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........The Poetry Of.
................. Bill Campana




........................ what steps
.................... string of deflated balloons
.................... hanging brightly colored hollow fish
.................... raisins on the raisin vine.
.................... somebody's party blew away and aged alone
.................... some good time has decompressed
.................... love has loved itself out.
.................... buckeye road crack day, 2003
.................... the power line was alive for a few days
.................... when the balloons came to rest
.................... to hang with those poor shoes swaying
.................... above lincoln street.
.................... eternity was unimagined
.................... except for the shoes.
....................
....................
....................
....................
.................... Gene Pool & Son

.................... my father's wrinkles
.................... are crawling over to my face
.................... like invasive snakes
.................... one by one
.................... cutting grooves
.................... and ditches
.................... into a once virgin field.
.................... i've got to put a stop to this.
....................
.................... let's face it (pun intended)
.................... the clock hands of father time
.................... are precise to a fault.
.................... while the big hand
.................... intimidates by circling,
.................... the little hand does the jabbing.
.................... the upside smacking.
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....................
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....................
.................... j through z

.................... listen.
.................... when words are not enough, and there is no thing
.................... said capable of railing the wild express, i listen. i listen
.................... for the quartet to bring me ballads laced with sweet
.................... bourbon and milked scotch. blues in the deepest blue
.................... blend. soul. serenades in the key of rampage. musical
.................... fire for higher. smouldering bass, blistering tenor, and
.................... yellow flamed upper register bailed with eighty-eight
.................... wires.
....................

.................... state opening theme.
.................... joyous and unified, containing everything cool, blue,
.................... hard bop, post bop, modern, post modern, and it swings.
....................

.................... jazz.
.................... that word has been everywhere. that dirty ambiguity,
.................... the four letter controversy. spit through lips obliviously,
.................... blazing through cigarette smoke, cut into vinyl like a
.................... shiny smile.
....................

.................... solos.
.................... difficult to define. a spirit elusive and fleeting,
.................... erratic pulse beating, back beating, incessent,
.................... polyrythmic mounting cataclysmic. strolling the
.................... edge of mad ability, demanding edge of credibility.
.................... listen! is it a scream ecstatic or a torment? a four
.................... man big bang boom. bass boom, all sinew and gristle,
.................... hustle and muscle. fanning the flames in syncopation
.................... against the sound of a dream gasping for daylight.
.................... living each note. living each epistle as they blur
.................... multitonic, hanging in a gathering of sonic nimbus.
.................... a collection ready to burst into joyous rain. blue
.................... clouds thundering humid, the thick human soul
.................... crying for recognition over the punishing holler
.................... of the drum, pounding through this storm.
....................

.................... jazz.
.................... that word has been everywhere. claimed by too many
.................... people meaning too many things. that dirty ambiguity,
.................... the four-letter controversy.
....................

.................... repeat opening theme.
.................... end with stunning cadenzas and a flurry of cymbals.
....................
.................... listen again.
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