Really great, moving, disturbing, and lyrical (more in the "words in a song" definition) poems about so much of the struggle we are locked in regarding race, and life in America right now. But it's not just that, the poems are bigger and wider, not scattershot, playful, but deadly serious, reaching back through time and locked in our particular present.
The 91 poems are presented, at least in part-I'm not a 100% sure how to read anything anymore, as notes to the assassin:
. . . In this we may be alike, Assassin, you & me: we believe
We want what's best for humanity. I'll probably survive
Dancing with the kinds of people who must find refuge
Among the sweat & rancor of a Fish & Chicken Shack
But Assassin, they'll probably murder you. Do you ask,
Why you should die for me if I will not die for you. I do.
Others don't seem so narrowly focused, aimed at the wider world:
The song must be cultural, confessional, clear
But not obvious. It must be full of compassion
And crows bowing in a vulture's shadow.
The song must have six sides to it & a clamor
Of voltas. The song must turn on the compass
Of language like a tangle of wires endowed
With feeling. The notes must tear & tear,
There must be a love for the minute & minute,
There must be a record of witness & daydream.
Where the heart is torn or feathered and tarred,
Where death is undone, time diminished,
The song must hold its own storm & drum,
And shed a noise so lovely it is sung at sunset
Weddings, baptisms & beheadings henceforth.
Terrence Hayes is (gives? is? i dunno) a great gift to readers.
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