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Michel in the Diasporic Imagination
Diasporas

Selected Jazz Haiku

James A. Emanuel

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Jazz Airlines

1JAZZ Airlines! Bestest,
Firstest with Mostest. ALWAYS
Prettiest-Hostessed.

Brown Banana

2Brown banana, JAZZ,
peels for touch. Come  close. Closer,
till music’s too-oo much.

3JA-A-ZZ fruit, banana,
browned to please, suntan music
(goes naked with ease).

Count Basie

4Last-chance dance! Her cheek
warms his chest. “One O’clock Jump”
swings jitterbugs best.

Lester Young

5Howdja do it, “Prez”
(stay nice, cool, when all that jazz
chose another school)?

6His Volkswagen jazz,
classic, never rocked ’n’ rolled--
road tolls paid in gold.

Marcus Roberts

7Blind at five. Tragic.
Doomed till eight, when piano
(house guest) brought magic.

8Fingers heard secrets
till cartilage and firm bone
made music their own.

Art Tatum

9His fingers jaywalked,
leaped shortcuts, raced with his thought,
did just what they ought:

10blitzed doubts, disbeliefs
bluffed by fortissimos—then
felled like dominoes.

11Copyright © 2008 by James A. Emanuel. All rights reserved.

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References

Electronic reference

James A. Emanuel, “Selected Jazz Haiku”Transatlantica [Online], 1 | 2009, Online since 23 June 2009, connection on 28 March 2024. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/transatlantica/4278; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/transatlantica.4278

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James A. Emanuel

 

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CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0

The text only may be used under licence CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. All other elements (illustrations, imported files) are “All rights reserved”, unless otherwise stated.

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