Bright Moments: A Collection of Jazz Poetry (Abraxas #20). Jim Stephens, ed. Poetry and prose. Alvin Aubert, Imamu Amiri Baraka, Jayne Cortez, Victor Hernandez Cruz, Clayton Eshleman, Anselm Hollo, Jack Kerouac, Federico Garcia Lorca, Jack Micheline, Thelonious Monk, Lisel Mueller, Frank O'Hara, Sonia Sanchez, et al. 74 pages, ISBN: 0-932868-03-7, 1980. $15 + $3 (standard) or $5 (expedited) shipping

1. "An energetic, highly rhythmic oral poetry about jazz, jazz musicians, the jazz experience, Bright Moments lives up to the epiphany of its title. Led off by Stephens's sensitive foreword on the concept and utterance of jazz poetry, the poems themselves jive, jump, run, funk, chant, threaten, and mourn in 'screaming beauty,/ like so many improvisations, solos . . . .' Neither jazz nor poetry fans will be disappointed." (Val Morehouse, ALA Booklist, 15 July 1980)
   

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3. "The work here is sometimes about jazz, sometimes the thing itself." (Susan Shafarzek, "LJ's Small Press Roundup" Library Journal, 1980)
   

Click on an author to see a sample poem included in this issue:

1. Alvin Aubert
   

2. Imamu Amiri Baraka
   

3. Jack Kerouac
   

4. Federico Garcia Lorca
   

5. Frank O'Hara