering
just how far away those stars are
I know they’re not even near one another
Orion is a picture people made
from a story they invented

the cold, cloudless night
makes the hunter’s broad shoulders
stand out above the Catholic church
where tomorrow’s worshipers
will gather to hedge their bets

a little farther up the hill
is a three-story brick building
where rice is cooking and curry
with potatoes and carrots and onions
is bubbling on the stove

meanwhile the hunter stalks the avenue
in a city where people seldom look up at the sky

Welcome to jasoncrane.org!

Posted 13 December, 2011 in Random Musings

Hi there! Thanks for visiting jasoncrane.org. This post is always at the top of the site to help you find your way around.

This is primarily a poetry blog. You can scroll down for my latest poems, or select the My Poetry category to get ‘em all. Most of my poems have audio recordings, too, so you can hear as well as read them.

If you’d like a larger selection of performed poetry, please visit the Recorded Readings page, where you’ll find a collection of my featured readings from the past couple years.

Foothills Publishing was kind enough to publish my first book of poems in 2010, Unexpected Sunlight. Get your copy in the store. Makes a great gift, too, particularly for someone of whom you’re not all that fond.

Over on the top right of this page is a navigation menu. Farther down on the right side is a list of categories. Both of these menus will help you find specific content on the site.

I’m quite active on Twitter. You can follow me at @jasondcrane. And you’re always welcome to email me at jason@jasoncrane.org.

That’s it. Enjoy the site!

New photo

Posted 8 December, 2011 in Site updates

If you’re reading this post at jasoncrane.org (rather than via the RSS feed), you might have noticed a new photo at the top of the page. For months, the header was a photo of me, taken by my sister in front of the Lincoln Center fountain.

I took the new photo last weekend in Bushwick, Brooklyn, outside the Pine Box Rock Shop, where I went for the Vegan Shop-Up. These buildings are on the corner of Grattan Street and Bogart Street. It was a gorgeous day and I loved the way the light hit the buildings.

POEM: expenses

Posted 6 December, 2011 in My poems, Poetry

Listen to this poem using the player above.

/ / /

expenses

$1.00 for the three congueros
          on the D train
          black men with beautiful braids
          down their backs
          too meticulous to be dreadlocks

$5.00 for queso made from yeast
          bought from a friendly former hippie
          in a Bushwick bar
          where a bomb would have
          devoured all the vegans

$1.00 for a bottle of water
          on the subway platform
          at Columbus Circle
          to wash down the pills
          that make the sun shine
          ”better living through chemistry”

$10.40 for an everything bagel with
          eggs and cheddar
          and a plain bagel with
          tofu cream cheese
          eaten with my lover
          on a bench in Prospect Park

$104.00 for a MetroCard
          to let me move between boroughs
          for a month
          until it runs out when I’m broke
          and on the way
          to somewhere important

$3.87 for yet another bagel
          and a strawberry iced tea
          before the sun came up
          in Sunset Park
          where I wouldn’t have been
          but for her

« Previous