What I Say 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 Jerry Ward What I Say Innovative Poetry by Black Writers in America Edited by Aldon Lynn Nielsen and Lauri Ramey The University of Alabama Press Tuscaloosa Copyright © 2015 The University of Alabama Press Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487–0380 All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America Typeface: Minion and Goudy Sans Cover illustration: Courtesy of Anna Everett Cover design: Michele Myatt Quinn ∞ 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 What I say : innovative poetry by black writers in America / edited by Aldon Lynn Nielsen and Lauri Ramey. pages cm. — (Modern and Contemporary Poetics) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-0-8173-5800-6 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8173-8800-3 (e book) 1. American poetry—African American authors. 2. American poetry—20th century. 3. African Americans—Poetry. 4. Poetics. I. Nielsen, Aldon Lynn, editor. II. Ramey, Lauri, editor. PS591.N4W46 2014 811'.5080896073—dc23 2014021616 In Memoriam Amiri Baraka “Fashion this, from the irony of the world.” Contents Preface xiii Acknowledgments xvii Introduction 1 Making Book: Winners, Losers, Poetry, Anthologies, and the Color Line C. S. Giscombe Will Alexander 8 Apprenticeship 8 The Neutralized Sore of the Unshackled Bear 12 Concerning Forms which Hold Heidegger in Judgment 13 Ron Allen 17 (Untitled) 17 Merchant of the Open Grid 18 boss napalm 19 Pimp Chain Radiator 20 T. J. Anderson III 21 Better Git It in Yo’ Soul 21 Al- Hadiqa Street Mirage 22 At a Column of Crutches, Basilique de Ste- Anne- de- Beaupre 23 Tisa Bryant 24 from Tzimmes 24 Pia Deas 27 from Cargo 27 C. S. Giscombe 32 Where I Lost It 32 from Look Ahead–Look South 33 (very recent past) 33 viii Contents (The 70s–UltraSuede) 34 (The distant past–B.W.I.) 35 from Blue Hole, Flood Waters, Little Miami River 36 from At Large (1981) 37 from The Northernmost Road 38 from Five Dreams 39 Mnemonic Geography 40 Afro- Prairie 41 Three Dreams 42 Renee Gladman 45 from Not Right Now 45 from No Through Street 47 from Tour 49 from Radicals Plan 52 Duriel E. Harris 54 Lazarus Minor 54 Phaneric Display No. 2: The Meta 55 Phaneric Display No. 3: Slumber Party Cabaret in E minor 56 Monday 58 Harmony Holiday 60 Gone by Then 60 Spectacular Brooding 61 Erica Hunt 62 After All 62 Verse 64 Afterword 65 The Voice of No 66 Personal 67 Starting with A 68 Object Authority 69 Kim D. Hunter 71 crazy for your tongues 71 jo mama at de crossroads 73 didn’t yo mama invent the pay toilet 75 we don’t need hell 76 Geoffrey Jacques 79 Saturday Night Fish Fry 79 Well You Needn’t 80 The Wonderful Fantasies of the Colonized 81 The Culture of the Copy 82 One Year Later 83 Contents ix Night Language listening to Jayne Cortez 84 Notice 85 Douglas Kearney 86 Atomic Buckdance 86 Swimchant for Nigger Mer-folk (An Aquaboogie Set in Lapis) 90 The Chitlin Circuit 92 John Keene 93 Ionisation 93 Color 94 Self 95 Survey 97 Nathaniel Mackey 98 Dogon Eclipse 98 Black Snake Visitation 100 Ghede Poem 103 Song of the Andoumboulou: 6 108 Song of the Andoumboulou: 4 111 Song of the Andoumboulou: 12 113 Irritable Mystic 115 Alphabet of Ahtt 118 Song of the Andoumboulou: 23 122 Song of the Andoumboulou: 24 126 Song of the Andoumboulou: 31 130 Lag Anthem 132 Song of the Andoumboulou: 40 135 Dread Lakes Aperture 139 Dawn Lundy Martin 142 A Bleeding: An Autobiographical Tale 142 Telling Tales 144 Mark McMorris 146 Diode 146 Seven Days 148 from Of Baths and Systems 150 Inscriptions on the Whale Flank 154 Dialegomai (Suite) 158 from Black Pieces III (The Horses of Plato & Achilles) 162 Reef: Shadow of Green 164 Tracie Morris 168 SuReal 168 Why I Won’t Wear a Tattoo 169 Apology to Pangea 170