https://digitallis.isg.siue.edu/files/original/c239a6981e5bb5ad20d02667e37b6155.pdf 9cb6b823800d9127a4dc69a456d5191d PDF Text Text 11 '(_; ,1 -)/; <n ,.. ~ Li tle critical suad5 :!f th)l Howard Poet~.,1:g:l.ii.~~~W!!i!~-lilllil~.-•lilc:; other &llllt!S:Jl-h poets who q> pea~~ i - A.,~ during this time. ~they are legion¥, including unfamilar namesi: Johnson Ackerson, Charles Anderson(l938- Madgettt, James (r:r,!- ), Katherine Cuestas(/1¥({- ), B & Davis~::P::~= ==' ==tr, Julia Fields(l938- ), Gordon Heath, Horne, Ted Joans{l92ti- c. Morri w. 1tss:•~~ Thompson(l935- Joyce Yeldell(l944- ), Zack Gilbert(l925-- ), Frank ierby(l916- ~miest J. Wilson Jr.(1920- A.B. S~e~man(l935Jones(l934~ ~dwards (l932- ( ), Bennett Jr.(1928), ), ), Rivers, 5 er--,, ~ OttJI,') ~,~Yvonne Gregory ), Catherine Cart e r(l917- ), Mary earter Smith(l924- ), Don Johnson(l942- :W.lr\ eL~ed fttsi'· ) ===..-,, ), Vilma Howard( ), Lloyd Addisonll931- ' ), ),(\.Adam David Mill er( l 922- ), ) , Thurmond Synder.~==, Tom Dent( ), ) ), James P. ), Roscoe Lee Browne(l930 - ), Oiiver Pitcher(l923- 1, ), ), Nanina Albatl915-1968), Frank London ) , Vivian Afti:fi8/:.A ~ J, May Miller ( ), ), Garl Gardener(l931- ), Roy Hill( ), Robert J. Ab rruna(l924- David lienderson,194 2- ), Lerone ), Herbert Clar~l911- Brown(l927-62), Isabella Maria rlrown(l917- William Browne(l930- ), ), Oliver La Grone(l915- McM. Wright, Pauli Murray(l910- ll932- ~ Ca rmell SirmnonsJ ), Calvin Hernton(l93l- ), Hoyt Fuller(l927- Bette Darcie Latimer(l927- Vaughn(192ff- ), Naomi ), Vesey, Sarah Wright(l929- ), James ~anuel(l921- Sarah Webster Fabio(l928- (1919- Margaret ), Gloria C. Ode~, Mose Uarl Hoihman.(1919- Alfred Duckett(l918- Ossie Davis(l922- 1 0 1 Hi ggints, Patterson, James rtandalJ..I ~ l Fitzgerald(l935- L~la Lowe Weeden(l918- . ), DuBois, Durem, Mari hvans, Micki Grant, J, Peter T. Hogers, John Sh e rman Scottf" Jame s ,-,;-::-: . Leslie M. Collins(l914Danner, Gloria Clark ♦ (l915- ), John Henrik Redmond(l937- ), Julian Bond(19ao- ), E"Ugene J, Helen Morgan Brooks ( ) , George Love ( ), Solomon ) , Ellen PoJ_i te ), Durwood Gollinstl937- ~tanley Morris Jr. (1944- LeRoi J, Bobb Hamilton ) , ~ - e x h a u s t i v e .fl:.t �. J}.L ~y 0A ~cl l · poets (as far back~ Phyllis Wheatley) and older ones w- editorial staffs. -•■r••d:~ t~- \ Julia 1ields, for example, was in resident~ at the Bread Loaf Writers Confere~~ngland and studied for a while in Scotlan4. he:zopd w h r ~ e d ~n little magazines between l960 {\ and 1965, ~ NI the staffs of the Three ~Free LanceVl(ashin~to~ U n i v e r s i t y ) . - - - - - - - - - - - 1 II d II • -s % ) X f1I0 jeiiA8Q PllPl9iPOJJS other 51 eek PR.Mt£ c· were Dumas(Trace, Anthologist), Patterson, Gloria c. 4 ois University) Jones(Floating Bear, -, Yungen), Oden(Urbanite,The Poetry Digest, The Half Moon), Rivers(Kenyon Reviewfl,Antioch Review, Ohfuo Poetry Heview), Spe~man\ Kulchur, Metronome, Umbra), Mance Williams(Blue and Uold),o;i!dre Lord(fen ture)• aai. Maargaret Danner published a series of poems in ~ pP+ii.E§i~ Poetr:x magazine in 1952 and in 1956 91iM-became~ssistant editor,01' :lib&t, paJm!l..leablan. �13 Of these parallel movements and developments, one other :ilr deserves special notice. Though not on par with the Howard Poets, the Umbra Workm op participants aided in the production• and distribution sat of Dlack poetry in the early sixties. Gentered in New York 1 s ureenwich Village, the umbra poets were founded by;;,_~ zDent t I a Jg ~ r - ~ew Urleai:i~ ! ,~.tternton ~ tC~tanooga) and David Henderson(New YorkJ.The workshmp,jlh1cnl\1-nvolved artist~and fiction writers, published the first issue of its• Umbnt quarterly in 196). Other issues came out in 19641, 1967-,8(an anth~logy), 1970-7l(tabloid anthology) and 1974-75~atin Saul issue). Ven/:j!ived as mit:isaa,i1 editor ~ :l;iM:e fipet i.A.Fee isst!es and Henderson, who l u:ir now edits the publication from Berkeley,~es odato• f1• •he pt!~li8&$ioa a I$ 1967. Other~ upit.er& aati &I tis4.-a attractf)d to the Umbra workshop • were Ishmael Reed, Ro11anl.Snellings(now Askia Tour~), Norman Pritahard, singere terson brothe Cha es an w·11:i,.Bm.l. /ten Chandler, dancer Asam.an Byron, ain ers Gerald ~ackson and Joe OverDumas, James Thompson, Julian Bond, Joe Hohnson• street, Raphaell!'enno, Sun-Ra 1 &> $ .l>urem. ~ Steve Gann~noonii;,l'!!••lliiimPl!ft. Umbra group was damaged by two events. One.JIii[~••~ onducted by tlaphael and others) with Ralph E11ison. I • se~'ious split ~ong members/" f "9AO om: Isa 1 iai (l. ~ · anti-Kennedy poem by LJurem. just been assassinated when the ~~ ~1Juremf~R approved ...._ by c!£jj:liiibHernton, Dent and H~nderson, ~t::&l..e~~d threatening him with bodily harm, 11 bl;•nto . . . ~ne lling ~ editori,,... decided taste•• 9thers, according to Henderson, wanted the poem printed and--.-i9!l~- near-fatal ~i;;:a;::iii,Ql6(0 apped Pritchard, who was treasurer, The •-& • 6 8d i d · viewe as one of the the Umbra grou ";ii.fUptown he i,a t terse/ and others g newlyformed Black ¾,rts Repertory and 0chool, to w:, rk with the J i,u2.,::, • �"and_J Henderson, Hernton, LJent,)trnompson, also appears in the early anthologies along with J111i111 wo r of - other ~ ~i:lage 11 poets such as G. C. Oden, Spelman, ti~ ) ~ (J' ·~ ~ ~ Jon~9,t an Jo n Ant fi5,a' 1 r e ~ represented in _,.. two later anthologies: Black li'ire(1968) and The Poetry of Blt:aclt: America(l973). Though consciousness is not blatantly evident in these poets) the sil!i:1iings th e re, especi allt# the works-1.r ~id!fs made clear~ · racial ng~rnton. Umbra twofold aim in an inaugural issue: Umbra exists to provide a vehicle for those outspoken and youthful ,--.. writers who present aspects of social and racial refality which ..._./ may be c·alled I uncormnercial I but cannot -with any honeesty be eon- sidered non-essential to a whole and healthy society••• We will , not prin~ trash, no matter how relevantly it deals with race, social issues, or aniiiiything else. 1 ' ~''La11e " .--. l:a:lie as Or"blue tomBu lurking "icily" in• · the darkness. Henderson l _ Am a "Downtown-Boy• Uptown" and asks: I in the wrong slum? 1 ~ketches of Harlem" include the "GREAT WHITE WAY" and a small '31ack ~ ~ confusing the moon and the s11n. Durem, who ran away from lfi'.ome at age,. 14, was born in Seattle,~ ~Vhile still in his mid teens he j o ined the Navy and became a member of the International Brigade s during the Spanish 0 ivil War. Hughes tried to ~ind a publisher for~lllliii~ L works as early as 1954. Of himself Durem said: "\-Jhen I was ten years old I used my fists. When I wa s thirty-five, I used the peruf.. I hope to live to use the machine gun •••• The white North-american has been drunk for four hundred years." • ~s work does bot have the finish of a Ha~den or B~ooks, but he-, provides an exciting shot in the arm for this period �15 of Black poetry(though Bremen's reference to him as the 11 first black poet" is unwarranted). Take No Prisoners(l971) contains many of .1..1urem' cD'memorable poems and a "Posthumous preface," signed in 196a although he died in 1963. 11 Whi te People got '£ rouble, Tool" surveys the pl i ght of whites following the Depression, that 1 -e r e cession and . . . war, and notes thb• such an intrusion in the affairs of whites does not equal ~ slav e ry. After all, life ...