April Poetry Writing Challenge

The earth has been revolving beneath our feet and here we are; the first day 

of National Poetry Month and Jazz Appreciation month.

I love both poetry and jazz. I could venture down any given thoroughfare, pivoting over 

my favorite jazz tune and I would be just in my nature singing it, as natural as cherry 

blossoms when spring comes into swing. 

Thickets hardly ever stand in the way of my desire to write a couplet in rhyme in my time when I feel the vibe, and it's in my design, READY to rain on a blank page.

As I stole glances at the sun peeking its way through the curtains of the night sky, it dawned on me that This brand-new season that has come upon us with this new set of 24, is a special month. 

I need to write more. I want to get into the swing of appreciating a musical genre and culture I really love. It's time to let my poetic voice ring-a-ling-a-ling louder than a Cynthia Erivo vocal belt. 

I mean, what is jazz anyway? It is poetry in rhythm. It is a metaphor for love. It is an onomatopoeia for life.

With that in mind, I decided to set myself on my own 30-day writing challenge, just to try to reframe my mind to focusing on completing a task and actually writing like I ought to. A poem a day with a jazz twist; something like a margarita with a twist of orange. I am celebrating both jazz and poetry through art and words, harmoniously. 

My 30 days of poetry have begun. I accept the challenge. I'm getting tipsy already. My first installment is here.  

The Soothing Sounds

 

A broad swathe of music wraps around my aching body.

It soothes.

It empowers.

Its waves exhilarate me.

 

My emotional tide waves are at high.

The jazz in me be-bops melodic sighs.

My tears fall when the music inclines.

A jolt of poetry vibrates 9.5.

 

My soul starts its dance atop the leather of congas.

It’s legs shuffling in a full-blown tantrum,

casually winnowing away from the discord notes,

and catapulting into a tri-tone.

 

Microgrooves of 78s.

Santana’s “Shango” and “What Does it Take.”

The sound of Samba invites me to dance and engage

I was clad in music which was a band-aid for my aches. 

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Now, here is an idea. If you are a writer and you want to join in the fun of writing and also the challenge of getting your thoughts out daily, join in this challenge. Let me know if you also will try to be consistent for the next 30 days, post it and send me the link. I'd love to read it. 

Also, tell me what you think. Would love comments, suggestions on how to improve, or just a hello to say that you stopped by.

Either way, thanks for reading.

Happy poetry and jazz month.

Peace! 

JNote

http://instagram.com/jnotemusic

POET Tuesday by Stephanie Jeannot

Every day is a day that is good to write poetry; especially if you are a poetess like me. But, today seems like an even more extra special day because it is Tuesday and Tuesday is designated as Poetry Tuesday and so, poetry is the game. Here are a few of the latest poems that have been seeping through my pores. I hope you enjoy. 

I Write

I was born as a poem written in a Fifth grader’s marble notebook

My lines were enhanced by a sword and shield and I turned into an epic

I started this romantic relationship slaying dragons and I was transformed into a song

The main soldier in the story became me when my song became a full-length production

You can watch it at a theatre near you and hear the words to me, the anthem

But wherever I am and whenever life spans, the poetry never dies

I still remain vivid and sonorous within the lines

And the words that breathe through are just fine

Because they are mine

I write

 

Full Hearted

Three pages to get you connected with your own id

Ego surpasses everything that went in

To the scribing times and writing blinds to get to this place

They told me not to read it back or edit, so I cannot erase

All I can do is let it out like a cry when losing face

I thought why not

Seemed like a good idea to give it a taste

And so one day I am there releasing

And other times, not in the mood

But they say to feed the hunger to use my thoughts for food

So I’ve been doing the program to release the artist within

And I’m reaching my hand like a back brush to reach the past of when a kid

And all I know it has rained forty days from when I first had started

Almost more tears than the bubbles of all the times I’ve farted

And I am doing it like a professional trash person; hurts discarded

So I can affirm my truths; I know them full hearted.

