Billy Taylor

Donnie Bryson

Take me back God, I want to wash clean my dull ears
By the banks of the mighty Billy Taylor
Polyrhythmic suspensions and baroque ragtime
Not the simple hip song heard by boxed Norman Mailer
But substitutions mixed with the Viennese sublime


Please God, take me back to the banks of that mighty Billy Taylor
Let me bob my head and roll back the flowing years
Sailing back like a time-travelling sailor
Mystically synced with my unseen trap-set playing only in my ear


Please God, take me back
I want to dip once again
Beside those flowing banks
Of the mighty Billy Taylor
Donnie Bryson
Written after hearing jazz great, Dr Billy Taylor, passed late 2010.

Category: Poetry

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