Dance of Metaphor: Free(dom) Verse

Transformation

Malraux called it metamorphosis

Transition and trance-form-ation

Word, phrase, idea, image 

changing from this to that

Metaphor

Meta for what and whom?

Like dance gestures

Ronald K. Brown’s “Mercy”

Arm in air, likeness of a noose

Raised hand, becoming a fist

Power

Brown’s magnificent “Grace”

Sacred to secular modes of life 

Like Ailey’s “Revelations” for Ellison

Embodied wisdom, soul in-form-ation 

Movement eloquence

Elegance

Faulkner’s “The Bear”

Sam, Old Indian

five-cent straw hat

former badge of enslavement

becomes regalia of freedom

Jazz, freedom in form

Like Bird’s solos of syncopated lightning

As in poetic free verse

Freedom: the ultimate transformation

P.S. Charlie “Bird” Parker would have been 100 on August 29, 2020. Add our pieces from earlier this year, “Charlie Parker’s Higher Octave” and “Diderot and Charlie Parker: Invincible Spontaneity” to the long list of worthy tributes to a Mt. Rushmore jazz grandmaster.