The man is no poet, either.

The man was no poet when he was Leroi Jones. He simply was the beneficiary of English professors early (the 60’s) acceptance of “radical chic”.

That’s a long time to be able to coast.

As for the English Professors, that they would let somebody get by with this is just another sign of their really low professional self-esteem. Especially the guys who specialize in the POETRY of some period or other.

That’s was comes of teaching too many service courses.

Freshman English for Nurses. Oh, my!

This is awful stuff. I’d say it speaks for itself: it’s hardly poetic and completely incoherent. What nonsense!

Must every poem conform to The Robert Frost or Emily Dicksinson model? No, there is room aplenty for EE Cummings, Ann Sexton, and Amiri Baraka as well.

Leave the decision as to what is poetry to those who know poetry.

Ari Sjani writes:

“Must every poem conform to The Robert Frost or Emily Dicksinson model? No, there is room aplenty for EE Cummings, Ann Sexton, and Amiri Baraka as well.

“Leave the decision as to what is poetry to those who know poetry.”

Thanks to Mr. Sjani for the classic expression of liberal doublethink. In the name of freedom of expression, people shall not be allowed to express their disapproval of anything Mr. Sjani approves of. In the name of liberating poetry from the supposedly restrictive authorities of the past, a new authority is erected THAT CANNOT BE QUESTIONED.

How easily liberalism turns into Stalinism.

If you’ve enjoyed reading the illiterate scrawlings of the American left’s Mr. Stepinfetchit, you’ll get a kick out of the following as well, which lines up perfectly with something Jim Kalb posted a couple of weeks ago concerning the decline of the Brits: http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/002/172otmgg.asp

“Your eyes have gone out and your nose.” Ah. classic. I wrote crap like that back when I was a freshman in college, when I still had fantasies of becoming a poet. I guess the difference is that I had sense enough to be embarrassed and to admit my utter incompetence.

“Leave the decision as to what is poetry to those who know poetry”.

This immediately brought to mind the great Ern Malley hoax. In 1943 two Australian poets, sitting bored in the Victoria Barracks here in Melbourne, concocted a book of “modernist” poetry in a single afternoon, made up of random selections from the books and papers on their desk.

They submitted it to the Angry Penguins journal of modernist poetry where it was proclaimed to be a work of genius. Even when the hoax was exposed many of the modernists refused to give up on the Malley poetry; supposedly it was taught in some US universities for years afterwards.

A sample of the great man’s work:

“In the same year
I said to my love (who is living)
Dear we shall never be that verb
Perched on the sole Arabian Tree
Not having learnt in our green age to forget
The sins that flow between the hands and feet
(Here the Tree weeps gum tears
Which are also real; I tell you
These things are real)
So I forced a parting
Scrubbing my few dingy words to brightness.”

If you’re interested there’s a link to this at:
http://jacketmagazine.com/17/em-dl.html

Sorry, that link should be:
http://jacketmagazine.com/17/ern-dl.html

Anyone new to this site will enjoy John Derbyshire’s hilarious article about New Jersey’s disgraceful “poet” and the above “poem.” http://www.olimu.com/WebJournalism/Texts/Commentary/OwlExploding.htm

Derbyshire’s article is entertaining, but he missed the same thing that the mainstream media missed: that the principal target the poem—in line after line after line—is whites.

The author of “Somebody Blew Up America” demonstrates what is so typical of many young people today, in the U.S. and outside. That is, their history is simply awful. The problems with bad history (and bad logic) is evident in this foolish poem. In Baraka’s poem, his poor history and dreadful logic is blindingly obvious as he misunderstands both America and other countries

It would take too much time to go through all of the incorrect points in his poem, but two points are worth mentioning:
1) The U.S. did not force opium on the Chinese. The opium trade was not even initiated by the West, and was encouraged by middlemen in China and India, as well as some British firms. U.S. traders also participated, including the relatives of some named Franklin Delano Roosevelt. But it is worth noting that opium was legal in much of the world (including the US) in the 19th century, and was thought of as a medicine at that time. Many people took opium, both in the US and outside. The US did not start the opium trade and to blame the US for this is ignorant and flatly incorrect.

2) Who stole the Philipines? That one is really bizarre. The US got very little out of its relationship with the Philipines in the 40 odd years it was a US colony; indeed many would argue the Philipines was more of a protectorate than a coloney. The question could have been phrased another way, however: “who liberated the Philipines from a brutal militarist organization that was systematically killing parts of the local population?” But I doubt the author of this silly, ignorant poem has a clue about what I am talking about, or who I am talking about, which ultimately is the problem. Is the state of New Jersey funding this nonsense??? I certainly hope not.

