Blind Lemon Jefferson’s Body Is Brought from Chicago to Wortham, Texas, by Pianist and Labelmate Will Ezell by Judy Jensen
I gave my aunt the Texas Poetry Calendar 2008 for Christmas, and she was very excited. I was just as excited to give it to her. Of course, I read all the poems before I wrapped it… There is lots of good stuff! I highly recommend buying one (or several). This is the first place winner for this year. If you’d like to know a bit more about Blind Lemon Jefferson, check out the Wikipedia entry. I attended a reading and heard some of Judy Jensen’s work and she’s very talented. Regretfully, I couldn’t find a website for her, but if you come across her stuff, it would be worth checking out!
Blind Lemon Jefferson’s Body Is Brought from Chicago to Wortham, Texas, by Pianist and Labelmate Will Ezell
By Judy Jensen
New Year’s Day, 1930
No car, no chauffeur. Two ashen horses
nicker wet and close through the storm’s static,
each hoof strikes a nail in the coffin’s lid.
It’s not the blizzard’s ardor stayed church bells:
it’s the weight of unmoored boys underground.
Stayed, the heart—in fields opening wide between beats—
sinks below the rhythmic counterpoints
of abundant drought and scant harvest.
Stayed, the mind—under the years’ chorded streams—
revisits bright, bright green seedlings strumming
in warming furrows, the feracious Texas soil
turning itself inside out, steaming, to receive.
