S O S

Poems 1961–2013

Amiri Baraka

• Publisher: Grove Press
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9780802123350
• eBook ISBN: 9780802191588
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: American Poetry
• Index: Literature

" S O S  provides readers with rich, vital views of the African American experience and of Baraka's own evolution as a poet-activist" ( The Washington Post).
 
Fusing the personal and the political in high-voltage verse, Amiri Baraka whose long illumination of the black experience in America was called incandescent in some quarters and incendiary in others was one of the preeminent literary innovators of the past century ( The New York Times). Selected by Paul Vangelisti, this volume comprises the fullest spectrum of Baraka's rousing, revolutionary poems, from his first collection to previously unpublished pieces composed during his final years.
 
Throughout Baraka's career as a prolific writer (also published as LeRoi Jones), he was vehemently outspoken against oppression of African American citizens, and he radically altered the discourse surrounding racial inequality. The environments and social values that inspired his poetics changed during the course of his life, a trajectory that can be traced in this retrospective spanning more than five decades of profoundly evolving subjects and techniques. Praised for its lyricism and introspection, his early poetry emerged from the Beat generation, while his later writing is marked by intensely rebellious fervor and subversive ideology. All along, his primary focus was on how to live and love in the present moment despite the enduring difficulties of human history.
 
A  New York Times Editors' Choice
 
"A big handsome book of Amiri Baraka's poetry [that gives] us word magic, wit, wild thoughts, discomfort, and pleasure." —William J. Harris,  Boston Review
 
"The most complete representation of over a half-century of revolutionary and breathtaking work." —Claudia Rankine,  The New York Times Book Review

RHYTHM & BLUES (1

for Robert Williams, in exile

The symbols hang limply

in the street. A forest of objects,

motives,

black steaming christ

meat wood and cars

flesh light and stars

scream each new dawn for

whatever leaves pushed from gentle lips

fire shouted from the loins of history

immense dream of each silence grown to punctuation

against the grey flowers of the world.

I live against them, and hear them, and move

the way they move. Hanged against the night, so many

leaves, not even moving. The women scream tombs

and give the nights a dignity. For his heels

dragged in the brush. For his lips dry as brown wood. As

the simple motion of flesh whipping the air.

An incorrigible motive.

An action so secret it creates.

Men dancing on a beach.

Disappeared laughter erupting as the sea

erupts.

Controlled eyes seeing now all

there is

Ears that have grown

to hold their new maps

Enemies that grow

in silence

Empty white fingers

against the keys (a drunken foolish stupor

to kill these men

and scream “Economics,” my God, “Economics”

for all the screaming women drunker still, laid out to rest under the tables of nightclubs

under the thin trees of expensive forests

informed of nothing save the stink of their failure

the peacock insolence of zombie regimes

the diaphanous silence of empty churches

the mock solitude of a spastic’s art.

“Love.” My God, (after they

scream “Economics,” these shabby personalities

the pederast anarchist chants against millions of

Elk-sundays in towns quieter than his. Lunches. Smells

the sidewalk invents, and the crystal music even dumb niggers

hate. They scream it down. They will not hear your jazz. Or

let me tell of the delicate colors of the flag, the graphic blouse

of the beautiful italian maiden. Afternoon spas

with telephone booths, Butterfingers, grayhaired anonymous trustees.