Open Book

She said what she felt like she never did before

She let out her muse and it happened more and more

She was open like a book and the test was happening

She was telling all the answers that nobody was asking

She thought it was the thing that was supposed to go on

She spelled out every word to each one of her songs

And never held in anything that could be kept as hush

She probably never considered the fact that she had talked too much

She went from writing her thoughts to a book to sharing them with an ear

She went from using her pencil to release her mind to becoming a mountaineer

She thought using her ropes was the answer to the journey she’d been on

She thought that maybe he had been the clear to her life-long thicket of fog

She never thought that is was wrong because she never had it once

She just started living life and gaining scars and cuts

She knew her wrongs and detours, falls and things that kept her from her climb

These were the things that made her block the world from her reminds

And though she fell into this ditch where she just simply lied

Each knee jerk reaction was another shock to come alive

She stood back up on her two feet again at 7:10

To a new light of inspiration and a melodic beat and it all happened when

She got the thread to gauge his eye to sew up her hem

He was the needle that poked her back to life again

 

 

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Thank you so much for reading my poems. If you liked what you read, perhaps you might enjoy one of my poetry collections.  

And Then There Was the Music: Musical Poetry Collection by Stephanie Jeannot

Pulchritudinous: The Poetry Collection

Follow my author page on Amazon here: Stephanie Jeannot: Amazon Author Page

Poettues: Lake Street Station

Poettues 

Lake Street Station

by Stephanie Jeannot

Weekday vibes in the midst of the rush

Through the CTA Station, music sprinkling down on us

A guy spitting bars on the crowded platform

Over an ocean wave of bass thumps satiating the core

You could hear the refreshing sound of the buskers blazing

I pulled my phone out to take a cameo of their sound exchanging

I caught the fever and all I wanted to do was sing along with them

And so, while the rapper spat, I hummed and started ad-libbing

We vibed until the El came chugging into the station

I almost didn’t want to board because I was really feeling ‘em

It was a scene that reminded me of NYC, making me feel like I was home

Something else to add to the love of Chicago, from these experiences that I own

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The poem was based on my explorations of Chicago via the CTA; perfect for Poetry Tuesday. 

Every time I am in Chicago, riding the El is on my bucket list of things I want to do
and so, I do it and I always end up seeing something else that fascinates my eyes.

Also, while here on my downtime, I am experimenting using various apps to complete short video editing projects. 

Please check out my video short "Chicago Train Rides Be Like. . ." here:  https://youtu.be/qQyCqzTlfaM

Thank you for checking out my blog post!

Happy National Poetry Month

 It is National Poetry Month; a month I hold dear to my heart because I am a poet.

I started writing poetry in the fifth grade and then challenged myself to write 5000 words with which I would publish a book of poetry. And I did.

I write to clear my mind. I write to pass the time. I write when times are enjoyable and I write when I feel like I am walking blind.

Whenever I storm with ideas, I put my pen to the paper and scribe away. Sometimes it comes out as a poem and sometimes as a song. Then there are times when a short story is birthed out of my storming.

Some of my favorite moments is when I get carried away by poetic imagery. I find the art of writing poetry very enriching and a joyful experience. It is one of the reasons I pursued English as a major and my primary reason for babbling along. But enough of that; I want to get your feet wet with a sample of my writing.   

 

Line after line after line

By Stephanie Jeannot

I like to stay in my undisturbed space

When I’m cooped up at home

I like to head outdoors onto the grass

And sit there with my thoughts alone

I feel ecstatic when I can

operate creatively there

I add unto my eclectic repertoire

Fingerprints of truth

Stored in my mind among the wares

I’ve encountered people from all walks of life

That made contributions to my being

Some provided a layer of support

And some that brought winds of change

That made many moments disappointing

Still my mind goes spiraling forward

And I write in those allotment of times

Every release is a new beginning

Line after line after line

 

 

Thank you for reading a sample of my poetry. If you are interested, I do have a poetry book available of Amazon.com. I invite you to check it out. It is entitled  And Then There Was The Music: Musical Poetry Collection and an Essay 

 

Thank you for reading and happy National Poetry Month!

