AFTER READING SONGLINES IN MICHAELTREE AGAIN
WALKING THE HOUSING DEVELOPMENT WHERE I LIVE,
LISTENING TO YOU READ FROM THE LANGUAGE LABORATORY, 1971,
AFTER AGAIN SAYING HOW YOU ARE NAMED BY YOUR GODSON,
HOW YOU OPEN TO ME NOW AS ONLY MUSIC, MICHAEL S. HARPER
Notes to poems in Songlines in Michaeltree
might be Liner Notes on a blues collector’s LP’s,
written in third person. Arthur Schomburg was best friend
of poet’s grandfather, Roland Schomburg, read the entire
note on page 384. Sit there. Turn now to My Father’s Face.
Embrace the lesson in soul. A given. Now what?
Fastidious hands are found in the archives of watering eyes.
Count references to what’s handwritten. This is a temple.
Did you think all of the poems were about Coltrane?
Well, they are. Before you think otherwise, exaggeration,
Hear what Elvin Jones says about Coltrane chemistry,
You have to die for the motherfucker. You have to walk
in his shoes. This is only one story. After the doors
lock up they won’t return to the melody until sunrise.
How was the service? After Harper reads Sterling A. Brown’s
Strong Men at the University of Zululand in South Africa,
he is asked to repeat it as a man writes the poem out
in ink on both arms writing with both hands. In another
place, still opening Brown’s stature, Harper refers to him
as a poet/reconteur, stealing from him in conversation
for the short poem, Black Cryptogram.
I would not have found Michael S. Harper for myself
had it not been for Pittsburgh University Press,
whose poets had an ear for the spoken human voice.
Dear John, Dear Coltrane, chosen by Gwendolyn Brooks
for publication at the Pittsburgh Press (OK, the title
had that going for it) before Harper had met Brooks.
Do you want to hear a poem, For the Moment, say
for the mature poet in his prime with no cover?
Poet singing from the mercy side of the lost cause.
There is no automatic to Resolution.
We’re you listening to Elvin Jones earlier?
In his poem dedicated to Paul Lawrence Dunbar,
1872-1906, Harper raises up headrags, repeats
Double-conscious brother in the veil,
three times in italics like that.
Harper listening without having drums
for protection. Playing/
is possible/
only when you’re ready to die.
*
5 February 2021
CODA
Saturday, 6 February 2021
Notes from the notebook a month out
from January 6, (31 days ago) Day of Insurrection,
day of counting electoral votes confirming election of
President Joseph R. Biden and Vice-President Kamala Devi Harris,
The Donald Trump presidency ends in carnage.
Today is the 18th day of the Biden Presidency.
Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial begins
in two days. It will be short. The background.
ICE flights deporting asylum seekers continues
after a Texas judge filed a lawsuit against President Biden’s
cancellation of the flights. A hundred thousand
Americans have died of the Covid-19 virus
during the past 31 days. The American story, changed.
During half-time of the SuperBowl game, tomorrow,
Amanda Gorman, 22, African American
Youth Poet Laureate will read her poem,
We Shall Rise, the poem she read at the Inauguration
of President Joseph Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris.
Karen and I were driving home in our car as Amanda Gorman
read into my notebook, It’s a past we step into, followed by this:
How could catastrophe prevail over us?
500,000 Americans have died during this pandemic.
Charles Blow, reporter for the New York Times,
has a new book: The Devil You Know: A Black Manifesto.
You are present, Michael S. Harper, aka Michaeltree,
in the project of African American Poetry,
and in your poems, Songlines, threading
families, cities, and neighborhoods. Who,
among the musicians surrounding you,
sends the song back to us? Is Bud Powell
playing ‘Round About Midnight?
Do all the musicians follow Coltrane?
Jim Bodeen
5-6 February 2021
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