Poem-a-Day | Allegorical Baraka

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend April 2, 2014   Allegorical Baraka   Anne Waldman

“the tongues of dying men / enforce attention like deep harmony.” —W. S. Shakespeare in memoriam LeRoi Jones / Amiri Baraka 1934–2014 who wakes you up bad scenic tapestry dove barely escaping hawk villains bandits robber barons slave traders an excuse for progress? who wakes you up biblical, literal or actual rips in bright kente cloth or black today symbolizing “intensified spiritual energy” enigmatic dreams get made with you enfolding your selves o man of social action lift consciousness to teach us ugly deeds toes keep a thrum upon the body politic “survival dancing” & deconstruct for us “state control” harrowing acts of cruelty, intricacies a Byzantine cloak and dagger morality play gets made of tragic events unfathomable fury fury fury or redemption in verbal spells (contagious elegance’s controversial logic) such sweetness too in a man you love turns poetry from dangerous toy to weapon lament or dirge or love song skillful means, upaya’s wit rhetoric of praise & ceremony or un-censorable blame jazz riff toward visionary plateau whose time is come this is the way it sounds griot’s call who’s a daemon? griot calling it sounds & poetry is your gospel truth who was target a whole long life in the struggle for syntax of revolution be these accidents or miracles that bind us be this friendship & love who told it as it is, love of human freedom is a love supreme is this buried, mere ornament poet saying to one coming up on stage read like your ancestors are on fire? chivalric banner guilds bowstrings obligatory joust reluctance in the cities in the suburbs but ready to rise a surreal riddle’s surprise flee? escape? surrender? fight back? consistency in the man looking back… and moving forward looking back though he break hearts he never forgets arke history & purpose twin dynamics for a new-to-come action-poetics with post-post-post-post medieval exegesis who was this journeyman plangent messenger good dark angel Amiri and could be wrathful too not about accordance the whole range is transcending human suffering, you dig? his gleaming steel uncompromised brilliance our reward         Copyright © 2014 by Anne Waldman. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   “This was written on the death of preeminent poet, playwright, and activist Amiri Baraka after his funeral/memorial/rally on January 18, 2014. He was a major leader in the Black Arts movement, author of the brilliant play Dutchman, and many other volumes of essays and polemics and poetry, including Transbluency and The LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka Reader. He was a frequent guest faculty member at The Kerouac School at Naropa University, a program I cofounded with Allen Ginsberg and Diane di Prima. He was also very much a part of the The Poetry Project community at St. Marks Church in-the-Bowery where I worked a number of years.” —Anne Waldman   Anne Waldman is the author of numerous books of poetry, most recently Gossamurmur (Penguin Books, 2013). She is a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and lives in New York City and Boulder, Colorado. Most Recent Book by Waldman   Gossamurmur (Penguin Books, 2013) "Dusk" by Margo Berdeshevsky "Elegy in X Parts [Kafka said, A book]" by Matt Rasmussen "Tigers" by Melissa Ginsburg Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends.  Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit poets.org   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038