-X(or history) calls for One tooth for one tooth. Most of Durem's poems are short, satirical, ironicai.W and musical~ as in 11 Broadminded 11 : ~ome of my best friends are white boys. 'when I meet 'em I treat rem if just the same 1rij'(hey was people. He writes of Black history, slavery, s g ~~~-=-==:i+- S 141 i1lir( ~rd o-1aar inequities, prison life, and ~ }9l "pale poets II to whom he , II he is not suffic:antly obscure 11 ~ ID meet white cri t ical standards. Strangely, Take No Prisoners does not include "Award"--i"A Gold Watch to the FBI Man(who has J F!~owed me) for agent i s survei l lance of~ l\hrough 25 years--which traces the ·the "blind alleys" of Mexico, the high ~ierras, the Philharmonic, L.A., Mississ i ppi, and other ~ces off' violence and mayhem. But it is not all over, the a gent is told,for in the end I may be following you! The W> rk of ivillage poets was highlight by the vers a tile and prolific Jones (later Imamu Amiri Baraka)f 1 d Te/ Joans. Before his inew~ 1nack 11 stance of the mid and late sixties, Jones published in little avant garde magainze(editing several himself) and was identified as the most talented �j • 16 Suicide Note(l961) and iIThe ~ead Lecturer(l964), show him as a hip, arrogant, musically-involv ed♦ cat with a tough intelligence. His influences at the time, as he noted, were Lorca, William C3rlos Williams, Pound, and Charles Olson. His war'eo,~!am bu bu an adventurµ style with an elliptical and sometimes sacriligious posture. - - :rtf 11 11 philosophy was ~ f l i:s aestheticsl shared by the Black Mountain poets: George Oppen, Robert Ureely, Robert Duncan, LJenise Levertov, Paul Blackburn , Ginzberg, Corso, Uary ~nyder and Michael McClure . A music critic for such magazines as Downbeat, Jasz and J.'J.etronome, interest in Black music, Jones__.. a@IIW, wi th nurtured music in his verse. Hence, the belief a careful that Jones "suddenly became Black 11 is Lorva"--the great In "Lines to Uarcia ~panish poet--he uses a section of a "Negro Spiritual" as an irwription. The poem is ty.p-ical of Jones 1 s ability to merge numerous ideas, symbols anJmages _in one poem. Lorca I s death is lamented excer ts mass, reflects on his childhood, explores mythology, gathe~s bits of poetic confetti from nature and hears Lorca "laughing, laughing"-- ,C mocking his killers-- Like a 0panish guitar. In ll_l1;pistrophe 11 he ~rinds peering out the window "such a static eference. 11 So he wishes "some weird lookinJ animal" would come b'J. ~e title poem from his first ~olume-- Preface--he adij.usts to the way 11 ground opens up" and takes him in whenever goes out to "walk the dog. 11 '1lait Life is as monotonous as the "static reference" of window watching: No body sings inymoa,e. Joans, another Village poet closely identified with the Beats , published __,,,,--and Beat ~Zdiffllitmzual<lxm:xi:1&ca11.IIDf~ Mffil. All of Ted Joans ( 1961) 'f\ The rlipsters (1961) .... IF,p tais ,arlo&1 His most widely known poem from this period is The .38" with itJs debts to Hughes(whom he acknolweged), Whitman and the /?'t~tr Beats . Beginning e with the phrase "I hear," Joans ti.ills w.~-e-1"""'1'""'11"-:,,, 11 /"~A,-~-~ , t-...,of an unfaithful 811Pd her " �add note page 1( t:a./t- , t ,_"innovatorrBob l\aufmnan, ""•nsJ, h~ was , lee nod in ir e 1 the other poet who joins this "irrevent 11 •~ee""""f :eh:e iloet .::iania' Francisco Bay area. His first p&sii.i,hed ID broadsides from Ferlinghetti 1 s City iights Books: 1•1anifesto," f is marked by .._ unusualkimages. owf 1be 11 '.I'he Ab ominist "Second April" and "Does the Secret Mi n ~ , ' Kau.fllan' s •••••••mn ,.conveyi,l-g protest Ci ~,: \!. poetry, rks came out as aRa: through :au I J!W:.l\.ani irony, !l~:r Pealism •'!'l:te hu1 1r a J? 1£11' .es k faumd 'ffl Solitudes Crowded with Loneliness(l965) and (J-olden iatel)" achieving "a notoriety rare among books of poetry by foreign poets."(jacket, ~andine). Le ading French ma g azines reviewed the book, _..publishers noted, adding th a t 11 'roday in France Kaufman is considered among the greatest Ne g ro-American po e ts alive in spite of his continuing 1 exclusion from American antholo gies, both hip & academic. ~aufman 1 s themes are racial memory'( "African Dream"), jazz ( "Walking Parker Home, " "West Coast Sounds--1956 1, 11 Ginsberg, of 34 in 11 ")a~_..•~~=..,~• ~ o-r,ner-poe-r,sA\ '".ttart ••• Crane, 11 "C 8 mus: I want to Know,''), 4t1p11111111•1a incarceration( a series fllbt Jail Poems), history, mythology and religion. In "The Eyes too" he says My eyes too have souls that/ rage •••• ~ . ( (· l\"Cincophr~nicpoet" c~.;!,e &. Misi!11.i.g of "all five" of himself ..at Jcm· 11n A a vote ~ taken to • ·•expel 11 the "weakest 11 one who re sen ts it and to cross, spiral, and whirl. :::iomewhat typical of l\aufman I s elliptical constructions and dj ~~ , is "~eavy \~ater Blues": The radio is teaching my goldfis8 Jujitsu I am in love with a skindiver who sleeps underwater, My neighbors are drunken linguists, ,.:c I sn e ak butterfly, C0 nsolida ted h dison is th re atening(__to :ut off my)ra in, �add 2 The postman keeps p utting sex in my mailbox, My mirro r died, & can•t te l l if iii still reflect, I p ut my eyes on a diet, my t e ars are gaining too much weight . ill this form and style , Kaufman is not only related to the Beats but '-./. 11man , Atk·ins , an d-l.fJ,.,..; fted Los An gees 1 ;..,--.-111-:'ft."""" t o Jones , J oans , ~pe ~~/\Young poet.K. Curtis Lyle . �I hear it coming faste r than sound the .38 I hear it coming closer to my sweaty forehead the .38 I he a r its weird whistle the .38 I hear it give off a steamlike noise when it cuts through my sweat the .38 I hear it singe my skin as it enters my head the .38 I hear death saying, Hello, I 1 m here! As a group, Joans, Jones and ~pe man can be caretully compared to the Howard Poets. They are in the same age range and their themes and int; erests are similar. Speilman, like Jones studied at Howard University ~?~ and has acted as disc jockey with FM radio stations. ·ttis~~eviews and articles on jazz h ave ap p e a red in Kulchur, The Republic ~nd The Nation. ~ his :ffi.rst volume of poems, The ¥?eautif'ul JJa+ ..:".M' . .;;:;w ~ aU:W.lillpa.uab..l.._i~s~hed. k ' S:Nt'e-.98iiitie&, ( "" /q{,,{,) also publish ed a book-length study o & the Landlord" ti--@ running in 11 narrator H111>pl&lii1es :eAo.ili the ''th eif II 1964 s Ia! circles4'. 11 The poem is a humorous 'breatment of re volutionary struggle in a Latin 11 merican country. In a similar technique. This time a cat 11 What is It 11 Spellman a pp lies hides in your face", in the mouth and in "that s 1; r an ge canyon" behind the eyes. "A Theft of ishes" is experimental in its use of jagged lines and shiftSbetween the tangible and surreal worlds. In the end we are told th a t home is where we make our noise. -f Among the older poets whodi d n9t me into Pf.eminence until the 1 1960s were Vesey(Colornbus, cM.Wrig}it{Princeton, New Jersey), O' HigginstChicago), Duckett(Brooklyn), Atk ins(Cleveland), Ernanuel(Nebraska), Randall( Washington, D.c.). These poets, and others of th e ir gener a tion, �18 IHl!tll !iiii.ew to be labeled a "school" or ~lilllil--lilliii integfa tion.-\w hen t1 I. 1m1"movement" but they came of age 10 Black "identity" and humanityt• ~ re nhilosouhi c a l ..........0-t-...