The Second Set: The Jazz Poetry Anthology (Vol. 2)
Following up their wonderful jazz poetry anthology, editors Sascha Feinstein and Yusuf  Komunyakaa deliver the goods again.  Derek Walcott, June Jordan,  and Gwendolyn Brooks all weigh in  with fine poems, but my favorite this go-round is Rita Dove's "Canary," which includes these  lines: "Billie Holiday's burned voice / had as many shadows as lights, / a mournful candelabra  against a sleek piano, /  the gardenia her signature under that ruined face."  These images tell a lot of  the story of jazz as an art form. Life is painful, but music is solace, catharsis, and transcendence. So is  poetry.