Hi everyone!   I am pleased to introduce our guest host for today – Lillian !

I’m a dreamer. I’ll admit it. And I also love music – all kinds. The rhythms and sounds take my body to another place.

One of my favorite poems of all time is an “oldie” – Jazz Fantasia by Carl Sandburg.
Jazz Fantasia

Drum on your drums, batter on your banjoes,
sob on the long cool winding saxophones.
Go to it, O jazzmen.

Sling your knuckles on the bottoms of the happy
tin pans, let your trombones ooze, and go husha-
husha-hush with the slippery sand-paper.

Moan like an autumn wind high in the lonesome treetops,
moan soft like you wanted somebody terrible, cry like a
racing car slipping away from a motorcycle cop, bang-bang!
you jazzmen, bang altogether drums, traps, banjoes, horns,
tin cans — make two people fight on the top of a stairway
and scratch each other’s eyes in a clinch tumbling down
the stairs.

Can the rough stuff . . . now a Mississippi steamboat pushes
up the night river with a hoo-hoo-hoo-oo . . . and the green
lanterns calling to the high soft stars . . . a red moon rides
on the humps of the low river hills . . . go to it, O jazzmen.

 

——
Years and years ago, I used to divide up my 10th grade English class into sections to read this poem aloud – and when you read it aloud, you hear the music. Try it!

Aristotle defines phantasia as “our desire for the mind to mediate anything not actually present to the senses with a mental image.” In music fantasia is defined as a free composition structured according to the composer’s fancy. Then there’s other “forms” of the word: fantasy as the creative imagination – unrestricted fancy; a capricious or fantastic idea; a far fetched or whimsical notion; or an imagined event such as a daydream. Some might even suggest a hallucination.

So for today’s prompt, I’d like us to create a poem that includes the word fantasia, phantasia, or fantasy. The word can be used in the title or the body of the poem itself. You can think about music or anything else that strikes your “fancy.” It’s a day to let your mind escape your rational being.

If you’re new to dVerse, this is how to participate:
Write a poem and post it to your site/blog.
Enter a link to your poem and your name by clicking Mr Linky below.
If you are promoting your work on social media, use the tag #dversepoets.
Lastly, please visit others at their links and read their work.

Thank you all. Have fun!

About guest host:

Lillian Hallberg, emeritus Dean of MBA Programs at Boston’s Suffolk University, began writing poetry in February 2015. She is published in Provincetown Magazine; was invited to read her poetry at Bermuda’s celebration of UNESCO World Heritage Day, March 2016, and her NaPoWriMo prompt suggestion was accepted and used on Day 10, 2016. She is a proud mom and gramma; and has enjoyed 46 wonderful years with the love of her life, George, a home chef extraordinaire.