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Introduction
The question "What constitutes jazz poetry?" is a prerequisite to any academic discussion about the relationship between jazz music and jazz poetry. Is it possible to produce a coherent, consistent definition? Should any poetry regarding or alluding to jazz performers or music be considered jazz poetry? Is authenticity achieved in jazz poetry only by directly referring to the rhythm, structures, and improvisational techniques of jazz music? To paraphrase the jazz critic Sascha Feinstein, the answer to all these questions is a qualified yes. JnJa^g Poetry: From the 1920s to the Present (1997), he defines a jazz poem as "any poem that has been informed by jazz music. The influence can be in the subject of the poem or in the rhythms, but one should not necessarily exclude the other" (2). In their Preface to The Ja^ Poetry Anthology (1991), Feinstein and fellow jazz poet Yusef Komunyakaa declare that jazz poetry can be understood in terms of "standard poetic sensibilities" and the conventions of a prosody that allows for syncopated rhythm and meter (xvii) .
American poets as diverse as Jack Kerouac and Maya Angelou have tried their hand at writing jazz poetry, often experimenting with jazz music backgrounds to their own poetry readings, with varying degrees of literary integrity and success. Jazz poetry mines jazz music for inspiration, influence, and interlocution. In doing so, jazz poetry alludes to the lived black experience in America, as does jazz music, a cultural practice derived from socio-historical realities of African American communities. This practice not only includes African survivals in African American language, music, and culture, but also Euro-American influences affecting black life in the United States of America. The jazz poet Imamu Amiri Baraka claims that
poetry is a form of music. . . . That's where poetry began; close to music, close to dance, and for those of us who are in the Afro- American community it's normal that music should be the music of our own people because that's what we come up with. That's what we're born with, so that's music . . . the first poetry that I knew was the poetry of the blues. That's the first poetry that had any meaning to me. (Reilly 222-23)
Jazz and blues share musical...