Historical background is always welcome (though I note that Dr. Ahlstrom brushes over the fact that the U.S., even if it didn’t profit from its occupation of the Philippines, and even if the occupation was necessary and justified, nevertheless waged a bloody and savage war in order to subdue that country). But in this case I wonder how one can take a poem that contains such lines as these seriously enough to bother correcting its misstatements of fact:

Who own the air
Who own the water

Who own your crib
Who rob and steal and cheat and murder
and make lies the truth
Who call you uncouth …

Who do Tom Ass Clarence Work for
Who doo doo come out the Colon’s mouth
Who know what kind of Skeeza is a Condoleeza
Who pay Connelly to be a wooden negro …

Who is the ruler of Hell?
Who is the most powerful

Who you know ever
Seen God?

But everybody seen
The Devil….

Like the acid vomit of the fire of Hell
Who and Who and WHO who who
Whoooo and Whooooooooooooooooooooo!

Amiri Baraka is a moron! He seems to over look the fact that slave trade would have never happened if it weren’t for the efforts of the African kings selling there people. He also seems to over look the fact that when slavery was coming to an end some of Africa’s leaders protested because they were making so much money off the slave trade. If America is so racist then why would American institutions give him a forum to voice is opinion.
Hey Baraka and his fallowers guess what… Africa is one of the only nations on earth were slavery is still legal!
All white people aren’t wall street and writting the poem in “ebony phonics” is so self righteous!

How did this individual ever get notice as a poet at all? I could have come up with that drivel when I was 5 if I’d had a dirty mouth at that age.
In addition, someone should inform him that Jesus was not caucasian.
If someone’s going to write something that’s widely published, the least he could do is seem intelligent….

” … Jesus was not Caucasian.” — Meaghen

Yes he was.

Not that you’ll agree, Meaghen (your college teachers have doubtless done a good job brainwashing you). But this meaningless, primarily leftist drivel needs to be opposed wherever and whenever it shows itself.

Do we have freedom of speech in this country or not? How about the right to truth? I commend Amiri Baraka for his honesty and good points in the midst of brainwashed citizens.

Mr. Auster wrote:

“Derbyshire’s article is entertaining, but he missed the same thing that the mainstream media missed: that the principal target the poem—in line after line after line—is whites.”

Actually, Mr. Derbyshire does notice this:

“I never did figure out what the exploding owl is doing in there, but by the time I got to ‘Whooooooooooooooooooooo!’ I felt pretty sure I knew the answer to all those whos.  It’s us white devils, the ones who aren’t communists, and most especially those of us who are Jews but not communists. “

A correction for Mr. Maguda:

Africa is not a nation but a continent.

Also, a little humorous anecdote:
A few months ago, I bought an “American Heroes” playing card deck that featured pictures of soldiers, generals, and the Bush administration.
One of the cards (I forget which one, probably an ace or a king) had a picture of the Secretary of State, and underneath it was written the name “Colon Powell.”
Yes, Colon Powell.
There was also a card for “Joseph Leiberman.”

Amiri Baraka is an ifluential writer. I have read his poetry and come to understand his voice. I am a poet myself. In reading many of the comments about this poem I find that many people do not understand why poetry is written. I like the poem because it does speak a truth. Many of these “experts” believe that poetry has to say what they believe it should say. In that case it is nolonger art. Whatever happened to freedom of expression? Why do we continue to judge works of art? The artist creates art for no one else but himself. I like the poem and I support Amiri Baraka.

Baraka is the perfect example of a fraud who uses the degenerate, fawning, affirmative-action based system to enrich himself and spew his venomous bile at taxpayer expense. He is neither an influential writer or an artist, other than a con-artist. Thanks Mr. Toure for allowing us a glimpse into the dimly lit minds of the nihilistic left.

This article puts the poem in perspective:

http://articles.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0ICQ/is_2002_Oct_21/ai_94386449

I think Amiri Baraka is a great poet. The sad thing is that one someone tells the truth people don’t know what to do. Baraka calls out many white people and eveyone is calling this mans work trash. Wake up and see that he still speaks for the masses of his people. Unfortunately, a black man calling a white man out is one of the worst things to do in america if you want to be “recognized”. Oh, remember Baraka is not trying to be in the same circle with Powell, Rice, or Thomas. Or did you forget that?
And for the record Jesus was not caucasian…All you have to do is have some common sense for that.

Amiri Baraka is a wonderful, intelligent human being. His poem speaks volumes, but the important thing is this, ask yourself is the man wrong? Who killed the Native Americans? Didn’t southern plantation owners get rich off of black slave labor? Which race has killed the most? You may not like what the man is saying but all you have to do is read your history books…and were people of jewish heritage absent from thw WTC on 9-1-1?

Two possibilities stand out: Either the poster is sincere, which would indicate a lack of reasoning ability; or the poster is a agent provocateur seeking to make readers believe that there are certain people with a lack of reasoning ability.