SOURCE: "Jazz and Poetry: A Conversation," in The Georgia Review, Vol. XLVI, No. 4, Winter, 1992, pp. 645-61.

In the following conversation, which was conducted publicly in a slightly different form on April 14, 1989, in Macon, Georgia, the poets Komunyakaa and Matthews respond to questions by a moderator, Robert Kelly, explaining how the rhythm and tonality of jazz, as well as its improvisational style and emotional appeal, have influenced their writing.

ROBERT KELLY: Jazz has been present in literature at least since the twenties and thirties when James Weldon Johnson and Langston Hughes translated the emotion in the music into their poetry. The Beats used jazz to explore more open forms and to create new rhythms. Recently, Al Young and Michael Harper have written openly of their affection for jazz musicians. And James Baldwin reminds us in "Sonny's Blues" that such music has contributed both form and content to literature when...