John R. Smith
Blue Note
Don't play what's there, play what's not there. ~ Miles Davis
Sometimes the moment is one long blue note
like the other day, before dark, as I walked by
a restored barn tucked in a corner of stone wall
still standing at the mouth of a cul-de-sac of
mock Tudors, a wind-rippled blue curtain
rushed from an open window where a loft
might be, as if the barn was breathing
and a trumpet, like the breath inside the breath,
as Kabir said of god, exhaled a blue watery moan
then sucked it back in as fast as a frog's tongue
or a pilot light gone out when it stopped playing.
Bio
John Smith's poetry has appeared in journals such as SmartishPace, Berfrois Journal, The Literary Review, and Spillway. His work has been set to music by composer, Tina Davidson, and commissioned by New Jersey Audubon. His book of poetry is titled Even That Indigo. John lives in Frenchtown, NJ with his wife, the calligrapher and henna artist, Catherine Lent.