Every Goodbye Ain’t Gone An ANTHOLOGY of INNOVATIVE POETRY by AFRICAN AMERICANS Edited by Aldon Lynn Nielsen and Lauri Ramey Every Goodbye Ain’t Gone You are reading copyrighted material published by the University of Alabama Press. Any posting, copying, or distributing of this work beyond fair use as defined under U.S. Copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. For permission to reuse this work, contact the University of Alabama Press. MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY POETICS Series Editors Charles Bernstein Hank Lazer Series Advisory Board Maria Damon Rachel Blau DuPlessis Alan Golding Susan Howe Nathaniel Mackey Jerome McGann Harryette Mullen Aldon Nielsen Marjorie Perloff Joan Retallack Ron Silliman Lorenzo Thomas Jerry Ward You are reading copyrighted material published by the University of Alabama Press. Any posting, copying, or distributing of this work beyond fair use as defined under U.S. Copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. For permission to reuse this work, contact the University of Alabama Press. Every Goodbye Ain’t Gone An Anthology of Innovative Poetry by African Americans Edited by ALDON LYNN NIELSEN and LAURI RAMEY THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA PRESS Tuscaloosa You are reading copyrighted material published by the University of Alabama Press. Any posting, copying, or distributing of this work beyond fair use as defined under U.S. Copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. For permission to reuse this work, contact the University of Alabama Press. Copyright © 2006 The University of Alabama Press Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487-0380 All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America Typeface: Janson Text ∞ The paper on which this book is printed meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Every goodbye ain’t gone : an anthology of innovative poetry by African Americans / edited by Aldon Lynn Nielsen and Lauri Ramey. p. cm. — (Modern and contemporary poetics) ISBN-13: 978-0-8173-1496-5 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-8173-1496-2 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN-13: 978-0-8173-5279-0 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-8173-5279-1 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. American poetry—African American authors. 2. African Americans—Poetry. I. Nielsen, Aldon Lynn. II. Ramey, Lauri. III. Series. PS591.N4E937 2006 811.008′0896073—dc22 2005014208 You are reading copyrighted material published by the University of Alabama Press. Any posting, copying, or distributing of this work beyond fair use as defined under U.S. Copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. For permission to reuse this work, contact the University of Alabama Press. Contents Introduction xiii Lloyd Addison I by you put on 1 After MLK 2 All the things of which there are none 4 Umbra 6 William Anderson There’s Not a Friend like the Lowly Jesus 10 Russell Atkins It’s Here in the 11 Probability and Birds 12 While Waiting for a Friend to Come to Visit a Friend in a Mental Hospital 13 Spyrytual 14 Lines in Recollection 15 “the L L L” 16 Furious’d Garb 17 Night and a Distant Church 18 Christophe 19 Irritable Songs 20 Narrative 27 At Night Keep Still 28 Imaginary Crimes in a Real Garden 29 You are reading copyrighted material published by the University of Alabama Press. Any posting, copying, or distributing of this work beyond fair use as defined under U.S. Copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. For permission to reuse this work, contact the University of Alabama Press. Amiri Baraka Biography 30 The violence of the mind is the violence of God 32 How People Do 33 The Heavy 34 Lefty 35 Node 37 The A, B, C’s 39 I Investigate the Sun 42 Courageousness 43 The City of New Ark 44 Jodi Braxton Conversion 58 Harold Carrington Lament 61 Woo’s People 63 sting—a south carolina ave. folk tale 64 Stephen Chambers Her 65 Jayne Cortez Drying Spit Blues 66 Under the Edge of February 68 Phraseology 70 Indelible 71 Opening Act 72 Into This Time 74 Lawrence S. Cumberbatch I Swear to You, That Ship Never Sunk in Middle-Passage! 