dying with the afternoon. The people of my life

caressed with a silence that only they understand. Let their sons

make wild sounds of their mothers for your pleasure. Or

drive deep wedges in flesh / screaming birds of mourning, at

their own. The invisible mountains of New Jersey, linger

where I was born And the wind on that stone

2

Street of tinsel, and the jeweled dancers

of Belmont. Stone ro...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Note to the Reader
• S O S
• S O S
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Preface by Paul Vangelisti
• PREFACE TO A TWENTY VOLUMESUICIDE NOTE
• HYMN FOR LANIE POO
• IN MEMORY OF RADIO
• LOOK FOR YOU YESTERDAY,HERE YOU COME TODAY
• TO A PUBLISHER . . . CUT-OUT
• OSTRICHES & GRANDMOTHERS!
• SCENARIO VI
• WAY OUT WEST
• THE BRIDGE
• VICE
• SYMPHONY SID
• BETANCOURT
• THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU MAN CHU
• THE NEW SHERIFF
• FROM AN ALMANAC
• FROM AN ALMANAC (2)
• FROM AN ALMANAC (3)
• NOTES FOR A SPEECH
• AS A POSSIBLE LOVER
• BALBOA, THE ENTERTAINER
• A CONTRACT. (FOR THE DESTRUCTION AND REBUILDING OF PATERSON
• THIS IS THE CLEARING I ONCE SPOKE OF
• A POEM FOR NEUTRALS
• AN AGONY. AS NOW
• A POEM FOR WILLIE BEST
• JOSEPH TO HIS BROTHERS
• SHORT SPEECH TO MY FRIENDS
• THE POLITICS OF RICH PAINTERS
• A POEM FOR DEMOCRATS
• THE MEASURE .OF MEMORY(The Navigator
• FOOTNOTE TO A PRETENTIOUS BOOK
• RHYTHM & BLUES (1
• CROW JANE
• FOR CROW JANE(MAMA DEATH.
• CROW JANE’S MANNER.
• CROW JANE IN HIGH SOCIETY.
• CROW JANE THE CROOK.
• THE DEAD LADY CANONIZED.
• DUNCAN SPOKE OF A PROCESS
• AUDUBON, DRAFTED
• IF INTO LOVE THE IMAGE BURDENS
• BLACK DADA NIHILISMUS
• A GUERRILLA HANDBOOK
• GREEN LANTERN’S SOLO
• WAR POEM
• POLITICAL POEM
• SNAKE EYES
• A POEM FOR SPECULATIVE HIPSTERS
• DICHTUNG
• VALÉRY AS DICTATOR
• THE LIAR
• THREE MODES OF HISTORY AND CULTURE
• A POEM WELCOMING JONAS MEKASTO AMERICA
• A POEM SOME PEOPLE WILL HAVETO UNDERSTAND
• LETTER TO E. FRANKLIN FRAZIER
• THE PEOPLE BURNING
• DEATH IS NOT AS NATURALAS YOU FAGS SEEM TO THINK
• THE SUCCESS
• THE NEW WORLD
• THE BURNING GENERAL
• TONE POEM
• GATSBY’S THEORY OF AESTHETICS
• ALL’S WELL
• THE BRONZE BUCKAROO
• NUMBERS, LETTERS
• RED EYE
• A WESTERN LADY
• RETURN OF THE NATIVE
• BLACK ART
• POEM FOR HALFWHITE COLLEGE STUDENTS
• AMERICAN ECSTASY
• ARE THEIR BLUES SINGERS IN RUSSIA?
• HISTORY ON WHEELS
• DAS KAPITAL
• REAL LIFE
• HORATIO ALGER USES SCAG
• WHEN WE’LL WORSHIP JESUS
• A NEW REALITY IS BETTERTHAN A NEW MOVIE!
• A POEM FOR DEEP THINKERS
• PRES SPOKE IN A LANGUAGE
• REGGAE OR NOT!
• IN THE TRADITION
• HEATHENS
