Monday, January 9, 2017

THE LIFE OF NAT HENTOFF
(1925-2016)

While listening
and smiling to Billie Holiday
as Nat Hentoff,
jazz critic
for the "Village Voice"
has passed away
whom my family loved
has passed away,
yet my enduring memory
has not died,
he too was born in Roxbury
at Boston,
flowed along
with the music of Bessie Smith,
Louis Armstrong
Monk, Mingus, Ellington,
my aunt
introduced me
into his company
after winning a radio
contest on his music show
he was enlightened
to be pro life
and fought like me
for civil rights and liberties
reading him
with my lights on
many nights
until the dawn.

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