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American Money
By Yictove You got to have the money in
America,
got to have the money if you want
to go far.
Money can give you style,
and a big big smile.
Mix with various people in a high
high class.
Drink expensive water from a
pretty pretty glass.
A nickel or a dime
is a waste of time
If you want much more than luck
you got to have the buck.
Money in your bank is a guarantee,
especially if it's multiplying
annually.
Jeff or Joe, or Jim, or Him
got to have the money sink, or
swim
Money in America -- Rah-rah-Rah
Money in America -- Shish-Boom-Bah. |
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From the one book of his
I have, a
Blue Print,
of a life seemingly quickly lived but deeply
felt. Yictove became a coordinator of
readings at the Knitting Factory and at the
East Orange Public Library.
Soft spoken, introverted
it would seem, appearing, disappearing, yet
leaving his trace, singular, but like all of
us, leaving traces, prints of our blues our
blues lives. Now the brother follows the 9th
Ward of his native Big Easy, deeply
appreciated but now part of the legend of
what we took for granted some of the things
that made us happy, now gone gone gone.—Amiri
Baraka 8/1/07
* * * * *
I will always remember the artistic genius that lived in
my brother. The way that he made words have new life
from the written to the spoken word was something of an
art in and of itself. As he spoke his voice boomed and
oozed giving words new meaning. The Knitting Factory and
the Library (East Orange Public Library) gave him the
opportunity to help others grow and cultivate in the
arts he so loved. He was a gentle teacher and had a gift
with people of all walks of life. Not long ago he was in
New Orleans and performed with Kid Jordan’s band an
impromptu jam session where he read When the Dewdrop
Drops. Though the performance was not rehearsed
it was amazing in every sense, exemplifying the artist
he truly was.
—Consuello
Battin: Sister
 |
Source: D.J. Soliloquy
(Thrown Stone Press, 1988)
This "Brother/Man" from New Orleans
who has touched spirits on one shore and the next has come touch
base with ours.
He speaks of the conditions that are within
our control, and the necessity for some changes of the urgency
in the need to learn to learn how to truly love ourselves in
order to be free enough to open up and learn to love each other.
Offering no panacea, he speaks of the reality of the hard work
intrinsic in the finding of solutions. He is a believer in the
wondrous results of honest attempts at communications with our
lovers, families and friends--a direct path to broader
communications with our people--A.H. Reynolds
Yictove has produced/hosted a poetry series on
cable in Newark, New Jersey, performed as a poet in the schools
courtesy of the Geraldine Dodge Foundation, worked as a creative
writing instructor in the Safe Haven Program/YMCA in East
Orange, New Jersey, and directed as poetry series in New York
City's Knitting Factory. Cover art:
Lorraine Williams |
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posted 9 November 2007 / update 25
June 2008 |