PEACE

Currents of Love Flowing From My Heart through 'Songs For My Mother'

I want to tap into your emotions and share with you how my mother created magic in my life. I want to convey the story of a woman who made a melodic statement everywhere she escaped to.

I have accumulated so many facts over the years from the multitude of scenarios that she bolstered. She is a woman of faith, a warrior and a jewel. And so, I thought it would be nice to expose others to some of the ideas and concepts that my mother shared, as currents of love flowing from my heart.

If you have yet to get a gift for your mom and are looking for something different, perhaps she will enjoy the strong lyrical content found in my most recent collection of poetry entitled, “Songs For My Mother” by Stephanie Jeannot.

It is a collection of poems dedicated specifically to my mother but appropriate for any mother. It speaks of my family being clustered close together submersing into the idea of being in unity.

The overall mood of it is happy. The poems concentrate on the woman that I have been blessed to call mom. It is an emotional minefield with an endless trove of golden moments shared.

My mother bolstered faith. She showed us how to make our existence dynamic and fun. She showed us how to recognize the errors of our ways so that we could bounce back from our series of stupid mistakes and successfully navigate the world. She gave us a passion for knowledge. She built us up strong so that when we were ready to take off the training wheels, we would be capable of doing big things. And she cooked the most delicious food that you can find on the face of the world.

As opposed to letting these truths of our upbringing sit up in the storage of my mind, I thought it would be nice to share the memorability of it all; mostly because our upbringing was teeming with life.

Hopefully, you will feel inclined to perhaps get a copy for yourself or for your own mom, to slip away and leaf through the pages.  I realize that we all hook our own meaning to the life that we lived and the parents who generated energy into the lives we pursued but I am thinking that some of the elements of our upbringings might have some similarities and you might be able to relate to many of the scenarios presented in this poetry collection.

The poetry collection, “Songs For My Mother” by Stephanie Jeannot, features 24 poems. Each poem is uniquely equipped with a different length with a sense of openness to my heart woven into it.  This book delivers a series of thoughts meant to celebrate the royalty that a mother possesses in her queendom.

I invite you to support my efforts. This book is well worth the purchase. Somewhere in the world, there is a heart that might need the dazzle found within its pages. You can get your copy on Amazon. It is available as a hard copy or in a Kindle format here: Click Here to Get the Book "Songs For My Mother" by Stephanie Jeannot

Songs For My Mother

I hope that you received my blogpost in an open-minded manner. My thoughts shared were dispensed with gusto.  If I connected with your state of mind through this promotional platform at all, I appreciate your network of support. 

Sharing this with you all was quite humbling for me and I am thankful to you for indulging for a moment on how I am trying to satiate my appetite of being a writer and an author that is currently giving me gravity.

Songs For My Father

With every new endeavor, I can say that I had my father there, in his genuine nature, infusing me with mental strength and love that made me feel adequate. 

Today, I am turning up the volume to his truth because I never had to vie for his attention. Our relationship from its genesis has always been rooted and grounded in love and for every powerful memory that I have, I can say that he has been there, even when I tried to burrow away from his instructions to take my own crazy paths that resulted in what we call, experience. But I was never too far from the safety of his love because it was always there for me regardless of how rebellious and stubborn I was.

And so, to savor the good things that we have had over the years because of his answering the call to the duty of being a real dad, I twittered with delight writing some poetry in dedication to his being in my life and for every calming moment that he gave me his shoulder to cry on and comforted me to know that I was loved.

He made a huge impact on this woman that I am becoming. Today, I bring wild cheers in the form of a book of poetry that you might be interested in sharing with your own father, as this week brings to us the traditional celebration of Father’s Day. 

