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Chuck Joy is a dedicated poet, and poetry organizer. Dick Thompson is a well known bassist in the region. Here they perform two of Chuck's poems.

For more information or to schedule a performance, call 734-4344 or email Dick at rwtqveta12191@hotmail.com.  Thanks.

Volunteers

VOLUNTEERS

Blues Day
is our good news day
baby, we get to be volunteers

for JazzErie at the Jazz
and Blues Festival, hot dog!

so they descended
husband and wife, toward stage left
while the music paused
to come back ever stronger
from the changing of the guard

black night bright afternoon
dancefloor grassland wet with beer
mojo working, fingers bending strings
the blues, the blues is all you need
the blues is why we’re here

we cut our deals, with the devil
with ourselves, attempt to play
the hand we’re dealt, sometimes we win
sometimes we lose, but every day
every day we have the blues

doctor, lawyer, indian chief
be sure to get enough to eat
our concessions manage
several cool sorts of food
try a gyro with your blues

our blues, his wife thinking
the next morning
two cups of tea, steeping
today might be nice too
Sunday is Jazz Day


By Chuck Joy

Synesthesia

SYNESTHESIA

one sense comes through
as another, touch for example
your fingers at a window
might taste like beer

a long drive
plays like music

let’s stay with that
a long drive plays like music

like music, more precise than words
more complex than any novel
a stronger rhythm section, anyway
that engine chugging, the forward motion

a line of ridge, a run of chords
a left hand, piano
the melody a copse of trees, a valley street
a house, a house, two houses

dirt road pressed uphill
a flute trill,
the highway’s curve
ranks of strings, swelling

music sliced by a bridge,
enhanced by small things
a crow, strutting the shoulder

big themes work through
this experience, the clouds
brown fields, fence fence fence

life as a journey
sight as sound, tree trunks
drum thumps, green signs, ding ding
boom lacka lacka lacka
oh yeah


by Chuck Joy