I wrote Teragaton during a year long period of experimentation with the language of the unconscious. I was searching for some true text, some hidden, profound and honest text, at the same time I was conscious of rhythm and form when poems were assembled on the page, respectful of poetry. My influences--cubist poetry, William Carlos Williams, Pound, the Beats, Ginsberg, Black Mountain poets like Olson, Wilson Harris, Monk, Bukowski, Baraka, Dorothea Brande, Negritude, and then I discovered surrealism. And it is this that shapes that text. The title was something my late mother whispered to me in a dream, whilst walking backwards up a hill.
Excerpts
Blackdadamasonsong
for Ted Joans
mo'bone than gravediggerboots!
i eclipsed doped scopednscooped wt open palm
turnd to face the surf-
surface of the moon
i came from blood wept rain an come
swallowed entire oceans whole
carri/d my muscle in
russian army hat warm
wt blaksurrealistmanifesto between elbows
i sharpnd my toes
got deep suck sippin hot.orange juice in Gaza
red&wideeyed sniffin snaildung in Accra
my tongue super my tong/bcome:
spittin:
OBEAH MANTRAS
lizard tippd spear tru
all cold froze rainbows you
swallowd me whole you
suckd me dry
Black&White Dark Shadows
used to stay up to watch
Dark Shadows
wt m’grandmother.1975
after 11 – de ol’man snorin –
me an she on de couch me
between she toes watchin
Barnabas Collins
white face sharp bone pointy collar
black coat&cape stiff devil teeth – dem fangs
- double incisors that sunk
into the flesh of de swooning neck
behind de straight black
bt the dagger had de villain f’Barnabas
lying in a coffin
all light off in de house
dogbark&fridgehum she dead&gone
me
in dark shadows
The Jazz Crusaders Live In New York
i looked tru my 509 albums fo’Jazz
skimmin brimmin
sweet Jazz
street Jazz
sparklin Jazz
ripplin Jazz
bt i was low
on Jazz an’
Ramsey Lewis won’t do
create that late
friday night
alone bt for
Jazz Coltrane dear old
Stockholm
one down one up
BLOW! even Oscar Peterson won’t blend wt these orange walls
i wanted to
get in touch
with strong prose I chose
‘roi jones : blackmagicpoems
‘cause tonite.tonite is no
Capt. Beefheart.not tonite is no
Canned heat.no.tonite is no
tonight is
sardine a la carte ‘n
ornettedextergordonduke
Ellington
no blues jus’Jazz
skimmin brimmin 52nd
streetJazz sweetJazz
sparklin niggaskin rippling Jazz
no blues
no blues
no more blues
9
we were about to have sex she had a face that had been
crying
she said she
would not be able to come
that she’d used all her water for tears
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