Charlie Parker (1950) by Campbell McGrath

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend June 3, 2015   Charlie Parker (1950)   Campbell McGrath

Bird is building a metropolis with his horn. Here are the gates of Babylon, the walls of Jericho cast down. Might die in Chicago, Kansas City’s where I was born.   Snowflake in a blizzard, purple rose before the thorn. Stone by stone, note by note, atom by atom, noun by noun, Bird is building a metropolis with his horn.   Uptown, downtown, following the river to its source, Savoy, Three Deuces, Cotton Club, Lenox Lounge. Might just die in Harlem, Kansas City’s where I was born.   Bird is an abacus of possibility, Bird is riding the horse of habit and augmented sevenths. King without a crown, Bird is building a metropolis with his horn.   Bred to the labor of it, built to claw an eye from the storm, made for the lowdown, the countdown, the breakdown. Might die in Los Angeles, Kansas City’s where I was born.   Bridge by bridge, solo by solo, set by set, chord by chord, woodshed to penthouse, blue to black to brown, Charlie Parker is building a metropolis with his horn. Might just die in Birdland, Kansas City’s where I was born.            Copyright © 2015 by Campbell McGrath. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   “‘Charlie Parker (1950)’ is a villanelle about the legendary American saxophonist, one of the most fascinating figures of the twentieth century. The poem sketches a few biographical details—cities he lived in, Harlem clubs he habituated—but mostly tries to capture a voice, a rhythm, a musical style. That style would be the midcentury syncopation of bebop, with its bluesy underpinnings, which the poem plays against the traditional strictures of the villanelle, in the hopes of echoing, however distantly, Parker’s virtuosic integration of improvisation and formal structure.” —Campbell McGrath   Campbell McGrath is the author of nine books of poetry, including the forthcoming XX (Ecco, 2016). He teaches in the MFA program at Florida International University in Miami. Most Recent Book by McGrath   In the Kingdom of the Sea Monkeys (Ecco, 2012) "Improvisation on Lines by Isaac the Blind" by Peter Cole "Ludwig Van Beethoven’s Return to Vienna" by Rita Dove "The Supremes" by Mark Jarman Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038