Poetry Magazines - The best collection of poetry magazines online - Simon Armitage

VIII

Charlie Parker was
a man obsessed by cabs.
He made his office one.
It was his waiting room
and served him as a bed
where he could take a nap
and also as saloon
to dose himself with pills
and write down music scraps.
Red Rodney estimates
the sack time that Bird spent
in back of taxicabs
occupied as much
as time he spent in bed.

IX

Ralph Douglas was his man.
On hearing Bird’s Cool Blues
he was a Parker fan.
He knew where Charlie played
would park in front of clubs
so he could slip inside
and catch the latest sets.
Sometimes Bird would keep
his cabbie one full day
inviting him to eat
in some fine restaurant
and knowing life is hard
for almost everyone
he let the meter run.

XLI

Alienation is
the lone composer’s lot.
As one creator Bird
felt this solitude.
Mahler put it best.
He said ‘We don’t compose.
Instead we are composed
for one is nothing but
an instrument on which
the universe performs.
All who live with me
have to learn this fact.
Such times I can’t belong
even to myself.
It can’t be otherwise.
An artist must endure
so many lonely hours
of solitude in which
he’s well lost in himself,
entirely cut off from
the solid world outside.’
Bird often knew this state.

XLII

To modify his mood
if it was too intense
required a change of pace -
perspective varied by
a jump from earth to sky
or from the sky to earth.
A friend saw Bird stretch out
upon a garbage bin
resting his weight on top.
Another witness said
he rolled along the ground
among the litter there.
Had Bird gone mad that night?
Charlie answered them.
He wanted change of mood
to alter how he felt
to disconnect the past
and all exigencies
release the weight of guilt
a moment to reflect
stilling the abyss
that opened at his feet
for all putative things -
this change refreshing him,
relaxing all his cares.