Date: Fri, 11 Oct 2002 19:16:12 +0200 (CEST)
From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Thomas=20Seay?= <entheogens-AT-yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: AUT: Fwd: Amiri Baraka poem (Yawn)


 --- Lowe Laclau <lowelaclau-AT-hotmail.com> a écrit : 

<<<P>Baraka is a man who you have to hear to really
appreciate. This poem is one meant to incite, to make
those in a slumber think about themselves and their
relationship to the global ruling class.>>>


I have heard Baraka...I assume a lot of you on this
list were too young (or not born at all) to have been
active during the period of the New Communist Movement
70s to early 80s when Baraka was head of the RCL.  I
listened to him then.  It's true that
I haven't heard him read his poetry for over 15
years...but I have heard him recite.  This is the same
old shit.

All poetry is meant to be READ ALOUD.  So what you say
(about having to hear to appreciate) holds true for
any poet.  However, this poem of Baraka's says nothing
revealing.  It's the same crap that we get from most
of the Left these days:  one part homily to two parts
conspiracy theory or vice versa.

Poetry like this will wake no one from their slumber: 
it repeats the same old theme in the same old tired
way. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.  It
put me to sleep in 1979 and it puts me to sleep in
2002.  

Baraka is a "so-called" poet who uses a left-wing
vernacular...He preaches the gospel to the choir and
the choir APPLAUDS!  So what?!  His poetry stinks in
my opinion. To be honest, I'd rather read Ezra Pound.

-Thomas

 

====Unlike its unruly city counterpart, the suburban body has been wholly domesticated and one can say that the suburbs consitute a huge petting zoo, with the residents' bodies providing the stock of furry mammals.  -JG Ballard "Project for a Glossary  of the Twentieth Century"

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