In the maturity of America’s now almost 250 years, the music known worldwide as jazz and the literary artform celebrated as poetry have become prized attributes of the American identity. They have done so by employing creative innovations to simultaneously confirm the basic elements of what we recognize as freedom––such as peaceful protests, voting rights, self-expression––and by assisting and bearing witness to evolutions of the same.

Democracy and jazz by their very nature embrace diversity and inclusiveness. They in fact depend on them as proof of their essential value and validity. Likewise, poetry has forever had a tendency to decline domination by the will of a single despotic human figure. And the greatest talents in the world of jazz or any other form of music welcome the advantages of allowing gifted colleagues to enjoy their individual space upon a shared stage.

To celebrate National Poetry Month and Jazz Appreciation Month in 2026, is to express gratitude for the creative instinct’s ability to absorb the most destructive forces that invade our lives and transform them into the most healing and liberating. Many are pointing at this moment to America’s war against Iran, Russia’s against Ukraine, environmental crises, and dysfunctional leadership as evidence of the worst that we bring upon ourselves. Others, determined to keep hope alive and inspiration active, utilize creative tools at hand to hold oppression in check and let freedom ring as long and loudly as it can.

To read the poem, The Example of Thelonious Monk’s Winged Fingertips, included with article, PLEASE CLICK HERE.

Aberjhani