Many of you probably already knew that Reuben Jackson, host of Vermont Public Radio‘s “Friday Night Jazz” program, is not only a jazz geek; he’s a poet. And if you don’t know, writing poetry is hard. Writing really short poetry is even harder.
That’s why I’m getting a kick out of Jackson’s haiku coverage of the concerts he’s seeing during the jazz festival.
Remember haiku from high school English class? Seventeen syllables. A spare and elegant description of … whatever. Japanese poets of yore generally focused on nature, and somehow managed to say something deep.
Jackson is more concerned with conveying the moment. Despite being under the weather, he gamely went to see Bobby McFerrin at the Flynn Center on Saturday night. He writes on a VPR blog:
What would the stern but loving church-going elders of my Georgia and Washington, D.C., youth have thought of Bobby Mc Ferrin’s tender, swinging (and kaleidoscopic) performance of spirituals?
Not even a formidable head cold would prevent me from finding out.
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