This week let’s write a presumptuous poem. We all know presumptuous people, many poets among them. Write about them or maybe the poem itself can be presumptuous. It’s not for me to presume, I’m just writing the prompt. You’re the poet, post your presumption in the comments below.
(I couldn’t find a good image for this presumptuous prompt so here are a couple of playful puppies instead.)
About Bartholomew Barker
Bartholomew Barker is an organizer of Living Poetry, a collection of poets in the Triangle region of North Carolina where he has hosted a monthly feedback workshop for more than decade. His first poetry collection, Wednesday Night Regular, written in and about strip clubs, was published in 2013. His second, Milkshakes and Chilidogs, a chapbook of food inspired poetry was served in 2017. He was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2021. Born and raised in Ohio, studied in Chicago, he worked in Connecticut for nearly twenty years before moving to Hillsborough where he lives and writes poetry.
Living Poetry 
Presumptuous
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Sometimes, things just align in ways you never see coming.
This is one of those times.
A little background: I read this prompt and thought that I was too busy to take it on. I read it and archived the email and moved on. After email was done, it was time to get rid of today’s Facebook.
Then I saw memory from ten years ago. I can’t post pictures here, but imagine a dark kitchen lit by a single hidden hood light. A single line under the picture says:
“”A Kitchen Cleaned” – it’s not John Coltrane, but it’s the best I can pull off tonight”
Today ten years later, it came up and I wrote this retrospective of that night in 2014.
=========================
Like a bolt of lightning… I will never forget hearing this for the first time that cold night.
I just had those words pop into my head, “A Kitchen Cleaned” and thought of the classic album by John Coltrane “A Love Supreme”. Of course, I had heard OF it but never listened to it before. I decided it was time.
The reaction I had to the first three tracks was typical of most Jazz for me. I could hear the artistry but it didn’t impact me.
The fourth track, Psalm, was different. There have been very few times music, that most intimate form of communication, has moved me as much as it did that night. I was stunned by the power of it.
I looked up the album’s history. I read that this track was not considered the “best” of his storied career. But I read it was one he himself loved it especially, writing lyrics to solo. I also read this fact: It was recorded in one take on… December 9, 1964. Fifty years before that night I cleaned that kitchen. I felt it was as if Coltrane’s soul was reaching out to me that evening.
So, on this 60th anniversary, go listen to it, for the first time or 60th. It’s worth it, even if you don’t like Jazz…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1xe7FDsQWY
Presumptuous of me? Almost certainly, but maybe… maybe someone will understand and will smile, thankful that I broke this fourth wall.
Peace
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Posted by Chris Clarke | December 9, 2024, 10:11 AMA nice recollection. Thanks for sharing, Chris.
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | December 9, 2024, 7:09 PMNot Presumptuous
He won’t admit he’s arrogant,
He says he’s always right.
His supercilious attitude
sends family into flight.
He thinks he is alone
because his brilliance
shines too bright.
He planned a sublime
funeral to entertain
the town.
He won’t know
that when he dies,
he’ll be there by himself.
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Posted by crazy4yarn2 | December 9, 2024, 10:16 AMExcellent use of “supercilious”. Well done!
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | December 9, 2024, 7:11 PMThank you, thank you! Great prompt!
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Posted by crazy4yarn2 | December 9, 2024, 7:19 PM