• WISE 1
• WISE 2
• WISE 3
• WISE 4
• Y’S 18
• HISTORY-WISE #22
• 1929: Y YOU ASK? (26)
• STELLAR NILOTIC (29)
• AT THE COLONIAL Y THEY ARE AESTHETICALLY & CULTURALLY DEPRIVED (Y’S LATER) (31)
• “THERE WAS SOMETHING I WANTED TO TELL YOU.” (33) WHY?
• YMCA #35
• THE TURN AROUND Y36
• SPEECH#38 (OR Y WE SAY IT THIS WAY)
• SO THE KING SOLD THE FARMER #39
• Y THE LINK WILL NOT ALWAYS BE “MISSING” #40
• J. SAID, “OUR WHOLE UNIVERSE IS GENERATED BY A RHYTHM”
• MASKED ANGEL COSTUME
• SOUNDING
• BROTHER OKOT
• FORENSIC REPORT
• WHY IT’S QUIET IN SOME CHURCHES
• SIN SOARS!
• ODE TO THE CREATURE
• X
• I AM
• SYNCRETISM
• TOM ASS CLARENCE
• CITATION
• REICHSTAG 2
• ART AGAINST ART NOT
• ANCIENT MUSIC
• GETTING DOWN!
• THE HEIR OF THE DOG
• INCRIMINATING NEGROGRAPHS
• BAD PEOPLE
• THE UNDER WORLD
• IN THE FUNK WORLD
• AMERICANA
• LOWCOUP
• “ALWAYS KNOW”
• HISTORY IS A BITCH
• SIZE PLACES
• TO THE FAUST NEGRO TO SELL HIS SOULTO THE DEVIL FOR THAT MUCH!
• BLACK RECONSTRUCTION
• IN THE FUGITIVE
• OTHELLO JR.
• FUNK’S MEMORY
• FUNK LORE
• ONE THURSDAY I FOUND THISIN MY NOTEBOOK
• DUKE’S WORLD
• AFRO AMERICAN TALKING DRUM
• MONK’S WORLD
• BUDDHA ASKED MONK
• MONK ZEN
• LULLABY OF AVON AVE.
• THE DARK IS FULL OF TEARS
• FUSION RECIPE
• JA ZZ : (THE “SAY WHAT?”)IS IS JA LIVES
• NOTE TO AB
• TENDER ARRIVALS
• NOTE FROM THE REAL WORLD
• CHAMBER MUSIC
• ARS GRATIA ARTIS
• OKLAHOMA ENTERS THE THIRD WORLD
• GOT ANY CHANGE?
• BETWEEN INFRA-RED & ULTRA-VIOLET
• IN THE THEATER
• OUTSANE
• THE EDUCATION OF THE AIR
• EVERY FULL MOON
• SOMEBODY BLEW UP AMERICA
• MISTERIOSO 666
• IN HELL’S KITCHEN
• 12:00 TSMT
• WELL YOU NEEDN’T
• TRAGIC FUNNY PAPERS
• WHO IS YOU?
• FASHION THIS, FROM THE IRONYOF THE WORLD.
• HOLE NOTES
• I AM SENT PHOTOGRAPHS OFMY AUNT GEORGIA’S 90TH BIRTHDAY PARTY IN SOUTH CAROLINA
• THE TERRORISM OF ABSTRACTION
• NO VOICE, DON’T GO, DON’T GO, VOICE ON A SCREEN IT STILL SEEM REAL, YET YOU KNOW IT’S REALLY GONE W/
• WHOOSH!
• SPEAK TO ME THROUGH YOUR MOUTH
• JOHN ISLAND WHISPER
• ALAS, POOR AUDEN, I KNEW HIM,
• NIGHTMARE BUSH’IT WHIRL
• PROCERT
• ARAFAT WAS MURDERED!
• LOWCOUP
• BIG FOOT
• FOUR CATS ON REPATRIATIONOLOGY
• WHERE IS THEM BLACK CLOTHES?
• SMALL TALK IN THE MIRROR
• RACE OR CLASS?
• THOSE WHO DUG LESTER YOUNGARE NOT SURPRISED
• NOTE TO SYLVIA ROBINSON FROM WHEN I SAW HER WALKING THROUGH THE PROJECTS IN 1969
• MISSISSIPPI GODDAMN!
• COMFORTABLE W/ INTELLIGENCE
• PRESCRIPTION DRUG
• ALL SONGS ARE CRAZY
• I’M NOT FOOLED
• THE NEW INVASION OF AFRICA
• WHAT’S THAT WHO IS THIS IN THEM OLD NAZI CLOTHES? NAZI’S DEAD
• SUPPOSE YOU BELIEVED THAT
• BALLAD AIR & FIRE
• INDEX