77 Again the Summoning 78 In the Early Morning Breeze 79 Rudy Bee Graham A LYNCHING FOR SKIP JAMES 80 Without Shadow 83 William J. Harris A Grandfather Poem 86 Practical Concerns 87 You are reading copyrighted material published by the University of Alabama Press. Any posting, copying, or distributing of this work beyond fair use as defined under U.S. Copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. For permission to reuse this work, contact the University of Alabama Press. De Leon Harrison A Collage for Richard Davis—Two Short Forms 88 Formula for Blue Blues Babies 89 Yellow 90 David Henderson Downtown-Boy Uptown 91 Sketches of Harlem 93 In Williams 94 Lock City 96 Blackman in the Desecrated Synagogue—Living in the Last Days 97 Calvin Hernton Being Exit in the World 98 The Wall 99 Medicine Man 100 Joseph Jarman “what we all” 104 “Non-cognitive aspects of the City” 105 Ted Joans The Overloaded Horse 108 Percy Johnston Round About Midnight, Opus #6 109 Lexington Avenue Express 110 to paul robeson, opus no. 3 111 Dewey Square, 1956 113 BLAUPUNKT 115 Stephen Jonas For LeRoi Jones 116 BOOK V 117 “. . An Ear Injured by Hearing Things” 123 Orgasm 0 125 A MUDDLE 131 A LITTLE MAGIC 132 lens 133 IV 134 “what you can see” 135 You are reading copyrighted material published by the University of Alabama Press. Any posting, copying, or distributing of this work beyond fair use as defined under U.S. Copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. For permission to reuse this work, contact the University of Alabama Press. June Jordan All the World Moved 136 Toward a Personal Semantics 137 San Juan 138 Bus Window 139 Bob Kaufman I Have Folded My Sorrows 140 East Fifth Street (N.Y.) 141 Lorca 142 Picasso’s Balcony 143 NOVELS FROM A FRAGMENT IN PROGRESS 144 THE CELEBRATED WHITE-CAP SPELLING BEE 146 Oregon 148 A Terror Is More Certain 149 UNHISTORICAL EVENTS 151 The Biggest Fisherman 152 CROOTY SONGO 153 THE LATE LAMENTED WIND, BURNED IN INDIGNATION 154 Elouise Loftin A Black Lady 155 What Sunni Say 156 bkln 157 Barefoot Necklace 158 april ’68 159 scabible 160 N. J. Loftis Changes — One 161 Changes — Five 163 Changes — Eight 166 Clarence Major Paragraph from English Speaking World 169 A Petition for Langston Hughes 170 Media on War 171 Edge Guide for Impression 172 News Story 173 A Poem Americans Are Going to Have to Memorize Soon 174 Education by Degrees 175 Not This—This Here! 176 You are reading copyrighted material published by the University of Alabama Press. Any posting, copying, or distributing of this work beyond fair use as defined under U.S. Copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. For permission to reuse this work, contact the University of Alabama Press. Mortal Roundness 177 Pictures 179 Water USA 180 Leroy McLucas Negotiation 181 Graph 182 Oliver Pitcher “Why don’t we rock the casket here in the moonlight?” 183 Dust of Silence 184 the remark 186 formula for tragedy 187 Washington Square: August Afternoon 188 from Harlem: Sidewalk Icons 190 The Infant 191 Tango 192 The Iconoclast’s Closet 193 Tom Postell Gertrude Stein Rides the Town Down El 195 I Want a Solid Piece of Sunlight and a Yardstick to Measure it With 196 harmony 197 Norman H. Pritchard Magma 198 Asalteris 199 From Where the Blues? 200 Metagnomy 201 Gyre’s Galax 203 ’ 206 junt 207 “WE NEED” 208 Helen Quigless Concert 209 Ishmael Reed Paul Laurence Dunbar in the Tenderloin 211 Dualism in ralph ellison’s invisible man 212 Badman of the guest professor 213 Poetry Makes Rhythm in Philosphy 217 You are reading copyrighted material published by the University of Alabama Press. Any posting, copying, or distributing of this work beyond fair use as defined under U.S. Copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. For permission to reuse this work, contact the University of Alabama Press.