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Books by Yusef Komunyakaa
I Apologize for the Eyes in My Head
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Dien Cai Dau
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Magic City /
Neon Vernacular
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Toys
in a Field
Thieves of Paradise /
Talking Dirty to
the Gods / Pleasure
Dome /
Jazz Poetry Anthology /
The Second Set /
Taboo: The Wishbone Trilogy
Blue Notes: Essays, Interviews, and
Commentaries
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Mingus CDs
Mingus Ah Um (CD 1990)
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Pithecanthropus Erectus (1956,1990) /
The Black Saint & The Sinner Lady (1963, 1995)
Blues and Roots
(1959,
1990) /
Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus (1960, 2000) /
Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus (1963, 1995)
Mingus Dynasty (1959,
1999) /
Let My Children Hear Music
(1971, 1992) /
Epitaph (1990)
Cumbia & Jazz Fusion
(1976, 1994) /
The Clown (1957, 1999)
/
Tijuana Moods (2001)
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Copacetic Mingus
"'Mingus One, Two and Three.
Which is the image you want the world to
see?'"
--Charles Mingus,
Beneath the Underdog
By Yusef Komunyakaa Heartstring. Blessed wood
& every moment the thing's made of:
ball of fatback
licked by fingers of fire.
Hard love, it's hard love.
Running big hands down
the upright's wide hips,
rocking his moon-eyed mistress
with gold in her teeth.
Art & life bleed
into each other
as he works the bow.
But tonight we're both a long ways
from the Mile High City,
1973. Here in New Orleans
years below sea level,
I listen to Pithecanthropus
Erectus: Up & down, under
& over, every which way--
thump, thump, dada--ah, yes.
Wood heavy with tenderness,
Mingus fingers the loom
gone on Segovia,
dogging the raw strings
unwaxed with rosin.
Hyperbolic bass line. Oh, no!
Hard love, it's had love. * *
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