Thanks, Kevin,  for finding this powerful address by Dr. King at the Berlin Jazzfest in 1964. King obviously cared about jazz and that makes me respect his humanity even more.

I copied the address to chat GPT with this prompt: “Choose the most powerful images in this address to create five haiku.”

Here they are. Feels like there is a sliding puzzle here. This poetic play for its own sake, sparking the flint and steel of form with content, is what you can ‘arc’ poetry toward and through our souls, filtered into something very different yet still our own and worth sharing.  In other words you can extrude poetic material through your own soul form.  Build with what you get.

 

1.Songs rise from sorrow,

God’s creatures weave melodies,

Hope flows through oppression.

 

2.Jazz speaks life’s language,

Blues tell tales of hardship faced,

Triumphant notes soar.

 

3.Modern Jazz echoes,

Urban chaos finds order,

Earth’s sounds shape meaning.

 

4.Identity sought

In Jazz, roots affirm the soul,

Power in the notes.

 

5.Freedom’s anthem plays,

Sweet rhythms strengthen courage,

Harmonies calm hearts.

 

Home made from found materials above: