Post-Soul Poetry
2007; University of Nebraska Press; Volume: 29; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/abr.2007.0169
ISSN2153-4578
Autores Tópico(s)American and British Literature Analysis
ResumoPage 16 American Book Review These poets are long past the need to prove their humanity through art. B O O K R E V I E W S Post-Soul Poetry Amaud Jamaul Johnson As sacrilegious as it might seem, one could argue that the recent explosion in African American poetry, by contrast, rivals and possibly surpasses the literary output of the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Arts Movement at their peaks. While critics have hesitated labeling this new wave in poetry, a now common denominator in the biographical notes of emergingAfricanAmerican poets is Cave Canem. Founded in 1996 by Toi Derricotte and Cornelius Eady, Cave Canem gathers fifty poets from across the country to write, workshop, and exchange experiences for one week each summer. Both fellows and faculty have characterized their time at Cave Canem as life altering and life affirming: “There is nothing like being seen by the eyes of those who, without explanation, understand why you do what you do.”And considering the increased spaceAfrican American poets occupy in literary magazines, the books published by both independent and New York publishing houses in the last decade, and the number of awards and prestigious institutional honors given, there is little question Cave Canem is transforming contemporary American poetry. Enter The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South, a new Cave Canem anthology, edited by Nikky Finney. Author of three poetry collections, the second, Rice (1995), winner of a PEN American Open Book Award, Finney’s care and sophistication give shape to this wonderful showcase of new talent . Careful to avoid limiting aesthetic, historical, or political assertions, Finney instead turns south to locate this anthology within the lush and emotionally muddled landscape below the Mason-Dixon.Amasterful assembly of new vibrant voices and seasoned prize-winning poets, including Yusef Komunyakaa, Nathaniel Mackey, Harryette Mullen, Sonia Sanchez, Natasha Tretheway, Forrest Hamer, Kevin Young, and Thomas Sayers Ellis, The Ringing Ear negotiates traditional southern themes such as food, religion, land, labor, and family, and challenges the reader to question how issues of love and sexuality complicate assumptions about race and the South. As an editor, Finney’s ear is acutely tuned for sound. The main pulse of The Ringing Ear is rhythmic . Like the blend of a drumbeat, saxophone solo, and a rich vocal performance, each section moves with the sophistication of a Big Band number without sacrificing the spirit of a gospel hymn or folk song: We worked at crevices, cracks, convinced we’d pry love loose, wrote our names out seven times in dove’s blood, kings and queens, crowned ourselves in sound. While many poems are informed by music, particularly jazz, spirituals, and the blues, The Ringing Ear holds together equally by the sound of the hammer’s strike, the hissing skillet, or the footfall of an alcoholic on a dirt road: Say that moment crossing over isn’t heard Say the hammer-anvil-stirrup don’t unfurl Say the balance was upset …………………………… Say the moment crossing over rights the left Say the moment crossing over is the ringing ear writing Say the moment crossing over ends hear Call and response has long been an essential element of African American poetry. From works that use heavy rhyme and shaping forms like Sean Hill’s “Joe Chappel’s Foot Log Bottom Blues, 1952,” LaVon Rice’s “Ghazal for My Mother,” and Jarvis Q. DeBerry’s “Juke Joint Josephine” to more avantgarde pieces like Duriel E. Harris’s “specimen,” and Douglas Kearney’s “Big Thicket: Pastoral,” the delightful range of poetry highlights Finney’s attention to sound as the common organizational thread of the anthology. A native of South Carolina, Finney is well aware of the bittersweet elements of her heritage, and it’s this tension, myth, and memory “in constant flux,” the double-edges of pleasure and pain, and the sacred and the profane all at work in this anthology. From poem to poem, it’s this effort to achieve some spiritual reconciliation, some extended exercise in peacemaking, which makes The Ringing Ear so compelling . In “The Good Funeral,” Kendra Hamilton describes the conflicting emotions of mourning: “You leave full of fire and fried chicken / eyes red head throbbing...
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