Musician

Musician

 

 

nicotine drummer

three packs, two cymbals

and a bass knock a day

 

Winston draped from his lips

as he unfurls his sticks

creating a smoky beat

 

jazz hovering in the room

like a gentle fog

that dances along slowly

 

like the drinks

tipped unconsciously

by the patrons

 

they are all lost in the music

fog notwithstanding

and nobody exceeds sobriety

 

the distraction

keeps perfect timing

and everybody thanks the 

nicotine drummer in between 

the drags of his calling.

 

erin-cilberto

8/5/25

Reviews

[DIVYA]

The first thing that stands out for me is the hazy ambience of the poem. I can see and smell the smoke as it unfurls and dances around the room, setting the pace for the beats. Its an evening heavy with intoxication and no one is complaining! Loved the nicotine drummer, the way you sketched him.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

Thank you for that, Divya. He was the pivotal focal point of the poem...glad you saw that.
j.

[Neha agrawal]

It reads like a portrait painted in sound and smoke.
Amazingly written ☺

[jacob erin-cilberto]

Thank you, Neha...I wonder who it is might come to your mind...a portrait of anyone in particular?read moreThank you, Neha...I wonder who it is might come to your mind...a portrait of anyone in particular?

Samuel saw Ginger Baker, the drummer for Cream...who had originally been a jazz drummer...I find it fascinating what others visualize when they read my works.
j.

[Neha agrawal]

Ranjit barot and zakir hussain both are from India may be you don't know them but they are awesome👏

[jacob erin-cilberto]

I just checked out a drum solo by Ranjit, with guitar by John Maclaughlin....Ranjit is so smooth...made me jealous...wanted to be a drummer when I was younger but never got to pursue it...I got to play them one time...did okay, the rhythm was there...at least once...I must check out zakir hussain as well. thanks for turning me on to them.
j.

[Neha agrawal]

You are welcome. They are truly awesome😊

[jacob erin-cilberto]

Zakir playing with rakeesh...beautiful, haunting music.

[Neha agrawal]

You mean rakesh. Yes, they are really good.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

oops, sorry, yes, rakesh.

[Samuel Dickens]

Heart bypass surgery at age 43 forced me to quit the cancer sticks. Like you, I wish I'd never started. Although this poem is about a jazz drummer, it sounds a whole lot like Ginger Baker, the drummer for Cream. He was a hotheaded chain smoking jazz drummer who switched to rock.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

I didn't know he was a jazz drummer...but yes, a great rock drummer with Cream and Blind Faith.
read moreI didn't know he was a jazz drummer...but yes, a great rock drummer with Cream and Blind Faith.
And he looked like he was 80 when he was in his 20's. Thank for your reply, Samuel.
j.

[Chris Shaw]

You remind me here of the ambience of old in Ronnie Scott’s jazz club in the heart of London. You took me back in time. My Dad took me there a few times. There was always the cigarette smoke wafting around creating a fog. Loved the music, the smoke less.

Chris

[jacob erin-cilberto]

Now that I am older and 16 years removed from smoking, I wonder why I enjoyed it so much...all my clothes smelling like smoke, my house etc. But I did enjoy...yet I don't miss it at all now.
Jazz I never cared for, but I have to write some poems as if I loved every note.
thank you for your reviews...they always make me think about what I wrote and why.
j.

[Chris Shaw]

Well done you giving up those cancer sticks. My Dad died as a result of smoking. Got lung cancer at sixty. Everyone smoked back then.

[John the Baptist]

"The drags of his calling." Does that mean his calling is a drag, that he is in reality unhappy? I am groping here, but neither the drummer nor his audience seem overjoyed.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

Nope, neither one...But I am talking drags of his cigarettes and things being a drag for him.
thanks, John.

[Soren]

What would jaz or blues be without the smokey fog and haze. It sets the mood that has been lost now days. A poem of feeling where music is so closely related to poetry. Loved it

[jacob erin-cilberto]

Thank you for the kind words, Soren.
j.

[Soren]

Most welcome Jacob

[Betty Hermelee]

What a wonderful foggy scene you've created J.... the fog pervades while the music endures and the drummer has a beat that exceed all the rest....even all the patrons who are mesmerized in their own world by this "smokey beat"...while he "puffs on"....great writing, as always J.
Warmly, B

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you for your kind review, Betty. You are so wonderfully supportive of your fellow writers.
read morethank you for your kind review, Betty. You are so wonderfully supportive of your fellow writers.
j.

[Betty Hermelee]

Always a pleasure J, and thanks for your comments, makes my heart feel warm!
Warmly, B

[Relic]

Being a drummer (50+ years) and non-smoker, Jazz drummers immediately come to mind. In the fifties certain jazz albums had a piano player, guitar player, or drummer, smoking on their album covers. Bill Evens, Count Basie, Dexter Gordon, Art Blakey.....I never got it, but I never got the Marlboro man either. He wound up dying of lung cancer didn't he. lol

[jacob erin-cilberto]

I bet you are a good drummer, my friend.
Thanks for your response.
j.