it will make you weep.

it will make your dog weep.

       ~ james taylor

~

take the first, the third, the fifth

take the one-four-five

add a seventh, play with a sixth, a ninth

put it in a blender

it will make you dance, cry

clap with joy, sit somber as a deacon

i learned this side of music from terri

that first night in september

our first night, listening to wes montgomery

and others

santana and blonde on blonde

but i'd heard those

the seemingly simple wes montgomery

note-chord-measure by measure it came to me

step one on the journey, then

the social consciousness of lee morgan

the cool bru, the so what that i came to dislike intensely

the be-bop, james moody — we be'd and we bopped

i've come a long way in a short time

i know only what i don't know

lou reed left a gaping hole, i know why

ornette coleman, i don't know why

any more than i know the why of john ashberry or james merrill

i don't have the smarts to know why/some things you can know too well

i'm writing to the sweet harmolodic tones of mister ornette coleman

and i'm satisfied

~

listening to the ornette coleman quintet live at the hillcrest club

lost angeles california, nineteen hundred and fifty-eight

"blonde on blonde" is a bob dylan album

"cool bru" is dave brubeck 

"so what" refers to a miles davis song of that name