Artigo Revisado por pares

Togetherness

2005; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 28; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/cal.2005.0115

ISSN

1080-6512

Autores

Yusef Komunyakaa,

Tópico(s)

African history and culture analysis

Resumo

Togetherness Yusef Komunyakaa (bio) Someone says Tristan & Isolde, the shared cup & broken vows binding them, & someone else says Romeo & Juliet, a lyre & Jew's harp sighing a forbidden oath, but I say a midnight horn & a voice with a moody angel inside, the two married rib to rib, note for note. Of course, I am thinking of those Tuesdays or Thursdays at Billy Berg's in LA when Lana Turner would say, "Please sing 'Strange Fruit' for me," & then her dancing nightlong with Mel Torme, as if she knew what it took to make brass & flesh say yes beneath the clandestine stars & a spinning that is so fast we can't feel the planet moving. Is this why some of us fall in & out of love? Did Lady Day & Prez ever hold each other & plead to those notorious gods? I don't know. But I do know even if a horn & voice plumb the unknown, what remains unsaid coalesces around an old blues & begs with a hawk's yellow eyes. Yusef Komunyakaa Yusef Komunyakaa, the subject of this issue of Callaloo, teaches at Princeton University. His most recent book of poems is Taboo: The Wishbone Trilogy, Part I. The numerous prizes, awards and honors he has received for his poetry include a chancellorship with the American Academy of Poets, the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters (Wesleyan University), the William Faulkner Prize (Universite Rennes, France), the Kingsley Tufts Award for Poetry, and the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Copyright © 2005 Charles H. Rowell

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