As I retraced the steps of every moment that we shared, thoughts augmented my reality which manifested into a new verse of poetry. I had much to say deep inside and I hope that perhaps you might take a chance on my latest book of poetry, Songs for My Father by Stephanie Jeannot which is dedicated to all the quality dads. You can find it on Amazon here: Songs For My Father

 

It is definitely a time for dads to shine; especially those who always seemed to grace the 

stage with concern and love and left lasting impacts on their children.

Happy Father's Day and God bless! 

Poettues: And Then There Was the Music

It’s poetry Tuesday and today my cognitive load seems to be on poetic works.

As we celebrate the black history of America and the world, today I want to honor such poets as Melvin B Tolson who said, “When the exceptional historian comes along, we have a poet.” Some other notable poets who were iconic and left behind a wealth of works for the world to enjoy are Alice Walker, Langston Hughes, Sojourner Truth, Maya Angelou and Paul Laurence Dunbar, just to name a few.

Alice Walker was not only a poet but a civil rights activist who participated in the march on Washington in 1963 and volunteered to enroll persons of color to vote in Georgia and in Mississippi. She felt that “activism was her rent for being on this earth.”

SPEAKING OF POETRY . . .

What better day than today to announce that for the first time, my second book, And Then There Was the Music; Musical Poetry and an Essay is available on Amazon. 

And Then There Was the Music

I didn’t think I had 100 pages of writing in me until I saw the hundred pages unfold before my eyes. I didn’t think I had as much focus as I did to complete a work like this until I decided to sit and just let the words flow. But thank God for the joys of writing and sharing some historical data about music and how it has been used as a political voice since the beginning of time, as well as other fun, music related poems that I included.

Here are a few poems that you might see in the book. Hopefully you will take the time to read them and if you like them, please consider purchasing a copy of my book for yourself.

  

Lessons in the Blues

Don’t let hate, interrupt the rhythm of the 24 hours you’ve been given in your day.

Don’t let the rocks that slingers throw blind your vision and get in your way.

Don’t let lack of love from your brothers cause you to feel shame.

Don’t let the prejudicial system make you lose you’re A-game.

Don’t let the denial of true education stop you in your mental growth.

Don’t let bad news keep you from opening the newspapers to get in the know.

Don’t let the sound of the 9:30 bell discourage you from earning your own dough.

Don’t think that little you, can’t make a difference because you can glow.

We all got bills and baggage and things to do before the day is done.

We all got bills due that we must pay off to someone.

We all got lives worth living and no the blues need not apply.

We all got means to see the truth for ourselves with our own eyes.

We all got to sit down to defecate regardless of color.

And we all take off one pant leg at a time, whether a sister or brother.

And we all have a song and dance and a rhythm of life we keep.

It’s learning that we are all not that different that mostly makes me weep.

Why are we blind to this truth of the world in which we live?

And why is the blues the only means that some people live?

And why is it that some don’t even have a real reason to give,

to explain why they hate based on color, sex or religion?

Charles Pulliam

Listen to the rhythm of the tumbadora.

Hands beating its wood;

Sounding the heartbeat

between scat chorus you hear the throb

taking you to another place like the turn of a door knob.

A quartet of songs

with an application of beautiful hand drumming along

met by a huge cheering crowd

and Charles Pulliam, all decked out, smiling out loud.

IPod

When these headphones are plugged into my ear, I tune out the world

and hear nothing else.

Even if I come and ring somebody’s bell and they say, “Who is it” I can’t tell

because my song be on and that’s all that matters when my IPod is on play.

Just make sure you hear sirens ringing if they are speeding your way

or the conductor saying the train is skipping stops and yours is one of them;

even if the song currently being absorbed is a hit from an iconic gem

Indie Artists

Independent artists of the planet.

Charles Mingus, Max Roach and 21-Century artists.

Music makers, dreamers coloring the day with their art.

Bohemian rhapsodies they play in the day and in the dark.

We bring social influence to light.

We push our music because our message is our why.

We sink like the Titanic into the work that needs to be done.

Our music is the magic we use to try to affect everyone.

