Eugene B. Redmond

Ode to the Arched Bishop of New Ark
(from the Bishop Series)

fryen pan to furnace, Arniri's gris gris
spins out a 70-year preface: warrior-
dreamer-rhymer hoo can doo songhai, signify,
&hi-fi they doo doo, they
snooty-booty-call poli-tic tack/y toe, they
robbers in (the) hoods, real-blood look-
alikes, shit-vested, !yeah, & shark-sharp/e...

but beauty of this man's endless-nest
begins w/arks newer than Noah, riffin
like whys in the wise of beguine
Duke, Dunham or just some dudes-a
caravan perhaps-phunk-phat w/Baraka-operas,
raisin like razors of race, main stems
thru ass-fault like a-!BAM-pome!

RAIN DESIRE RAIN DESIRE

Rain, desire
Desire, rain --
Joy-waters rise,
Fall;

Joy-waters leap,
Clap hands, roar through our abundance:
And the sky drips a sonorous tear
To my body contorted between your pillars
/ golden pillars/
My body weeping upon hilly thighs
And the fleshdoor of your lyrical corridor
Salved by sweat, by blood:
By rain
By desire
And I exit through a dawn that blares the chatter
Of artificial mornings; that drops a drape
Of light over the world's window
over the dark torches we bear
over our limb-lore
And the night rides an elevator
From the oasis of our ecstasies to the storehouse
Of rememberance: of relish:
Where rain hammers out memory
And the ghost of desire
Slips through wet thoughts:
Tiptoes on the damp dots of anxiousness:
of shiny climaxes.

ON/ AGAIN; OFF/AGAIN

This love/
fastened to a lore of pain
handcuffed to an indignity of ecstasy /
On/again
Off/again,
Lady,
And me multiplying the nights
That passed through your thighs:
The man-made things
The God-made things
Ground into gloom;
And shiny metal loves
Rusting in the cold relish of I-told-you-so;
Black love,
vexatious passion,
Paused, perched in the violent crux-
Sung and stung, where the tremor
Is tailored to the pain
Of our white couch:
Does a whiteness separate us,
/Blackwoman/?
Away from the headlines
And the cool cosmetics
/Browngirl/
Golden in the sun's squint:
Woman-deep in worry
While infinite horrors stalk our need
While infinite tremors taunt our namesakes:
tremors that bruised your thighs
before I savored the root juices of your forests
and the bark and limbbeginnings, greening greening;

BYE-CENTENNIAL:
UNREFLECTED THRUSTS AND FRONTIERS
For Ahaji Umbudi

Drum & Fife
Drum & Fife
Zig America zag
Thru goulash and gumbo and oboe
Patchpatchwork HUM clock
Clockclocking: Tambourine underbump
HUM
HUM
Indelicacies into frontiers
New England
New Africa
New World wading in weeping in antique fears
HAIL!
HAIL!
The seismic lull of liberated bells

Post-toasties
Grape-nuts
Loan Rangers Jumping frogs Bluespeople
Allegheny go-go Stradivarian hoe-down Expresso-bo-bo
Mumbling muskets Ahab in search of Jonah How kkkum?
Black gold Rock-a-my-soul in the bosom of slavery
Ramble of the Pre-amble DRUM & FIFE HUM HUM Into frontiers
Ace or Spade? Harborer harborer pearls & harbors
Igloo Angola & Reggae Harvest moons/sniper moons
Bus or Bust!

What did Hoo / doo
To get so black & blue

Zig zag
Zig zag

Celluloid transplans
Sutures on the liberty knell
Knockknockknock of night-leerers
come to order silence

HUM
HUM
Indelicacies into frontiers
Slapped leather & totemized saddles
Zigzagging hair-triggered lover
Heavyhymn of a naturalbom death-wish
Sam boo-boo dance at JamesTown
Soot-staIned OedIpal clutch of Jolson

The squeak/squeak of Watergate
Attucks-the-bullet-eater
Attucks-the-bullet-eater
Attucks-the-bullet-eater
Attucks-the-bullet-eater
Attucks-the-bullet-eater
Attucks-the-bullet-eater

HUM
HUM
Emphysema of the drum
Influenza of the life

HUM HUM
HUM HUM

© 1991/2005 by Eugene B Redmond

Cover Design: Joseph McNair