Gerald Locklin / Long Beach, CA 
 

(Quiet Nights)

i still enjoy the music of excitement–
that which makes me want to dance,
makes me dance, in fact, in place:
cannonball, jacky terrasson, roy hargrove–

but more often now a quiet album
is just right:  the keith jarrett that henry
sent me–the melody at night with you–
or the edgar cruz CDs of solo guitar that
deb brown sent from Oklahoma,
skilled, tasteful, various,
close, like jarrett’s, to the contours of
the melodies, often favorites of mine since
childhood or young manhood:
“malaguena” to “moonlight sonata,”
“layla” to “macarthur park,”
“send in the clowns” to “unchained melody.”

i listen to them alone,
in the hour before sleep,
the hour of reflection and of planning,
the hour when we may come close to peace,

those moments when I’m glad to be alone,
or almost so.