Connie Johnson

Archival 

 

You buy me

Writing tablets, pens

With archival ink

 

“Write a love poem,” you ask me

When what you really mean is:

“Write about me”

 

I describe love ascendency

Co-dependency; the pure redemption,

The down and dirty invention of what

I thought was left behind

 

Cars Trains

Boats Planes

All carry me away from you

But I always return

 

The laugh lines you gave me, the wine-flavored

Kisses we still deign to bestow. You are the debt

I owe, what I reap and what I sow, and simply

What I could never repay

 

 

Kisses on my brow,

The slope of our shoulders

That bear what seems to be unbearable;

In this late hour of the day, who can

Argue with what we view to be

Archival?

 

 

 

Tedi

“You get the feeling that you’re never supposed 

to be serious or be a man who could fall in love”

                                      -- Johnny Hartman

iconic realm
explore a jazz landscape
lightyears of longing; he sings
and all of the lyrics ring true

Johnny Hartman
eternal balladeer, the only singer
to have recorded with Coltrane -
obbligatos, barely a difference
between Trane’s tenor sax
and his voice

Johnny Hartman
the cool baritone
the man you turn to
for what is lush and
too beautiful

love ballads
his preference; perfect diction
and he phrased a song the same way
that he spoke  -- Chicago born!
a cool gentleman, a winding
down of time when leaves
begin to fall

all or nothing at all!
a celebration, a dedication
to a woman who made the
love songs ring true:

“Tedi
this one’s for
you…”

 

Both poems originally published by: 

Impspired (May 31, 2024)