104 contemporary poetry
Know the words of the users, the semantic rituals of power... Words’ meanings, but also rhythm and syntax that frame
and propel their concatenation, seek the culture as the fi nal
reference for what they are describing of the world.^12
‘Leadbelly Gives an Autograph’ ( 1969 ) meditates upon the
intersection of poetry, music and racial heritage as evinced by the
framing of the poem’s title with its reference to the blues singer.
The backdrop of the poem indicates initially decay and cultural
atrophy with ‘the dying wood of the church’, and the speaker
laments the fact that ‘We thought / it possible to enter / the way of
the strongest’.^13 Later we are told that ‘the delay of language’ is ‘A
strength to be handled by giants’ (p. 262 ). Clearly the speaker asso-
ciates linguistic control with political power. The poem also chron-
icles an attempt to fi nd an alternative tradition that can perform
with immediacy in response to the violence and racial injustice.
Baraka calls for ‘The possibilities of music’ by affi rming that it
‘does exist.’ and that ‘we do, in that scripture of rhythms’ (p. 262 ).
Moreover, the rhythm is presented as a component of the earth and
nature. Instead of offering us a spiritual enclave, the speaker insists
upon the ‘scripture of rhythms’ where soil is ‘melody’ (p. 262 ). The
visual presentation of the poem on the page moves us from brief
staccato with its opening ‘pat your foot / and turn’ to the counter-
punctual melodies of longer and digressive lines such as ‘looking
thru trees / the wicker statues blowing softly / against the dusk’
(p. 262 ). In his pursuit of an open form Baraka does not sacrifi ce
the poem’s melody and incantatory rhythm. Indeed, it could be
stated that he is searching for an alternative tradition, an antidote
to a history that is described in the terrifying image of ‘An old deaf
lady / burned to death / in South Carolina’ (p. 263 ).
In the pursuit of alternative forms of performance, Baraka
engages with alternate traditions. The poem ‘Ka’Ba’ ( 1969 ) takes its
title from the central point of Muslim faith in Mecca. Written at the
height of Baraka’s interest in Black Nationalism, the poem affi rms
the beauty of blackness, of a people with ‘African imaginations’
seeking to make ‘our getaway into / the ancient image’ (p. 263 ).
Jerome Rothenberg in his work on poetry performance and ethno-
poetics in the 1970 s suggests that there has been a shift from ‘a great