Connie Johnson is a Los Angeles, California-based writer whose poetry has appeared in publications such as San Pedro River Review, Cholla Needles, Rye Whiskey Review, Glint Literary Journal, Mudfish 23, Oddball Magazine, Voicemail Poems, Impspired, Exit 13, Misfit Magazine, Iconoclast, Haight-Ashbury Literary Journal, Toasted Cheese, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, Sport Literate, Shot Glass Journal, Hudson Valley Writers Guild, Door is A Jar and Writing in a Woman’s Voice. In 2023 she was twice-nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Everything is Distant Now (Blue Horse Press), her debut poetry collection, is available on Amazon; In a Place of Dreams, her digital album/chapbook, can be found at www.jerryjazzmusician.com    

Archival

You buy me 
Writing tablets, pens 
With archival ink

“Write a love poem,” you ask me 
When what you really mean is:
“Write about me”

I describe love ascendency
Co-dependency; the pure redemption, 
The down and dirty invention of what
I thought was left behind

Cars Trains
Boats Planes
All carry me away from you
But I always return 

The laugh lines you gave me, the wine-flavored 
Kisses we still deign to bestow. You are the debt 
I owe, what I reap and what I sow, and simply 
What I could never repay


Kisses on my brow,
The slope of our shoulders
That bear what seems to be unbearable
In this late hour of the day, who can 
Argue with what we view to be 
Archival?

Tedi

You get the feeling that you’re never supposed to be serious or be a man who could fall in love

Johnny Hartman

iconic realm
explore a jazz landscape
lightyears of longing; he sings 
and all of the lyrics ring true

Johnny Hartman
eternal balladeer, the only singer
to have recorded with Coltrane -
obbligatos, barely a difference
between Trane’s tenor sax
and his voice

Johnny Hartman
the cool baritone 
the man you turn to
for what is lush and 
too beautiful

love ballads 
his preference; perfect diction 
and he phrased a song the same way 
that he spoke  -- Chicago born!
a cool gentleman, a winding 
down of time when leaves 
begin to fall

all or nothing at all!
a celebration, a dedication
to a woman who made the
love songs ring true:

“Tedi
this one’s for
you…”

Nightlife: Haiku

You’re a P.M. femme
Hooked on the nightlife of jazz
The stars surround you

Inexplicable
The way you can improvise
Art Tatum’s Moonglow

Hipster jazz rules here
All of our references
So impeccable

A nightful of questions
Ella tries her hand at one:
How High the Moon?

Smoky contralto
Shirley Horn heats up the room
Embers and Ashes

A kiss from Nellie
Nice Work if You Can Get It
Thelonious smiles

Paging King Pleasure!
Ruling us with vocalese
Aristocracy 

It’s London by Night
Sultry vixen at the mic
Julie is her name

Take us traveling
To a Night in Tunisia
I’ve got my passport!

Ornithology
On a night of bebop bliss!
Bird is taking flight 

He’s late coming home
And lipstick stains his collar
Don’t explain, you say