{"id":176431184,"date":"2014-01-18T00:47:18","date_gmt":"2014-01-18T06:47:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/?p=176431184"},"modified":"2014-01-18T00:47:18","modified_gmt":"2014-01-18T06:47:18","slug":"poetry-echoing-eshus-love-songs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/2014\/01\/18\/poetry-echoing-eshus-love-songs\/","title":{"rendered":"POETRY: ECHOING ESHU’S LOVE SONGS"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"photo<\/a>

photo by Alex Lear<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

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Echoing Eshu’s Love Songs<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>(for “eshu” ethelbert miller)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

man, the relevance of coincidence is a motherfucker<\/span><\/p>\n

just today, walked down commercial street<\/span><\/p>\n

the business end of provincetown<\/span><\/p>\n

in and out of shops, paused here, there<\/span><\/p>\n

entered where attracted by something<\/span><\/p>\n

backed out and continued<\/span><\/p>\n

found this used bookstore (found?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

must be careful of my verbs<\/span><\/p>\n

i am not a white man<\/span><\/p>\n

the store was there before i<\/span><\/p>\n

got there) entered\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

they had a poetry bookcase<\/span><\/p>\n

bought 4 books: sam cornish – songs<\/span><\/p>\n

of jubilee, kimiko hahn – air pocket,<\/span><\/p>\n

akua lezli hope – embouchure, and<\/span><\/p>\n

e. ethelbert miller – where<\/span><\/p>\n

are the love poems<\/span><\/p>\n

for dictators? \/ before midnight<\/span><\/p>\n

had read, scanned or run thru<\/span><\/p>\n

them all. yes, of course<\/span><\/p>\n

i knew about dictators,<\/span><\/p>\n

have run into a few before<\/span><\/p>\n

on an occasion or two<\/span><\/p>\n

or should i say ill-occasion<\/span><\/p>\n

have even been one, but<\/span><\/p>\n

i do not own the book on that<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

there are no love songs<\/span><\/p>\n

for dictators, not even<\/span><\/p>\n

i’ll be glad when you’re dead<\/span><\/p>\n

you rascal you, cause even that<\/span><\/p>\n

has a bit of affection, anyway<\/span><\/p>\n

i think it one of your better books<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

you were on to something<\/span><\/p>\n

or maybe simply on something<\/span><\/p>\n

or was it someone<\/span><\/p>\n

who had your mind so open<\/span><\/p>\n

you could feel the impress<\/span><\/p>\n

of another’s smile, another’s<\/span><\/p>\n

grimace, and you could walk that<\/span><\/p>\n

shit home backwards and blind<\/span><\/p>\n

like a beggar going back and forth<\/span><\/p>\n

between their favorite corner<\/span><\/p>\n

and the poor piece of space\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

they call a crib<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

so then i get this email from you. and all i can say is damn, and look out the window a second into the dark and know that either god is laughing or i should be because the universe sure enough knows how to confound the wisdom of we poor wretched fools who make the mistake of trying to understand it\u2014the universe, that is\u2014and i started to wondering if anyone ever really knows why their lover loves them, actually that’s not quite true, ’cause where i started with was wondering does nia know why i love her, do i know, is love knowable or simply, if we are lucky, embracable? like who knows where the song comes from or goes to, we just lucky when we can hit the notes and carry a tune… like that, and now i’m free typing this without knowing where it’s coming from or where i will end up, just knowing i wanted to let you know, that i hear you, brother, i hear your songs and echo the rhythms: ain’t no love song for dictators, for love is beyond the frequency of the ears of those who consciously hurt others<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014kalamu ya salaam<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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          Echoing Eshu’s Love Songs \u00a0(for “eshu” ethelbert miller) \u00a0 man, the relevance of coincidence is a motherfucker just today, walked down commercial street the business end of provincetown in and out of shops, paused here, there entered where attracted by something backed out and continued found this used bookstore (found?\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[6],"tags":[4,12,11],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176431184"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176431184"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176431184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":176431186,"href":"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176431184\/revisions\/176431186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176431184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176431184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176431184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}