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Loading... leadbelly: poems (National Poetry Series)by Tyehimba Jess
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Beautiful and not like anything I've read before. ( ) I was impressed by leadbelly by Tyehimba Jess, the author of Olio. It won the National Poetry Series competition. Like Olio, it's based on historical research he did, this time about the influential black American folk and blues singer, and awesome 12 string guitar player, Leadbelly (1889-1949). Leadbelly (or Lead Belly), Huddie William Ledbetter, had fits of temper, and was in and out of prison. He had to deal with the racism of the time, and trying to make a living singing n-word music. Here are a couple of poems from the book that I liked. 1912: blind lemon jefferson explaining to leadbelly . . . an' everything gotta be 'live on you son, read the crowd like a fortune teller's tealeaf, from the plunk of a nickel to the bang of a quarter to the smell of thieves schemin' on a blind man's cash. see this scar? i was between guitars in san antonio and broke enough to wrestle men for carnival money. the one that did this had come back three times for a ass whuppin' only a fool could want again, but when he pull that shiv outta his boot, didn't nobody say nothin' - had they bets on how hard i was gonna bleed. that's what the world is, son. desperate enough to pin a blind man's back to the ground for all the money he can't never even see. hungry enough to chop him down for takin' what he's earned. that's what the world is. they lost money that day. an i squeezed my stella out the pawnbroker's grip one last time. that's what that box o' strings is, son. your boxcar ticket outta nowhere. maybe even steak dinner, silk ties, and all the leg you can stroke. but you gotta wrestle for it, son. you got to . . . (*"stella" = his guitar) *** martha: life's work after strummin' til the sky bleeds orange, red- eyed and raw-throated lead stumbles on home and warms up the cold space on our mattress. we touch slow for a small while, before i rise to the mountain of laundry and lye that every cleaning woman got to climb without a stop,without gettin' no higher than a washtub bottom or maybe the tile i bend my knees into every day in park avenue apartment buildings. this is how we keep a living, we pay on lay-away with spent muscle, stealing back our flesh between the the twilight and sunrise so we can own one thing what's got no price. (* Martha was leadbelly's wife) no reviews | add a review
Awards
"It is exhilarating to be invited into a world so large and muscular, so rooted in history, a world where so much is at stake."--Brigit Pegeen Kelly, National Poetry Series judge A biography in poems,leadbelly examines the life and times of the legendary blues musician from a variety of intimate perspectives and using a range of innovative poetic forms. A collage of song, culture, and circumstance, alive and speaking. Tyehimba Jess' numerous awards include fellowships from the NEA and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. A native of Detroit, he is a proud alumnus of the Chicago Green Mill Slam teams and Cave Canem. His first nonfiction book isAfrican American Pride: Celebrating our Achievements, Contributions, and Enduring Legacy (Citadel Press, 2003). No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)811.6Literature English (North America) American poetry 21st CenturyLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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