We flood our thoughts, share them and leave a little sparkle.

Our life is our canvas to wake up and be-you-tiful.

Hope that you enjoyed the read and if you did, please check out some of the other poems featured in this book. It is available in both Kindle and print version. You can check out my author page on Amazon here: Stephanie Jeannot's Author Page

Filter Out the Past and Keep Moving Onward to the Future

NuuViziun Photography

Doesn’t it feel good to know

that while playing a balancing act

of juggling the world and our passions

on our paths

we are living champions of life?

We are strong. We are fierce.

We are warriors

And our feet are spears.

Life has challenges.

It deals some cards

 that might force us to renig

and it goes to the heart
while we are looking back

Nuu Viziun Photography

because we envisioned a hand

that we didn’t really have.

Some things we were able to move on from

and some that we never get past.

And here we are in the present moment,

with all this knowledge of how strong we are

as people, thriving to fight

for what is in our hearts.

And so, all those things that held us prisoners to the past,

let them go like passing gas

And all those things that keep us bothered by our yesters

Shit them out and become a quality ply of toilet tissue invester

And all those things that no longer satisfy

Regurgitate them out of your life.

Tell the sorrows goodbye and let the sunshine in

Don’t allow the small shit to keep you dim.

It’s okay to live. It’s okay to love.

It’s okay to trust. Know that you are enough.

And eff all those who don’t believe in who you are.

If you believe in yourself, you are half way there.

As you look onward to the future.  

Poettues: World Day of Poetry

It is World Day of Poetry and also Poetry Tuesday and so today, I share with you a poem. Hope you enjoy what you read. This poem is entitled World Day of Poetry.

I am an able-bodied woman of Haitian descent

who has shaken off fear and now able to present

genuine affection for the world which I toil free;

I unfold for World Day of Poetry.

Here I am; the tiger burning bright.

I’ve lived under the thinnest of moonlight.

Stains of ragged footprints of time that changed the lamb.

The fuel that keeps me alive like that of William Blake’s hand.

Learning from every conundrum, abuse and stains left on my skin.

Reason bursts like a volcanic eruption and here we go overthinking.

Google maps can’t look inside my heart to see the lava.

The lively Shakespearean madness in me, some consider all drama.

But my past however does not encapsulate my individualizing.

Creativity and Poe-ish passion make this caged bird sing.

An early morning dream; lit torches that unearth a laugh.

Necessary maintenance help me grow on this writing path.

And the special circumstances that make me focus on my lot.

Each person’s song and dance; the work that makes their hearts stop.

I sing of the world I see around me like Emily Dickenson wrote her logs.

It’s world poetry day, so here is a poetic throb.

Some may have been hoping to see rants of politic trump.

Some may have wanted to read a movie thumb.

“Sing”, yes I loved it! “Get out” was a great view.

Some of Langston Hughes works still read to me as brand new.

Nikki Giovanni and Wheatley pieces bring peace to me too

like a long island iced tea over ice soothes.

But here I am with this song and dance echoing nothing but music

and then I see a firetruck in the ocean that brought on some amusement;

trying to put out the fire that was burning inside of me;

trying to extinguish the passions that make me breathe.
Trying to rescue me from the icy pond on which I walked
Trying to stop me in my path from lyrical talk. 

Now the spring is here and my journal is out
and I'm writing about the world, love and the boycotting of winter a lot.

I’m sizzling still and world poetry day just added to the furnace.

I’m a poetess and any form of writing gives me purpose.

About writing

When I write songs, I write it somewhat like a poem, counting syllables and trying to make words rhyme to make it fit. Shakespeare made me love to write. Hughes made me love to read. Music gives me wings to fly. I sing because I’m happy and free. I wrote songs because my poetry gained flight and became a butterfly. 

“You Loved Me” is one of those songs. Lyrics by Stephanie Jeannot and music by Mike LeShore. Check it out here: https://soundcloud.com/stephanay-jnote/stephanay-jnotes-tracks-1