~.,.,.., ii (' than . men who wez t , to WW II, f's "' ••"'B lynching, "'ld ~!ts::!?: . •=etfll:M~~i northem m i t : ~....""'IPP'!~ 1 were occasional st academic or as a poet and professional, Afro-America. At Fisk University he studied crea- ween African and tive writing under James Weldon Johnson, then went on to law school at Harvard. While studying at the Sorbonne in Paris some of his poemsj were published, through ma ga zine Presence Africaine. Vesey has disseminat Ej a ~ egritude :ctr l!llliw which he p ub}.im ed his bilingual vo l ume of Tuskst, 19.56, Germany). Vesey-. work "The ~taircase" is a poem on which, : ~ lfenbein Za.hne{Ivor~ and precision. esey s ays, 11 1 would rest c~) my case, I think, a nd tha t of the ~egro in this land. '~A The poem -i.1a tQt3 stud .fli/l- the Black predicament thorugh the plight of a man for whom the "stairs mount to his eternity. 11 Perhpaps, like ~isyphus, the starr ,A,<J "unending" since the rotten floor, the "dripping ,V,,··rl"--..... !. faucet" and the "cracked ceiling" tw lives wi~.... ·.t'he man is preeeptJ~ joined Vesey also wri} es ap 11 twinn who lat e r goes "exalted to his worms." gy for Dylan Thomas ( "Dylan, Who is Dead 11 ) , 1 a praise for~~atchel aige("American Goth ic " ), and a e drawetiul}y powerful . piece iM: nAieA, a~interweav~ two different ideas and themes: one ain• :the uelil:e a 1 1 2 ~~he uni verse and the mortality of man; the othe r I Mt'-~.~"" --- - --"ff Balle the reality of being Black an~ni gger" by two adolescent girls. "To Satch 11 is reminiscent of Tolson's tribute to Louis Armstrong. ~peaking in the ~ne mo I)Ilip ll poem, Satchel Pai g e s a ysjttte is going to grab,: a "handfulla I star)' tilllllll" �throw three strikes 1 urnf.: 1 down the heave s," And look over at God and say How about thatJ win)i._ Holman I s .JJS a••,= is among the few entries for poetry in a One Morning. But he is also t,.=' Soon, found in other anthologies. He has led an active life as a Uivil nights fighter(In ormation Officer of the edi tor~fk bl'fe Atlanta Inquirer United States Uormnission on ivil ±-ght13 ri ter, m d teacher. While I i student at fhic~go University he won several award s f or writing. Holman, .__. whose poet ♦ic subjects range from complex psychic -icriirt ·wrn dMtd:i. tations to racial pride, is QiQ(i cf tb@§@ poets zr►:hw&eca.su1r) is very good indeed but much overlooked. The leisfure class findS clocks "intrude too early" in "Jtntfl on This Shore. 11 'l'he ~ difference · i f " captured •• .. Across the cups we yawn at private murders. with - •Ihi Ch "Picnic: The Liberated" examines the shifting uncertainities -w..t.,,,leisured ensionr of ""1!!!91.ffri everyday soutlhern life lie underne a th the merriment of ,the picnic grounds where men rotate the liquor in "dixie cupst" and "Absently" di s cuss "civil rights,:1 money and goods." Yet as the "country dark" comes in and return to sprinlered yards and "mor-ggaged houses II they ~~iM do not .-aJ~i!1rn they are Privileged prisoners in a haunted land. Yet this same poet can h "Three Brown Girls i::>inging" through the "ribs of an ugl'J school building.•~ lielebrating the Black musical i past, Holman sees bhc t;i11-st Fuse on pure sound in a shaft of April ligj:lt: ••• ~ Wright, now a l,' ederal District Judge in New Yoi!k, Lincoln University poets and with Hughes and Cuney edited Lincoln University Poets (19.54). He served overseas in WW II! ~ •e ceivl::tf 1aw training at Fordl:iam. �20 ( While he was in the army in Wale~, he published a volume of his poetry,JtFrom t h e ~haken Tower(l9!.J1+). "The African Affair 11 finds Jt!IMi McM. Wright f He discov e rs it 1-' "prisons, r whe re "deserts burn" ~ h e Middle Passag e, and on a safari to find out 'What "Black is. the 11 devil ~ areas ~ Africa ce, 11 ~ 1: onscience cannot go. 11 11 ~ : . search carries him deep into where "traders spaped my father 1 s pain. 11 I n "Four Odd Bodkins for My Analyst n one finds that "outra g ed flesh of secret 1 guilt" h a s come from the pressures of ' circums t a nce" and "need." Finally, "When You have gone from Rooms" t he r e are "nev e r blooming petals 11 and 11 never burning suns. 11 Bontemps calls 0 1 Higgins a member of the "tribe of wande ring poets. 11 / After Rl!t studying with Sterling Brown at Howard,.O' Higgins won Lucy Moten and Julius Ro s enwald F ellowships in writing. He ~ served t.co-aut~= + ,,,in WW II, after which h~~puo? , with J1JP 11R:t.H ayden, The Lion and the Archer(l948). 0 1 Higgins 1 s style is less formal° than either Holman's or McM. Wri gh t I s. n e is closer to v esey, especially in poems like "Young in which Poet" and "Two Lean C a t s " ~ the rain JlillK fell like "ragged jets" and made ......"grave along " t h· ~ s _reet. The • terror" into a poolroom v . - - ·iii I ballf'' makes the color scheme f j UQ /xsi' lean c a ts, running in " checkered p Bil 7ff.ra. a 11 purple bill:il.ard explode. The much-anthologized "Yaticide" ( "For Mehandas Gandhi 11 ) ~ n d h i --,,;::m- "murdered upright in the day" and left with his flesh "opened and displayed. 11 BuJ, li k e:piing he narrator sa s ~ Gandlhi, s deattt to Jesus c;hrist I s, sue a person o crea ted the '1act of i•·-i• love" ~ ~ the guilty c a rry his '~death to their rooms. " tFi Gandhi I s "marvelous wounds 11 ~ co~ t .1i n • the sun a nd the seas. Diffe rent yet similar, these poets sough-;r/if:~r in dividual voices to deal with man•s current and p ast hurts. Atk ins, for examp le, saw the "swo l len deep" rise higher as he "went walk ing" in section two of "Fantasie. 11 A " restless experimental i st with a v ery hi gh regard for craftma:e.::hip," Atk ins was (1950) a founder o f 1-t' ree Lance~wh ich Hi vers called the "oldest bl a ck-bossed �21 magazine around. 11 Between r.' 1947 and 1962, Atkins I s poetry appeared in numerous journals and other outle,s. A few are View, Beloit Poetry Journal, Minnesota Quarterly, Naked ~ar, Galley ~ail heview. His volumes of p o e t r y ~ ~ Phenomena(l961), Psychovisual Perspective for Musi cal C0 mposition(l958), Two by AtkinstThe Abortionist and The Corpse: Two 1963), ~ Objects(l 0 63)_ and Heretofore(l9$8). often as complex as the poetry Atkins's itself. •'An early training in music and literature, he r Sixes and Seveb,t, that he was ;,-trying for 11 ·"i'said in egocentrical phenomenalism: an objective construct of pr~perties to substantiate effect as object.· He searches after the ma "designed m imagination '' . In "Night and -.. 11 Di st ant Church II he s.alilFfflr' moves series of intermingling "mmrn", .l:t'orward abrupt II then 11 up" through a and "ells" with words like :W 11 wind 11 and "rain. 11 There is more than the hint of Tols . ,,,.,I s abil i ty to meander .V._.,Al'l'JI.U,n-4 among~ ~raeco-Romans and Afro -American,,. in Atkins's poetry. But he is unique 1 "At War ,.. 11 the reader the 11 ephemera 11 of a 11 11 umiing sea; s far foa.m, 1 moment I s dawn 11 sudden•d its appear •••• allusions Later, in the same poem, after 1;.l;ie poQtt\..atu, a.llUQQ& to Hemmingway, the silence splits: Listen a mo:rrent--lSh! Listen--! that hurry as of a shore of fugi t:ilves. Once • Atkins's technique in understand, however, his poetry can be enij.oyed for its witty, wacky, off-beat, philosophical musings. In ''Irritaole Song" he inverts, reverfses an regular syntax: �22 Or say upon return Coronary farewell Leaves me lie. Ugh! Dare,sir? Be nay 1 d Tomorrow~, tomorrow in today? Atkins writes of the fine arts, John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry, . ~ Black heroes( 11 Christophe 11 ) , the "Trainyard at Night," the Cleveland lakefront, and other subjects which fit his style and interests. At another end of the sty listic and thematic pole is rtandall, a librarian by training and trade_.,. who, as we shall see in our discussion of poets of the late sixties, figures prominently in the "" development of an audience for the New Black Poetry. Handall~ also served in WW II and writes poems about the war, love, violence, art and the Black presence. His well known gr.a:S;ai~ , 11 Booker T. and W.E.B.," ... DIA;~ ia*J P16.ieet1 ouuso 1to21,m1 ~~ s 11iJ ; was seen by Duaois and this pleased Randall. The poem first appeared in Midwest Journal m.1, 1952. Randall has also written about and translated riussian poetry. With Marga r et Vanner he co-authored Poem Counterpoemll966) and his Cities Burning ap p eared in 1968. More to Remem~~~ 7pJ11s together Randall 1 s poems from "four decades!' J:i.$ t1! e I-'• 11been publi sl!-ed in Umbra, Beloit Po et rz Journal, and other places. He initiated the Broadside ~eries( p ost e rs) in 1965 with his own "Ballad of Brimingham.U The series g rew quickly, laying the foundation for his Broadside Press/ e most significant Black press in Americaj. Randall's work of this period has the stamp of formality. rte writes in b a lla ds and free verse forms but h e h as ~v a ti ghtness t hat will~elax ed in the l a te si x ties and s ev enties. chronic~les the hmrt, physical and mental, of a land ~ "Legacy 11 -• 'Lit by a bloody e one who is "moulded from this clay" �23 vows that ◄ My tears ~ ~ redeem my tears. "Perspecti ves II recasts the time-immemorial theme of '~we only pass this way once." Th e re is no need to compla in a.bout +J.e b:ipte discomforstfl the poem 8a'l!ti li1itit' , bec ause even the mountaina--i n their hugeness --are diss oled "away" by the se a s. Randall's Pacific .l:!;pitaphs are recollections of the war. The short pieces are epigrammatic and haiku-like. Here is a po j gnan t one ( "Iwo Jima n ) : Like oil of Texas My blood gushed here. Priminent in a group of Uetront poets( Margaret D a n n e ~ n e , Naomi Long Madgett, James Thompson and others), Randal~~shes himself in ~ a sense of personal injury~ ha loslttl a his people's history. This tendency, and a debt to the Black poetic tradition(espeic11i -=>terling Brown), can be seen in "The :::;otithern Road" wh ere the "bla ck "haughty as a star" river" serves as a "boundary to hell". And I set forth upon the southern road. The variety of styles and themes found in these poets ~pAt is found also in younger poets of their generation: Patterson, Addi on, ~y .1"'q lf,J Browne, Redmona,~Anderson, Hernton,f'~olite come readily to mind. Of these poeta, Patterson is particularly interesting. "Black all Day" yielded -t;h!e title ~ ts ~~mm. His second line~or I Saw How Black I Was. Patte~son, 0ne in e 1 9~0 line at. Lincoln University poet/, ~ won a ward for his poetry while still an unde~graduate. A ttative New Yorker, he studied politic a l scienee and ~nglish, and aas worked as a counselor for delinquent boys and an ...:..Uglish intructor. Patteison said in ~ixes and :::;ev.ens th a t his first poem was written during WW II as the "out-growth of a Cafln-and-Abel conflict without the dire consequences.'' "Three Views of Dawn" includes the "silken shawl of night," the disap p earance of "corner specters" and the "sp~ting" of "stillDess. 11 The musical "Tla Tla" presents free verse spiced ~alliterative language �24 of landscape, season and nature. ;:;i tting "Alone," the protagonist of the poem "keeps poems warm" as he watches over the sleeping lovers as we:}. l as the "numb" who wake and weep. and ~ title, §6 WayJ Patterson did not publish a book until 19J69•• the A Blackllilla Man, shows k:il!_ a •exK!llbca influ ence of 0 I 1/ Vi!:l=::t:izn=b::i:m~".._iiiiilii&J.~ 13 Ways of Looking at A Black L ~ .-1:'Ji. . much 11@ also if;fl':e Black poet I s academic training i11!t1m with ability to fb rge his own indigenisms. •r he sp ea k er in "Black all Day" is "looked' 1 into ~ragt::f- and s~ame II by a white "tomorrow" I 1 11 do as much for him. construct ~~ Patterson solid poetic foundation, "stone on stone," as he pre~ cise portraits of "the brave who do not break n t "You Are the Br ave"), ~ the "lost, the ("Envoi") • ••lililii'l:gR of the p eriod, one 11 r, n the work of Patterson ~ fin -.c: i....,.t. and the younger group eral 'liiiiallij;l~~As toward ex- perimental verse which pinpoints the surest and richesr-human feelin :u7f•,.act~r&t~lack p.o:~tuhtelhr • ~ ~ ~~ 1 11 tireless a nd ragi~g soul, $ 1'ie:'mor~t variety is c e rtainly not shunned by Neither is variety avoided by their sisters of the pen and image~ an ident i fiable a spect of the JU female poet h· , tilt banner of femaJe ~oek was evidenced ~ l i n a Urimke, Georgia Douglass JohnS) n( the most famous poet after li'ranrfees Harper), Gwendolyn Bennett, Ann Spe~c er, Alice Nelson Dunbar, Helen;-Johnson(aittJrk in the Henaissance), Margaret Walker, and Gwendolyn Br ooks. Between the forties and sixties, �2.5 • Poetry in America has ~ since women in general~ ~ 1,() , certainly the Black woman went the worse way of t hat fleshJ ....,,...,._ others in @e~Weo&llt the list of Black women poets of impressive: Gloria c. Oden(Yonkers, New York), Nanina Alba(Mont- gomery), Margaret Danner( Pryorsburg, Kentucki) , 0 Max;_:t .l;!;va._ns (Toledo), \/4 A Julia Pields (Uniontown, Alabama r::Audre C.1 4-< ~ , Lord♦ (New "") York), Naomi Long ~ Madgett(Norfolk), Pauli Murray(Baltimore), Sarafb- Wright and (Wetipquin, Maryland), May MillerlWashington, D.C.),F[vonne uregory ( ~~ )piong the~!ll1!~r'occasional and regional names. In 19.52--two years after Gwendolyn Brooks won the Pulitzer Prize-G. c. Oden, who uses her initials "as a way of being anonymous," recei '\6 d a John Hay ~ney Opportunity .ti'ellowship for · The Naked F~ame: A Love Poem and Sonnets. She has worked as a senior editor o f ~ i s h i n g house¥ and currently teaches English in Baltimore. In the fifties, she joined the Village poets in New York where she reaa..., her poerty in coffee shops, reviewed books and worked on a novel. tier poetry h a s also apeared in The Saturday Heview and The Poetry Digest. Noting that the intellect, 11 Hayden( Kaleidoscope )( compared her to Cullen, adding that she "is concerned with poetry as an art expressing what is meaningful to everyone, not just a vehicle for protest and special pleading." Although G.c. Uden uses a variety of forms, h er poems are usually crisp and intellectually tart. "The Carousel" in an empty park rides me round and round, and the dark drops for her as she gleans her ~ surroundings with explicit worli-choices: "sight focusses shadow." In "Review from Staten Island" an item in the view is "spewed up from water. Later we are told that "One gets ufied to ~ing living" and "e "-=-ven th e rose disposes of summer. 