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Books by Kalamu ya
Salaam
The Magic of JuJu: An Appreciation of the Black Arts
Movement /
360:
A Revolution of Black Poets
Everywhere Is Someplace Else: A Literary Anthology
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From A Bend in the River: 100 New Orleans Poets
Our Music Is No Accident /
What Is Life: Reclaiming the Black Blues Self
My Story My Song (CD)
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Is
A Sonnet More Than "Fourteen Lines"?
By
Kalamu ya Salaam
Of course. Fourteen lines is
just the basic length. During over eight centuries of existence,
the sonnet developed specific conventions in three broad
groupings: the Italian or Petrarchan consisting of an octave and
a sestet; the Spenserian employing three quatrains and a closing
couplet; and, the English, or Shakespearean, likewise using
three quatrains and a closing couplet however with a different
rhyme scheme from the Spenserian. A major feature of the
classical sonnet is its rhyme scheme.
While
I am aware of many of the classical conventions, I choose to use
the sonnet the way jazz musicians use the music of their times.
The form is basically a jumping off point to voice my concerns,
share my emotions and to impose a different aesthetic on the
shell of the sonnet.
For
me, in terms of crafting the sonnet, there are only two
considerations: 1. length: 14 lines, no more, no less; 2.
lyricism: a "singing" quality to the poem. Everything
else (including themes and subject matter) is up for grabs.
At
first look, fourteen lines of unmetered verse (notice, I say,
"unmetered" rather than "free") may not seem
much of a restriction, but actually fourteen lines shapes the
poem and forces you to drive directly toward a conclusion.
Unlike the haiku, whose 17 syllables, impels you to hit it and
quit it, juxtapose an image or two and be through, the sonnet
gives you room to say something but no room to meander. In a
sonnet, the reader expects to see a fully developed, but very
lean, poem.
Regardless
of length, every poem should be responsive to the rule of
succinctness. Elegance in poetry is achieved when a poet uses
only as many words as necessary to communicate the essentials of
the particular poem.
Density
of thought, emotion, and imagery are hallmarks of most
text-oriented poetry. In my case, since I use a music-based
aesthetic, my density must be achieved through both clever and
thoughtful use of imagery and an advanced use of rhythm. Even
though my diction tends to be colloquial and/or in the Black
vernacular, there is nevertheless care taken in word choice,
word placement and especially with economy.
In
reciting I may repeat lines and sometimes improvise phrases and
fragments as I recite, but as for the poem on the page, each
word is carefully chosen. Thus, whether I use one word I achieve
lyricism by using sound devices: mainly internal rhyme rather
than end rhyme, alliteration, assonance and enjambment.
As
rappers have indicated there is more to rhyming than just true
rhymes at t he end of lines. I consistently use a technique I
call "rhythm-rhymes," i.e., words which have a rhyming
(full or half, true or forced) quality that is based not on
single words that sound alike but on groups of two or more words
matched with a similar sounding word or phrase.
For
example in "Making Whoopie (in chi)" I use the rhyming
units "suede soft" matched to "sauntering
toward". Without the repetition of the "s" sound
in "suede" and "sauntering," soft/toward
does not even faintly rhyme, yet with the appropriate
alliteration up front, the two come off as kissing cousins.
I
also like to use what I call "echoes" — the
repetition of a rhyming word or phrase further on in the poem.
The third appearance recalls the earlier use of the rhyme
scheme. Echo works best when you have the first two rhyming
units close to each other, and the third (and all subsequent
units) further removed. Thus, in "Making Whoopie,"
whereas the rhyming unit first appears at the end of line two
and the beginning of line three, the echo occurs in the middle
of line five. When you get to "one accord" the
reader/listener's ear recalls the "suede soft/sauntering
toward" sound, even if not consciously so.
Lyricism
implies a floating quality, a horizontal motion, long line
lengths or at least long phrasing units. When one hears or hums
a beautiful melody, that song will generally be awash in half
and whole notes; this corresponds to the use of long vowels and
with sounds such as "ing" and "ion." Another
technique I use to emphasize horizontal motion and length is
enjambment. I think of continuing the sense and sound of a line
from the end of one to the beginning of the next as playing
across bars: imposing a long phrase in the space where the ear
expects two or more shorter phrases. These techniques require a
good feel for the rhythm of words — a sureness (based on
experience and experimentation) with manipulating both sound and
syllables to keep up the momentum.
In
the second stanza of "Making Whoopie" I set up the
long phrase by "doubling up" -- using double or more
phrases in a space where one might expect there to be only one.
In the second stanza of "Making Whoopie" the first two
lines contain four phrase units and the next two lines contains
but one. Plus, the fifth line, although actually the shortest
line in the poems, achieves impact by contrast and by
similarity; contrast because of length, similarity because of
the use of echo.
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the
private dance you flash as you shudder crash
into
the dark density of my palpitating chest
triggers
rigid response geysering a seminal liquidity
bursting
forth into the flesh seam of human life
i
stutter shout a surging yes" |
The
four short phrase units are: 1. "the private dance you
flash", 2. "as you shudder crash", 3. "into
the dark density" and 4. "of my palpitating
chest". The one long phrase unit is "triggers rigid
response geysering a seminal liquidity busting forth into the
flesh seam of human life".
I
use the "flash/crash" rhyme, the "dark
density" alliteration, and the "crash/chest"
alliteration to make these short phrase units apparent. Notice
also that single syllable words predominate in the first two
lines. All of this sets up a strong contrast with lines three
and four, a contrasting tension which is released by the fifth
line that consists of only one and two syllable words: "i
stutter shout a surging yes".
