Talking about life & culture in New Orleans
Reece Burkaauthor
NolaVie

The poetic city: “Celebrating the Birth of Jazz 8/1/19”

Jan 06, 2020 • Creative Writing

Near New Iberia, LA, 1938 (Photo: Library of Congress; pubic domain)

Celebrating the Birth of Jazz  8/1/19

 
When the Angels of Possibility 
Prevailed upon the Lord of the Cosmos 
To allow the element of chance
To play with the laws of necessity
Down deep in the pocket
Of the newly formed Universe
They could not have known
Exactly how things would turn out. 
 
But they knew for sure 
That sooner or later
The music of the spheres 
Was going to get 
A lot more interesting 
When all those quarks and leptons 
Started doing their subatomic dance 
To a funky second line beat. 
 
That’s why the Angels of Possibility 
Gather together every April
In the city of New Orleans 
To celebrate their achievement … 
 
And it took only 13.7 billion years  
Which in cosmic terms is nothing at all.
 

Comments

You must login to post a comment. Need a ViaNolaVie account? Click here to signup.
Recent Posts on ViaNolaVie
Reviving history: Dear New Orleans city council, save the second lines! As New Orleans begins to reopen after the pandemic, New Orleans's culture that people love and the city loves to advertise will come back. In this letter to the city council, Morgan Maschler explains why the second lines of New Orleans need to be protected and why they may be at risk. ViaNola NOLAbeings Multimedia artist Claire Bangser created NOLAbeings as a portrait-based story project that marries... NolaVie Voodoo in New Orleans: Reviving history: New Orleans fortune telling This article takes a deep dive into the history of Voodoo in New Orleans, its hybridization with Catholicism, and its present-day place in the city's culture. The author visits fortune-tellers in the French Quarter, using their guidance as a tool for introspection rather than a deterministic predictor of the future. Through her experiences in New Orleans, the author feels a mystical connection to both the past and the future. ViaNola
View Content Archive
Related Content
NolaVie
The poetic city: “On the Way to the Jazzfest 5/5/19”
Creative Writing
NolaVie
The poetic city: “The Secret Center of the Universe 6/23/12”
Creative Writing
NolaVie
The poetic city: “Once Again Deep In The Pocket With Miss Helen 8/1/15”
Creative Writing