The Last Jazz Fan: And Other Poems

By Kenneth Salzmann

New and Selected poems by Kenneth Salzmann"Salzmann is a rare poet who can draft excellent and moving poems about nature and politics, about love and place, about old age, spirituality and friendship. You can feel in the poems the intelligence of the mind that created them and the compassion and wit of the poet."--Marge Piercy, author of Made in Detroit"Here is a mind unfairly comfortable with paradox, be it intellectual, emotional or spiritual -- and a heart-breaking voice that is up to the task."--Lucia Nevai, author of Salvation"The Last Jazz Fan invites us to travel through life's earthy landscapes, corporeal and ethereal, as we fall under its rhythmic spell. And we find we are eager for this journey that speaks in the universal tongue of our shared humanity. Whether the keenly crafted lines of his found poem "The Great American Songbook," echoing the golden voices of that era, the wry humor of the patient who seeks a doctor who has read Macbeth, or Whitman's butterfly that pollinates the pages of other poets, Salzmann's expansive lust for beauty carries us somewhere deep inside where melody and marrow meet-where home is home in any language."Diane DeCillis, author of Strings Attached"'Like a dry martini on a summer/afternoon, a saxophone glides,' writes Kenneth Salzmann, in poem after musical poem. He's looking for 'the exact moment rhythm/left the room,' something I think all poets aspire to find. He takes compost made up of 'the insistent decay of daily lives rich/ unread newspapers, orange rinds/egg shells' and uses it to make poems that bloom and bloom and bloom."--Barbara Crooker, author of Les Fauves and Barbara Crooker: Selected PoemsMore Reader Comments:"Ken's fine collection of poems feels like a slow walk through an exhibit of paintings you wish you had done yourself. From the hilarious quote of Jaroslav Pelikan, 'I want to be treated by a doctor who has read Macbeth,' to the stunning title poem, 'Some say/it is the silent spaces between/that describe the song, to the discussion about 'pura vida/black sand and riptides' in Cahuita, Kenneth's collection is a 'win win' in a world of losses."Ann StaleyThe Last Jazz Fanfor David Peirce The last Jazz fan slipped from the world one night like the amorphous notes of a trumpet solo at closing time. Some say reedy melodies hovered above him like nimbus clouds at the exact moment rhythm left the room. Explosive riffs be-bopped across the sky when the last jazz fan returned to stardust, and clarinets cooled the darkness. Some say it is the silent spaces between that describe the song, but some say the spaces might expand until they swallow the song and silence is certain."The Last Jazz Fan" was originally published in Chronogram.Copyright 2017/2018 Kenneth Salzmann

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1985201194
• ISBN13: 9781985201194
• Release Date: May 2018
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 42 Pages
• Weight: 0.29 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.3" x 0.1" x 8.3"