A
lbum reviewer and Emporia State University professor, Kevin Rabas sent JAM a poem for our April issue. It never was printed.
Kevin was a student of Dan Jaffe, who many of you know as the, “jazz poet”. Dan passed away in February. He is missed by the jazz community.
We anticipate the return of Kevin Rabas and K-State professor, Wayne Goins in 2021 with a flood of shiny-new album reviews.
In the meantime, JAM sincerely hopes that you enjoy this short poem from Kevin as we continue to rapidly flip through the seasons in virtual lockdown, losing family and friends along the way.
—Editor
Wednesday 18 March 2020
So we stay home watch the rain: gray day, the lawn greening, the yellow crocus up, trumpeting-- and nowhere to go, no one to meet for lunch, the bug in the background, and so I listen to Mingus, "Goodbye Porkpie Hat," and pray for my parents in another town and for jazz musicians, out of work, home with their saxes and drums, rumbling somewhere, like the Italian tenor, singing from his window to an empty, empty street.