"POEMJAZZ treats a voice speaking poetry as having a role like that of a horn: speech with its own poetic melody and rhythm, interacting with what the music is doing. The variations in pitch and cadence are those inherent in the words themselves, as they make their way through the lines: the language true to itself while adapting its rhythms and pitches to counterparts in music. The melodic arcs and contours of the grammar, the patterns of the consonants...