My
goal is not to ignore form and technique, but rather to
substitute a different aesthetic, one which emphasizes sound and
rhythm, and simultaneously maintains lyricism.
In
"he gets off at 4:30 / it's 6:09 now" I approach the
problem of lyricism from a blues angle. The lines are shorter,
there is repetition and heavy use of irony. Throughout I use
call and response by setting up descriptive phrase and
responding to those phrases.
The
opening is totally unorthodox for a sonnet. Line one is a single
word "here" with an ellipsis suggesting there is more
but more is not said.
The
next four stanzas each contain a descriptive phrase of
multi-syllabic words set off by a slash and followed by a
verb-object imperative ("taste me", "kiss
me", "embrace me" and "enter me"). Then
the concluding three lines consist solely of monosyllabic words
and ends with a slash-separated question rather than an
imperative.
Again,
I used the same basic techniques but now the model is blues
rather than jazz. This shift is significant although the
difference between the jazz and blues devices may not be
apparent to those who are unfamiliar with the musical forms.
In
order to successfully use music as a basis for a literary
aesthetic, the poet is required to have an advanced
"feel" for, if not a technical understanding of, jazz
and blues in addition to a mastery of poetic sounding and
rhyming devices. After all is said and done, there is no
substitute for discipline and the conscious use of an aesthetic
(whatever that aesthetic may be).
Whether
writing in iambic pentameter or unmetered; whether using the
convention of raising a question in an opening octave and
resolving the question in the concluding sestet, or using
repetition and irony in a call response pattern; regardless of
the choice, the key is that the poet has consciously made a
choice and is using skill and talent to maximize the effect of
the poem based on a specifically chosen aesthetic.
We
can employ an existing form or impose/create form as we go
along, either way, ultimately what matters is how well we do
whatever we choose to do and how overall effective our choice
is. I choose to write sonnets using a jazz and blues aesthetic.
It is up to you, the audience, to judge how effective I am.
New
Orleans writer Kalamu ya Salaam directs NOMMO Literary Society,
an African American writers workshop. He is the leader of the
WordBand, a poetry performance ensemble and the moderator of
CyberDrum, an on-line community of Black writers and diverse
supporters of literature. Salaam can be reached at "kalamu@aol.com".* * *
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Audio:
My Story, My Song (Featuring blues guitarist Walter Wolfman Washington)
New Orleans Jazz Funeral for tuba player Kerwin
James /
They danced atop his casket Jaran 'Julio' Green
Guarding the Flame of Life
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Track List
1. Congo Square (9:01)
2. My Story, My Song (20:50)
3. Danny Banjo (4:32)
4. Miles Davis (10:26)
5. Hard News For Hip Harry (5:03)
6. Unfinished Blues (4:13)
7. Rainbows Come After The Rain (2:21)/Negroidal Noise (15:53)
8. Intro (3:59)
9. The Whole History (3:14)
10. Negroidal Noise (5:39)
11. Waving At Ra (1:40)
12. Landing (1:21)
13. Good Luck (:04) |
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music website >
http://www.kalamu.com/bol/
writing website >
http://wordup.posterous.com/
daily blog >
http://kalamu.posterous.com
twitter >
http://twitter.com/neogriot
facebook >
http://www.facebook.com/kalamu.salaam
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The Shadows of Youth
The Remarkable Journey of the Civil Rights Generation
By Andrew B. Lewis
With deep admiration and rigorous scholarship, historian Lewis (Gonna Sit at the Welcome Table) revisits the ragtag band of young men and women who formed the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Impatient with what they considered the overly cautious and accommodating pace of the NAACP and Martin Luther King Jr., the black college students and their white allies, inspired by Gandhi's principles of nonviolence and moral integrity, risked their lives to challenge a deeply entrenched system. Fanning out over the Jim Crow South, SNCC organized sit-ins, voter registration drives, Freedom Schools and protest marches. Despite early successes, the movement disintegrated in the late 1960s, succeeded by the militant Black Power movement. The highly readable history follows the later careers of the principal leaders. Some, like Stokely Carmichael and H. Rap Brown, became bitter and disillusioned. Others, including Marion Barry, Julian Bond and John Lewis, tempered their idealism and moved from protest to politics, assuming positions of leadership within the very institutions they had challenged. According to the author, No organization contributed more to the civil rights movement than SNCC, and with his eloquent book, he offers a deserved tribute.— Publishers Weekly |
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Hopes and Prospects
By Noam Chomsky
In this urgent new book, Noam Chomsky
surveys the dangers and prospects of our
early twenty-first century. Exploring
challenges such as the growing gap
between North and South, American
exceptionalism (including under
President Barack Obama), the fiascos of
Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S.-Israeli
assault on Gaza, and the recent
financial bailouts, he also sees hope
for the future and a way to move
forward—in the democratic wave in Latin
America and in the global solidarity
movements that suggest "real progress
toward freedom and justice." Hopes and
Prospects is essential reading for
anyone who is concerned about the
primary challenges still facing the
human race. "This is a classic Chomsky
work: a bonfire of myths and lies,
sophistries and delusions. Noam Chomsky
is an enduring inspiration all over the
world—to millions, I suspect—for the
simple reason that he is a truth-teller
on an epic scale. I salute him." —John
Pilger
In dissecting the rhetoric and logic of
American empire and class domination, at
home and abroad, Chomsky continues a
longstanding and crucial work of
elucidation and activism . . .the
writing remains unswervingly rational
and principled throughout, and lends
bracing impetus to the real alternatives
before us.—Publisher's
Weekly
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The White Masters
of the World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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Negro Digest / Black World
Browse all issues
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Enjoy!
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The
Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
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The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
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Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
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January 1, 1804 -- The Founding
of Haiti
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