Ornette

By Jayne Cortez
ornette ornette
Go listen to Ornette
Rambling Blessings
with Cherry Higgins Haden
O. D. C. B. holding church
at the five spot in
N. Y. C.

            Listen to the shrill voice
            Vibrating with
                                  Love & Agony

The great drops of water
spilling from
tears inside

            Hear the womb of spontaneity
A Quivering fever
                             rising
                                      Rising rapidly from
      Bitter    broken    rhythms
stomping
                  crying out
Fierce Freedom Screams

                        heard in the beating heart
                                    of R & B
Revolution & Blood
Revolution & Blood

    Liquid blood
                         foaming passionate
                                          Violent blood
                                                       gushing from the life of
               Ornette Coleman O. C.
O. C. Spitting black milk
blood milk
               splattering
the bleached looters mask
                                         with
                                a million strokes
                                        of Naked Unashamed
                                                     Blackness
                            Walking Proud
 

Notes:

This essay is part of the portfolio “Jayne Cortez: I Imitate No One.” You can read the rest of the portfolio in the November 2024 issue.

“Ornette” is from Firespitter: The Collected Poems of Jayne Cortez (Nightboat Books, 2025) and was originally published in Pissstained Stairs and the Monkey Man’s Wares (1969). We are grateful to Nightboat Books for their assistance in compiling this folio, and to the estate of Jayne Cortez for their permission in reprinting this poems.

Source: Poetry (November 2024)