Billie Holiday is my muse and she herself enlisted me to write the book Becoming Billie Holiday. The work is a fictional verse memoir, combining elements of poetry, biography and a one-woman show. The jazz icon's early years unfold through 97 poems written in her voice and titled after songs from her repertoire. The experience of writing the book was somewhat magical. After listening to her early recordings and reading several biographies, I began writing. The poems poured out of me in six weeks, as if I channeled the 25-year-old Billie.
The book made several best book of the year lists and won a Coretta Scott King author honor from the American Library Association. Here's an excerpt from the book's penultimate poem.
If Dreams Come True
I will bathe in spotlights
and sleep on satin.
Gardenias will bloom
year round in my backyard.
Sadie’s rib joint will make
rich folks lick their fingers.
“Prez” and I will do ten dozen duets.
Crooners will sing my praises
between the lines of songs.
Hornmen will trumpet my arrival
and claim me as their own.
Piano players will secretly
pine for me as my solos
move them to tears.
. . .
Cats will groove to my blues
long after I’m gone. . .
At least part of her dream came true. At last count, Amazon offered more than 500 Billie Holiday albums. July 17 will mark the 50th anniversary of the singer's death.
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