11 �26 . , We hear the dislocated woman in " ••• As when emotion too far exceeds its cause.f'(phrase from Elizebeth Bishop). netreating from heartbreak, /4. ...e.e"" tppah:P!-r admits that she too knew "love I s celestial venturingZ: I, too, once trusted air that plunged me down. Yes, IJ jj Hanina A1ba is similarly terse and poixgnant. ~ ·117 1 1 'le-The Parchments(l9 63) a nd The Parchments II jQ._e ore her death in 19 68. ia' She taught bnglish, Music and French in public sch ools and was for a long time a member o f Tuskege e Institute. "Be Daedalus"make u draw a subtle analogy between actions. ~ the B_nglish uepartment at of Greek Mythology to Blac~ pilxb~1t and I carus I s "unwise 11 J De a th comes as a "tax" for "parching" the sun: Suns can be brutal things. "For Malcolm X" rec a lls "History's stoning". ~garet Danner is similarly sensitive. Bor~ in Detroit, she has s p ent the gr~r pa r t of h e r life in Ch icago where she was one time assistant editor of Poetry. Her poems i n that publication in 1952 prompted the John Hay Whitney .t< 'ellowsh ips Co mrni ttee to offe r he r a • trip to Africa. ~din 1962 the literary group with which she identi~ied in Uetroit !#-subject of was/\.._~ a sp e cial issue of the Bulletin of Negro ttistory. She has published four volumes: I mpressions of .tt.frican Art Art Forms in Poetry(l962), ~o F1owe r(l962), Poem Counterpoem(with Dudley Randall, 1966) and Iron Lane(l968). A former poet-in-re&idence at Wayne St~te University, she a'ounded Boone House, a lively centElt' for the arts in Detroit, and a s imi la r cultural pro gram in Ch i ca go : No lo gonya I s. She a2"J w can terminology a nd themef i . ~• but she can also delightful ~r:rt n o t her veins as in 11 .1."he .l;!;levator Map- Adheres to Form." �27 Struck by ele~ a n ~ his~gssmn §.il --and 11 __Lt <iodspeedings "--the e1.J.rrs.eor ps.ssoogvilr "ta 11 wonde~s why so intelligent and artful ~ h a s run elevators. It is a meticulous poem, ~ ~--------...... man's services could be employed toward lifting them above thetr crippling sborm. Far From Africa: Four Poems is a sheet of sights, sounds and su ggestions O,,Q 4 ~ -;.'.:(~1."!',,...the reade r across "moulting d ays" in "their t wilightf2, t "Garnishing the Aviary"), .&bakweta"), "eyes of Aesthetics 11 )1 "lines" of "classic tutu, lowered" from 11 11 ( ".Uance of the despair,"("The Visit of the Professor and I . •abed of g reen oss, sparkling as a beetle•••• Mari Evans is.JIIIII••~ f\ High ts ~iaiiil~IWiiiliiil..._o:t o bvi us 11 · na~ist*-- Civil from fi fi tee a d o!!;'.:;y: to, Black II stance of the lO ha s w:::>rk ed as a civi l service emp loye, tv s h ow hostess and produceer, and instructor of writing. Sometimes referred to as ~ a spiritual, if not technical, to Gwendo 1 b rooks, l'1ari .t!.vans oms in employs irony, tree verse stwle. "The Hebel, 11 p ondering his death and funeral, wond ers if 6uriosi ty seekers really just wants to c a use "Trouble •••• " ~fl or There is humor and sati r e in " V'l hen in Rome " as t h e poet interlaces(in the manner of Vesey 1 s "A M~m nt, Please 11 ) two different conversations, · 1 The ,_maid · , "Marrie deai¼,, is , . ~~.,•-•ll!e ►of the mi4dle class environment\ 11 Rome"), "whatever" she likes, ~iW• • • with the recit a tion the p oem incidentally records rf/o..... �2o the traditional a ~..() I soul food items ~ which the maidl\.'18-•s. Emancipation of G-eorge-Hector" ( "the C') lored turtle II .l' he 11 ) • impatience it with~tep-at-a-time social~;iiiil!l!Ml!l~. ~The turtle used to stay in his 11 shell 11 but now he peeks out, extends his arms and legs, and ~ talks. But this same poet can wax philosophical and sentimental. "If there be Sorrow" it should be for the things not yet dreamed, reaalized or done. Add to these the withholding of love, love "restrained." In ".:>hrine to what should Be" an audience is asked to 11 sing ·1 songs to "nobility, ''~gh.tousness. 11 The children should bring 11 ~rust, 'P the the audience is told 11 women "Dreams, 11 the old men "constancy. Ironically "fiiiiiiirtt:Co~iLJg~nnoo;r~e;--tears that fall like a "crescendo, black rain•" 11 andf r.a.,.m..1:;wi,;s-9i!lir11J as "a so ft Her tribute to Gospel singers is telling in " ••• And the Old 1tb men Ga the red." One cannot ( q.,espi te~me 11 ) escape one's self, ~ the poet says, as she notices th'if lingered on even "we ran. not melodic" music 11eaHf::LG£df« 11 Julia Fields,...,ijiii;..illll•~ trul:'f=-••• sentive spirits, studied has taught at Knox College in Tennessee, in England and Scotland, and r in in Umbra, Massachusetts school and college. Her work Tom Dent, with Margaret Walker.Jf'tA-lice Walker, ~ r.1 few~'"]jiack poets who now voluntarily live in the uouth. Her first book,Poems, was brought out by Poets Press in 1968, th~sae~year she received a National Council on the Arts is grant. She substantially represented in R~ Baird Shuman's Nine Black Poets(l968) and her East of Moonlight was publis~ed in 19 J. She also writes short stories and plays. fil!m!!!!!lll!ll!ll!l!"tier,iGimic::::i::b!~~• ubjects are racism, death, love, violence and history. "The Generations" come and go and in between there are "The wars." And in between them are the seasons, flowers, "lavender skies," dawns, 11 Sombre seas,,; and the �29 11 embryonic calm. 11 ''Arrdvark" has achieved "fame" since "Malcolm and die ~ " 2'.'he poet muses : Looks like Malcolm helped Bring attention to a lot of things We never thought about before . She again salutes this martyr in "For Malcolm X" who,se "eyes were 11 mirrors of our agony . tn "No Time for Poetry" the reader is advised the "spirit" is "too lagging" and there is too much "calm. 11 But the morning is ideal since it carries "virbations of laughter" and has no "orange - white mists." As a "woman 11 , ~ listening :ii.ear the 11 broken-hinged door' 1 at a man talk of war( 11 I Heard A Young Man Saying") , the narrator "somehow And the "bright glare of the neon world II sends planned on living. " "gas - words bursting free" in "Madness One Monday gvening." k_au,li Murray and Sarah Wright are sometimes poets who also write other things . Pauli Murray pursued a¥;:::wl~d.!l~M'P'""ft- lay;//Jt,M while she won academic awards and fellowships for her writing . A bivil {4_ghts pioneer , she published Dark Testiment , 1963,, one volume of verse(~vlZs\ §l iliiit:i(;f and a family hisbory(Proud ;:$hoes, 1956) . In"Without Name," she is revealed as a formal but excellent craftsman . There tr are no names for111.ill!- m. feeling~; e~~iliii8'ifl. but let the "flesh sing anthems to its arrival. 11 Sarah Wright, known as a noveli~(This Child s Gonna Live), co-authored Give Me A Child in 1955 with Lucy Smith. About Black writers she said, in 1961, "My motto is tell it like it damn su:ire r is. it In "Window Pictures II she sees G;' "black outlines in living flesh. "Urgency" l )r 11 ( relationship between drivers and traffic lights . "God" is "thanked"~ e the car s-cops so i5IT I; the passenger can "glory" a while in the "time-bitten punctuation. " of the'li' "pause . 