Tad Richards's chapbook, Take Five: Poems in
5/4 Time, is forthcoming from Ye Olde Font Shoppe Press (New
Haven, Connecticut), publisher of his two earlier collections, My
Night With the Language Thieves (1999) and Situations
(2002), which is currently being serialized on the Italian website,
Fieralingue. He was the most prolific contributor of
critical bios to the recent Greeenwood Encyclopedia of American
Poets and Poetry.
With Miles
Trane would start a solo
an hour later
still
be playing
Miles said
why so long
Trane said
that was how long it took
Herbie told Miles
I don't know what to play no more
Miles said
don't play nothing
Herbie sat with
his
hands in
his lap
the
whole number
up for
one
sound
back to the lap
Miles said
that sound was a bitch
Mtume wanted Miles
like a martial arts master
who splits an apple
on a guy's throat
without touching the throat
to play a whole concert
just below the
threshold of sound
