Today is the last day of U.S. National Poetry Month which has been given the additional observance of Poem in Your Pocket Day where poetry lovers are asked to carry and share a poem. Today is also International Jazz Day – and so I chose this poem, "Drum" by Langston Hughes, the pioneering Jazz poet, and his poem that reminds all of us that the rhythm of life asks us to take our beat, take our light, take the dancing words, and to briefly shine.

The Parlando Project takes various words (mostly literary poetry) and combines them with original music in differing styles. We've done over 900 of these combinations, and you can hear any of them and read about our encounters with the words at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org