11 Vivian Ayers, the daughter of a blacksmith , attended Barber-Scotia College(Concord) and Bennett College{Greensboro) where her major interests were drama, music and dance. uhe published a volume of poemstSpice of Dawns) �30 and an alle gorical drama of freedom and the s paae a ge(Hawk), performed at the University of Ho uston's ~ducational Televiaion btation. Currently, she lives in Houston where she edits a quarterly Journal, Adept. "Instantaneous" features a man being "stunned 11 by ahe bolt of "cross-firing energies" and grabbed up in a blaze ..A-~ resonant as ;}, million hallelujas--l••• ~~an inhabi~an who, dying, gasps faintly: "My god--this is God ••• 11 Similar and different is Nammi Long Madgett, who moved to LJetroit from Virginia all in 1946 rf )1!!!T..._to teach at a high school.u~.uhe a Master's degree from Wayne ~tate University. the Detroit group of poets, she has publishe~olumes: Songs to a <2hantom Nightingale(l941), One in the 1"1any(l9.56), ~tar by Startl96.5, 1970), '7"\ and Pink Ladies in the .tt.fternoon fl972). liurrently she t/eaches <ii" English ' ....;/ at .l:!.asiem Michigan University and runs the newly established Lotus Press. One o-f'its first projects was Deep Rivers: A Portfol@y: 20 Contemporary Black American Poets(l974 J, ID.ich includes a teachers' guide prepared by the po et. E di tors fo r-a- Deep Rive rs c;;,. ~ ona rd P. Andrews, £unice L. Howard, and Gladys M. Rogers. The 20 poster poets are Paulette Childress wiiite, Jnll Witherspoon, William Shelley, G.C. Oden, Naomi Madgett, Patterson, LaGrone, Pamela Cobb, Pinkie Uordon Lane, .l:!.theridge Knight, Randall, Hayden, Thompson, Margaret w. Barrax, Audre Larde, Redmond, Michael Madgett Is 110 imple 11 ( ".!?or Langston Hughes) a bar I clothes "but my lan I lady I bolted t h e d~or. ",.111. Joyce wi 11 tap "impatiently" ~ .~~_DtL and leave the bar ana.,.._~ondering what "he wanted to say." In "Mo r tality" we leam I -->< t h at o f ~ "all the de a ths " this one is the "surest." Some �31 deaths are merely "peace" yut vultures "recognize" the "single mortal thing" that holds on to life and they wait hungrily for the time'"id•zt" When hppe starts staggering. Man must come to grips with the things of this world, we are told in "The Reckoning": And why and how and what, and sometimes even if. ~oems from TrinityfA Dream ~equence convey uncertainties and fears ~ , of wmen and humans. :811111 l!!t:e" 11.;;0JH2tlll. One person .._ has been ' "dream and dream again" ( "4") and a naked day "corrodes the silver dream" but the music will not "cease to shiver~'\ 11 1 8¼11 ) . "After 11 is a lamentation for "mortals II without "wings II to fly away from the "purple sadness 11 ~ of night. And "Poor Henaldo 11 is "dead and gone wn.ere/1-ver people go" ~ 1 when they "never loved a song. ' But even "hell II must have "music of a sort. 11 Finally sculpted, like the others, the end«• Renaldo~, though dead, is "still unresting." . . . Audre Lorde 1 ~e w~&~ iffti~tis~4J-i-tl!:i:~@d:H8~t~~Mt pcv'ia: In the early sixties she wrote: I am a Negro woman and a poe~--all three things stand outside my realm of choice. My eyes have a part in my seeing, my breath in my breathing, all that I am in who I a:n • All who love are of my people. I was not born on a farm or in a forest, but in the centre of the largest city in the world--a member of the human race hemmed in by stone, away from earth and sunlight. in..--i But what i¥,_my blood and skin of richness, comes the roundamout journey from Africa through sun islands to a stony coast, and these are the the gifts through which I sing,th~ough which I see. This is the knowledge oft he sun, and of how to love e11en where1ft'; no sunlight. This is the knowlegge a nd the richness I shall give my children proudly, as a strength against the less obvious forms of narrowness and night. �32 Black and poet. And all these things she seems ta lal!I!, e handle~ quite well in her poetry--on page and in the air. ~he has published three .._From~ volumes: The 1''irst Cities(l968), Cables to Rage(l970) a n ~ Land where other P,eop] e Li veI1973), which was nominated for a ifational Book Award. on "Oaxaca 11 (in Mexico~ where the The ft~"· yMlfl1i ~-••ii 11 land moves slowly" under the "carving drag of wood. ·' p : ,11nm work goes an while the hills are "brewing thunder" and one can observe All a man 1 s strength in his sons• young arms •••• ~ krdew "To a Girl who the girl as a 11 what side her Bread was Buttered on" describes catch of bright thunder".,._.. apparently guarde~ by(and guardian of) bones_.Jfil~~g leave the bones, she watches as they rise like "an ocean of straw" and trample the one who orders her "into the earth. 11 1he "Nymph" is in the moonpit of a virgin." In "now can I Love ~ou 11 "comes like a thin birdll--unlike the magnificent Phoenix bird of mythology-- a t. · •~•later to become "great ash. 11 No wonder, the speaker confirms, that your sun went down. - The " Moon-minded the Sun ••• " decrees that The light that makes us fertile shall make us sane. J ....1 And we hea1>;fhe ,,-:--... "year has fallen" in ;!at4er , the Year ••• 11 :iarilr.R Audre Lorde I s work cuts a sharp path$ of insight~ac~ss the steal thing ignorance and ~ ~ s e a around her. "And Fall shall sit in Judgment" examines love, concluding that "in all seasons 11 it is is fal•e, but the same. �33 A much-negledted poet iB May M1ller, of Washington, D.c., and whom can be found in three volumes: Into the C1earingt1959), Poems1962), and she is one of three poets representedtlf in Lyrics of Three Women(1964) . Cureently a member of the Commission on the Arts of the Vistrict of Columbia, she has been a teacher, lectuer, dramatistf and ~as published her poetry in a number of ma.gaiines: Common Grofind , The Antioch Review , Phylon ~ ~ The Uriis ,"-.:;_The :&ation• ~ "Cal vary Way" JJll~!l!8~~ a Christian influence with a twist of irony and gore. Mary is asked how she felt, "womb-heavy with Christ Child," as she tasted the "dust 11 of an 11 uncertain journey." ·nall as Q Ii:M Recalling the cricu fixion, the poem asked arry: 11 t{ere 'JOU afklaid? 11 The "roaches are winning" in where humans seek to 11 ,,---.. 11111{ "TlUi last Warehouse 11 abnegate survival laws II and kill ~ ~ roache~ Wib1.l they are "saturated with their decrease. 11 The characters in "The wrong from a "nightmare of wings II and "mushrooms side of Morning" were ~ of hud±,. death"as M meanings.,_hlotuoui2 :/ihe Jcnmw w1a b~mnm01:... "Procession" employs the dramatic te chnique~•-6made famous by BrownaI:td others) of interlacing the formal English of the poem with italicized ~eiterative expletives and ~ refrains; such as "Ring, of Christ but the reader easily~ ring~J 11 ~ , e Black idioms, that of slavery and racism. it is a Black pro~essio ~ h e . a serie . Th ere is ••& ru1.-:,s w-¥'£ li 0 11 ~ime is today, yesterday, and time to '". o...A,; moving and motionless, 11 ~infinite takes familiar form,"ttall while mythology ·, "we seek conviction." Christiant"tiliii-lllg pervades May Miller's come, 11 f It is the procession 11 work(though she Bl a ck-bases it). In "Tally 11 the subjedts "lay there dr~ined of time" and empty like the "bulge of hour glass" while to reality." 11 :JLucifer streaked �34 &fix "'_ ..• .'