Jazz Poetry: William Matthews mourns Coltrane

Church of the Coltrane from the Flickr set of Damian 

The Saint John Will-I-Am Coltrane African Orthodox Church (now at 1286 Fillmore St. San Francisco)
Photographer: Damian Rafferty

Musicians connect to us and their passing can shake us. One of the first I was introduced to was Johnny Cash and I remember the waves traveling through my car the day I found out he had died...  I should have pulled over.


Blues for John Coltrane, Dead at 41

Although my house floats on a lawn
as plush as a starlet’s body
and my sons sleep easily,
I think of death’s salmon breath
leaping back up the saxophone
with its wet kiss.

Hearing him dead,
I feel it in my feet
as if the house were rocked
by waves from a soundless speedboat
planing by, full throttle.

By William Matthews


... then there is the joy of stumbling into videos for a blog post.  Coltrane playing an appropriate tune & the video was posted by a lover of Cash and Coltrane