Eugene B. Redmond

SOUTHERN SOUND:
A BROODING UNDER BLOOD
For Charles Rowell, after summer, 1971,
Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Creole, collard greens
And hoodoo hymns against a gumbo sky —
"Soil song
Spoil song"
Dixie chant is Black road to steelhammermountain
DeepSouth ritual is discreet strength,
Darklore is harpdance in a lyricfield —
"Spoil song
Soil song"
Fatback, hogjowls and juju
And the mind is farmland/ is swarmland
For this newnation in embryo,
For this bee-busy commotion
And earthward polychatter —
"Soil song
Spoil song"
Bloodland, blooddocks and bloodfruit
And a child, ripe;
and a mind, ripe: ripe with sting or strut
Like sugarblades of cane
Or louisiana browngirls whose passions
Gestate in volcanos,
Hesitate under quiet cotton colors —
"Spoil song
Soil song"
Dixie Chorus is an African call!
Watutsi-tall, greening with upsongs
Hoodoo hymns in a lyricfield
Against a gumbo sky.

LYRICS FOR LEON
For Leon Thomas and "Spirits Known and Unknown"

songstitch to mend
songstitch to mend
Encoding a cry, a call, a blues-epic
/turning song into corduroy sky!
You birth a feathery voice/scream!
Airborne in ridges of an African overcast:
Brick-throated balladeer!
Decoding hieroglyphics in the groin,
In the script of ancient drumvoices —
songstitch to mend
songstitch to mend
"Leaping Leon": erupting into rhapsodic mountains:
"oola-boo oola-boo oola-boo
oola-boo oola-boo oola-boo
oola-oola oola-oola oola-oola
oodle-ee boo-ee oodle-ee boo-ee
oodle-la-boo oodle-la-boo"
Torchnotes! Flame-throat!
Raging in phonic forests
/tree-tunes/
In fireblades that chop and copper-crust
The corduroy sky of song —
songstitch to mend
songstitch to mend
Soulo- and echo-child, seedspring of sound
Eloping, groping,
With demons of coastal storms/
Noiseless mistresses of docks and deserts:
Riverrhythm, exorcising spirits known and unknown,
Moving up/down ladders of sunstreams;
Chorusing /caressing stars, making tones galactic,
Orchestrating initial buzzes and bums:
songstitch to mend
songstitch to mend

SOUND OF A HEART-TRAIN
For John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman
(Impulse Stereo LP: -40)

Twice/together:
Two rails of ache hurtle this groupheart
Rails — ailings — of sound moaning, honing stone paths
/Stone lone!
Bleeding and balladeering a dignity of stresses;
Tracks criss-crossing a scale of time and tones;
Making fancydance the ear
/polylayered the movement, the lyric:
/lumbersome the love;

Beneath rails, between rails
Daring drumheart arches a crescendo of thumps and thunder,
Bumps and hums: a cardiacting rhythm section,
Drums, for rails of sound, for ails of sound,
Soaring! Exploring!
Horned voice!
Brassflesh and rail!
Cocaine, sometimes, and tail!
Powdered blood blown/thickened to stone
To tracks of steelrhyme:
Shuttling invisible cargo, indivisible cargo,
The weight, the worry, the freight, the fret,
The goldenstool of stereo tucked in/under
In/under rails of ache hurtling this groupheart:
Horned voice!
Brassflesh and rail!
Cocaine, sometimes, and tail!

IN THE FLESHFLAME THAT IS HER FACE

In the fleshflame that is her face,
The fire burns her dearer to me;
And in her apricot ears, the stereophonic
Flames lick and crack, playing playing
Back the sounds of teeth roasting in gumgreases.

In the fleshflame that is her face,
The nose is an anvil of leavening:
A symmetrical center, a symmetrical song
Of two hollows bleeding the air with
Their silent drum-operas.

In the fleshflame of her face
Lie launch pads for eye-rockets,
Two springboards of sight stalking
And reaching the rims of things —
For eyes reach further than arms.

Oh flameflares that are her eyes!
Oh fireflies that are her eyes!

In the fleshflame of her face
Old urges and urns burn: Plenipotentiary
Pyres of the past watching over
This charred-copper queen:

The flash/flame that is her face,
The force that is her fire,
The flame that is her fight,
The fuse that is her light,
Is the flesh flame of her face!

© 1991/2005 by Eugene B Redmond

Cover Design: Joseph McNair