About The Monk Variations
These poems take as their subject and contemplation the American jazz musician Thelonious Monk (1917 – 1982). One of the great musical minds of the 20th century, he gained the highest distinction as both a pianist and as a composer, appearing with Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, and Miles Davis (to name but a few) before his abrupt withdrawal from the public eye in 1973. His ability to meld various jazz styles (including stride), elemental foundations of the blues, and modernist insights and techniques helped him create a body of work that continues to urgently intrigue and captivate scholars, performing musicians, aficionados, and casual listeners throughout the world. One of the most recorded jazz composers in history, one who appeared on the cover of Time magazine, his contributions to the standard jazz repertoire include “Straight, No Chaser,” “‘Round Midnight,” “Well, You Needn’t,” “Misterioso,” and “Blue Monk.”
Show Tunes
Strolling up
Tin Pan Alley –
broken glass, tacks,
and trap
doors, Monk falling
through sentiment
and harmony, crack
songs nailed
through the keyboard
with hammers,
physics, air –
proving beauty
is not without
irony, and sometimes
melody is supposed
to hurt
About Anthony Walton
Anthony Walton’s poems have appeared widely, in such magazines and
journals as The New Yorker, The American Scholar, The Black Scholar, 32
Poems, Alaska Quarterly Review, Kenyon Review, Black Renaissance Noire,
Poetry Ireland, Oxford American, Obsidian, Notre Dame Review, The
Library of America, and The Academy of American Poets. A celebrated
writer of prose, he is the author of Mississippi: An American Journey and
The End of Respectability. With the late Michael S. Harper, he edited two
landmark anthologies, Every Shut-Eye Ain’t Asleep: African American
Poetry Since World War II, and The Vintage Anthology of African
American Poetry. His chapbook, 1968, appeared in December 2025
from Staircase Books, and his first full-length book of poems, Celestial
Mechanics, will be published in early fall 2026 from Godine.