~~deaths of Dumas and Ri versf left voids ~ · t a , coming as they diJ1"¥R 8 the midst of by the :rrfi.'d six· had written a great deal of poetry and a great deal about themselves. Ciiiiik--Rivers .at died has been lD[ ~ an unnecessar death• in wha~••lillll•d- calle~impulsive" act. Dumas was shot to death : : ! i t e policeman in a New York subway. Both deaths occured 11i.:fd~tlis of each other. Rivers was born in Atlantic City, New ~ersey, and attended public schools in Pennsylvania, Georgia ankio. ~ i s college days were spent at Wilberforce University , Chicago State Teachers College and Indiana University . ~4n high s c h o ~ o n the Savannah State poetry prize. hi vers was greatly influenced by Wright and his uncle Ray Mciver . His five books, two of the~ osthumou~ are : Perchance to Dream, Othello(1959), Tre se Black Bodies and ~.:>unburnt Face(l962), Dusk at Selma(l965), The Still Voice of Harlem(1968), and The Wright Poems(1972, with an Introduction ~ byr-,a noveli st Ronald Fair). Ohio Poetry Review, Kenyon Review, and Antiocij Review were only a few• magazines in which his work appeared. Hesponding to a reque~~~.'~ommentt on himself as - Black man and,poet, Hivers salhd~B ) 1 l a #EJljWt among other things: I write about the Negro because I am a ~egro , and I am not at pe.a ce with myself or the worldt. I cannot divorce my thoughts from the absolute injustice of hate. I cannot reckon with my color. I am obsessed by the ludicrous and psychological behavior of hated men. And I shall continue to write about race--in spite of many warnings-until I discover myself, my future, my real race. I do not wish to capitalize on race, nor do I wish to begin a Crimean War: I am only interested in recording the truth squeezed from my observations and experiences. I am tired of being misrepresented. �35 Rivers said 11 bea1,1ty and joy, which wa s in the world before and h a s been burred so long, has got to come back. little "beauty and joy" But Rivers ~ often bleak and eye. His poetic ~ derings t h rough t~e,.. ~ ni' mind s with deep psychic ® ..... alJl!m( 't}~ ~ ~ Afre6 1~,w~ieat\ 1..fj,,. ambivalences ~~.it4i1oooi111MM~i::t1:rc••;,e,rt1B . In this Dumas. For both is own -I 11 , ay a1111,he bears some kinship delve deeply into psychology, but are at the same time accessible . Rivers spent much time researching his past ~ .,!?uring the in Chicago and re a ding from th'et~olumes of world li teratUII'e-Kin the midci:-six 1es,i he participated in discussi~ and Gerald McWorter--out of Black Americ a n -- g roups ~ involving Fair, David Llorens this grew the Jnow'::...well-known Organizatiom liu re · h fi gu r e& prominen tly imp ortantly k ~ s about his own death in several poems . " Postscript II i •s a poem which "should not have be en published." The narrator says he was " living and dying and dre aming" ~ all at the same time in Harlem. And, toying with his own._ fate in ~ wake of il:ltall!I .!IP Wright I s "sudden death, 11 he recalls the "prophecy" wa s that he too nsoon would be dead . " The theme of death-often moral, spiritual or physical as in Hayden--can be found in pieces like "The Death of a Negro Poet , " ,r 11 to the Wind, " "Three Sons," "Asylum, In "Watt 11 Prelude for Dixie," "Four Sheets 11 and all( the Wright Poems • . lb ~~!'@'!1!'8- • story and an guish into epi g rammatic Must I shoot the wh ite man dead to free t h e ni gger in his head? In an incredibly weak assessment of Rivers•s poetry, Hak i Madhubuti(L e e) �36 this poem "a~s a revolutionary question. said continually turns or revolves. a question1 I o~i.::,:e, But, semantics aside,J\Rivers~was ( \ • "~-~ Such 11 ,..s Ameri a 1 s nightmarej, fears and hurts disappear.~•-~ ) .\ < -· or such a criticism not all a~j-llllltt th~ poet of • somber and bleak, in "The Still Voice of Harlem" he announces: I am the hope and tomorrow of your unborn. ~ ~en ad.mist the ----- racial; political ping-pong ("In Defense of Black Poets" contradictions ana uncertainties of > A Black poet must remember the horrrs • .!!;specially since Some black kid is bound to read you. The "Note dJn Black" Women" asks they they teach the poet "honor, and "how to die., 11 11 "humor," presumably the reborning death. The Wright Poems is an elegaic sheet. "To Richard Wright" e x c ~ ~ 11{, t To be born unnotic·ed is to be born black, and left out of the grand adventure. Another "To Richard Wright 11 piece r e fers to the novelist as ~k~ young Jesus of the black noun an~.:~,~ irt 1 poems find the poeievA8eaqc'ih.ng ~ispiri ts II 41i1111R- 11 bones II ~;.Jlwiili::::t=~Wiliiilal!lli8!lW.-r>. In "A Mourning Letter fa,om Paris 11 Rivers recalls knowing and feeling 11 Harlem 1 s honeyed voice." Some times similar in feeling and theme, but almost never in voice and form., is the work of Dumas who "Negritude range..l. across time and space. 11 �3( Dumas was born in ~weet Home , Arkansas, moved to 10 years old and complet~d public schools in that city. rle attended City College of New York and Rutgers between stints in the Air Force ~jrlittle magazine and other activities. Active on the circuit, he won a number of awards and helped establish several publications . At the time of his death, he was . - teaching at Southern Illinois University•s .c..xperiment in Higher Bducat ion in ~ast ~t. Louis . In 1970, SIU Press publised two posthumously collected volumes: Poetry for My ~eople and *r:-'_ Ark 1 of Bone 1 and Other Stories, edited r:-, - by Hale Chatfield and Redmond . Random House rei-issued,«M the poetry a J ·(Play Ebony Play Ivory) and V stories(same title) in 1974 with hedmond as editor. Though there have been no nril t 3 wtnw: full-length critical studies of Duma.sis poetry, Jay Wright and Baraka asseseed him in the SIU editions and Wright's Introdu~ion is retained in the new releases a major poet of the era, Wri t gle~~.........,...-~{i:ct~r-i~.;;~lliii;: hmnself s~ None of this is perverse, intellectual play. It is indicative of Dumas' sense of history. In "Emoyeni, Place oi the Winds, he writes "I see witlj. my skin and hear with my tongue.II,•••• The line, .~sugg e t, asserts some elementary truthx about alon Dumas', and no Dumas', poetic techniques. This book ••• is grounded in that line. \vhat Dumas means in that there are racial and social det e rminants of perception, ideas that he was just beginning to develop. The mind articulates what the senses hav~ selected from the field, and this articulation is, in part, determined by what the perceiver has learned to select and arti culate. There is certainly no consensus among thinkers that this is what happens, but there is some evidence for believing, as Dumas did, that it does happen . In II I ] hear with my tongue,' 11 �Dumas asse r ts that the language you speak is a way of definin g your self w.i.thin a group . The language o f the Bla c k c ommunity, , . as with that of any group , takes its form , its imagery , its vocabulary , because Black people want them that way . Langua g e can protect , exclude , express v alue, a s wel l a s a ssert identi t y . That is wh¥ Dumas • language is the way it is . In the rhythm of it , is the a c t , the unique manner of perception of a Black man . Writin~r tlie remo v ed passion of the .