The Jazz years

The Coronado Bridge

I watched it being built from the windows overlooking the Bay

The lights slowly moving across the half moon expanse

As I struggled to learn Jazz

On my piano brought up the stairs to a filthy, crowded studio

I sat and tried to find my way

All day the music played

Coltrane, Dolphy, Sun Ra, Rollins, Palmieri, Ayler

Slowly the lights crawled across the bay

Then through the Jazz years

it stretched like a talisman

in the black early morning

a string of jewels burning in the silence before dawn

golden in the sunset

Amber lights twinkling

Viewed from a hill overlooking the bay

as another endless California day

settled into night