<:">friend that he was , Wright makes ~ ~ tatements not only about Dumas but about the whole perception and stance in the world . of Blac k c reativity , these antennae · AiMt fndeed Dumas - Dumas • s bas e is formal ~nglish , .. . . . .. poetry which he - ~, . , . .. • - ••• A African languages , Arabi e, and Gullah from the islands' Jb .!.Iii!,.;: a bl end aj' f I tn, he Carolinas and Georgia . His cosmos i s shaped b y the r., and spiritual life , espef cially 6'.fi;'e , z phurch services and Voodoo . vJrigh t notesf: nThe blues and gospel musi c, partlhcularly , were his life breath . ~ Only Langston Hughes kn~ more , or at least as much , about go s pel and gospel singers •••• Music seemed to Dumas to be a ble to carry the burden of direct participation in -hie act of living , as no poem, that was not musically structa red , could •••• / 0umas was searching for analagous structure for poetry . anl/ 11 As a poet , l>umas combines the p ~st, present and future/ often insep a rably/ as in " Play , bony Play Ivory": for the songless , the dead who rot the earth all these dead whose sour muted tongues speak broken chords , all these aging people �poison the he a rt of earth . Curs e s and curdles ;~ d warnings abound : iHP~J? • -. .,... Vodu g reen clinching his waist , obi purple ringing his neck , Shango , God of the spirits , whis p ering i n his ear, thunde rlight s t abbing the island of blood rising from his s kull . m Later, in thi s same poem( "Rite 11 ) , r itllk> ver a11j ~~ th e word takes p rec e dent L . ~ .~ No power can stay the mo io when the obi is p urple and the vodu is g reen and Shango is whis p ering, Bathe me in blood . ~I lW. 5 am not clean . ? at his command• Dumas e x plores -~~~~~,~'-'~ 7 the dense &n intercontinen ta :i.~•R11=-•~employ- ~d~ an~ e vi ces rhythms ~ 'f perception~ a s in "Ngoma" wher e he comp a res the belly of a pregnant woman to the ~ The doctor listens the baby~ the drummer listens the ancestors : aiwa aiwa: it is the chest - s ound same tha t booms my ch e st aiwa aiwa a st ~ong sound running like fe e t of g azelle aiwa aiwa of �40 A:11!1I tnflp.e ~ crescnndo, with its built-in call-and-response pattern, ~ i n and woman 1 s belly ape lil]iiin;itu"JJY: end pll:yai:oally 111eigcd"' in the deathening raar: the goat-skin sings the boom-sound louder louder sings the goat-skin louder the goat-skin sings the boom-sound louder sings the goat-skin louder louder louder booms the goat-skin boom-sound loude~ ~ louder louder The~· ch, experimenta} language, counhed in~radi tio~/is seen everwwh.ere .D.'3:1~ in s811:li i }i® ► {"from Jackhammer"): The jackjack backing back and stacking stone city-stone into cracked h¥draulic echoes o~ dust Or("Root Song")lt: Once when I was tree flesh came and worshipped at my roots~•A,A.,,,AA orr"A !::iong of .t''lesh")tM When I awoke ~ , ,Yj"'1,.."I~~ .~ "" n. ---V(>'La-J(J..~. ...... - I took the sleeping mou~tains of your brealts tenderly tenderly ~ ~ between my quiv ering lips and I guillotined the stallions, drowned the ea g les, and 4rov~ the tiger fish back into the sea of your heart. ~ ( .)-~ There ~~y1 poets in Dumas. Here is a combination of Dunbar, Hughes, ~°A.flliiJ Wal~-~1)~ i -~wJ,.. , best of thjii 1\iming poets of _!b._~ six~ic1!;''I I ,eu. «- 'd ~ ~ _ a , ~ ~~ laugh talk joke p; ,~~~ p .I ' r1, smoke dope s k ip rope, may take • jump up and dmm, walk arourd ~6x a coke 1 J!!. •'); fl\al1t tfi/h§ rq f/4 �41 drink mash and talk trash beat a blind boy over the head with a brick knock a ho-legged man to his bended knees cause I'm a moving fool never been to school god raised me and the devil praised me catch a preacher in a boat and slit his throat pass a church, I might pray but don it fuck with me cause I don 1 t play There are epic poems like 11 Mosaic Harlem" and "U-enesis on an .c,;ndless ~-.-&i ~ .A Mosaic"~lues seriles:·~frican1e~,0Mlrocrtel ,sems(using spontaneity and ritual), and mysticalJexploratory poems like the ~ !R' '18Fiol! de&lil'i~ 11 Thoughts/Images, Kef, ~~i?an')i ~aba. In ,one "i::iaba Dumas uses bizarre imagery t o ~ , 1 e~~ sx waterings streams striking aorta vibraphones sx veinings myriads t of ~~~ella flucksing rite ~ 11 ~ 11 Dumas~""'~~~v,e )'or the ,.,acoupti.cal lejp and~thQ'implosion (as he ,. - - - ~~ .·~ 1 ~ ,lJJb.,.;. (A ,,J},,#,+v ("rt /JI)±,.,,. A {J,. ,.........,.• ....., it) of ideas in poi-try.~t Pemeius ta be ~oo;} • It woul& have been @IIIISl~ ~nee 9P interesting if his work, r �42 q idi,srllii much of it written in the early and mid si xties , had been ..- ~ available in collected form when the . C\-< ,.J attle of the New Bla c k Poetry was being fought . The American temperament (utJ~ disfavor~Black ~ r'""\ l'(j writers telling the trufuS) kept Dumas and Ri v ers r~~ ing . Dumas ._..,, sought his peace in the deep well a f his own folk cul t ure and in occasional excursions b jp · gs #nto mysticism, Africa , and Voodoo . Rivers buried in the "identity" issu~c nd �. I and the innovative typography~ of the poem. Also experiemtal and original . , is Stone. His study of Miles Davisf1' "Flamenco Sketches.," is separated~ f" into,f~ parts: ouvert, selim, cannons, enart and bill. New York is "red in weeping" and Chicago is "Black-draped" as Miles utt e rs in "mutes." The music c aptures the Disaonant nostalgia of one kiss of a Span~sh .1tady as .. i,:y we aves i_1h and ou~ of transcontinental 'f ~ ~/~(f)~--t,<,~. experinces ruid 1locations.t\.1'1.naily, the music is asked to Comment Ill on a cloud of oriental ninths comment J In "Notes from the Cubicle of A becomes Disgrunt11.led Jazzman II Stone ,~•tr: ~ verbal maestro ripp ing in "changes", rattling up "thinteenths," ~ storming the "minor mode," and whipping up "passing tones"--all 11 wi th impunity. 11 White's "Black is A Soul" repeats "down" as the p ersona dro into "depths, 11 "the abyss, 11 and t~ 11 infini te 11 a l ~ Where black-eyed peas & greens are stored •••• 1°his poif;anb revelation is made in the end: I raisf',/dowr.¼,~ kinky head to cha rl:he & shout I 1 m black• I 1 m black & I~•m from Look Back. We think immediately of titles like rThink Black(Lee) and n.:>ay It Loud-r im Black and I'm Proudt"(James Browm) even though this poem preceded them by sev e ral years--to say nothing of Joseph ....,. Cotter, Jr 1 s I 1 m Black. 11 ~ . "Is But White canA._do light and touching thing♦s as in it ~ecause 11 - Pi~ic 11 and 'Day is D0 ne 11 11h ich places "music in the air" as he prepares for bed and his "woman II sets her hair. His ironic, satirical "Inquisitive" displays the range of these poets. The na rator wande rs where "Gods" "buddhas II hide if hhe earth and sk y are,.,_ visible to man. ~ � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Eugene B. Redmond Digital Collection Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context EBRWritings_07_29 Title A name given to the resource Draft of partial manuscript of Drumvoices: The Mission of Afro-American Poetry: A Critical History, p. 11-43 Relation A related resource Eugene B. Redmond Digital Collection Language A language of the resource English Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource For digital rights and permissions, see <a href="https://www.siue.edu/lovejoy-library/about/policies.shtml">https://www.siue.edu/lovejoy-library/about/policies.shtml</a> or contact <a href="mailto:library@siue.edu">library@siue.edu</a> for direct inquiries. In copyright. <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Redmond, Eugene B. Description An account of the resource Draft of partial manuscript of Drumvoices: The Mission of Afro-American Poetry: A Critical History, p. 11-43 with two additions to page 17 and one unnumbered page