Tag Archives: Black poetry

Lines for LeRoi Jones (Imamu)

Imamu

God help us, Imamu—stop playing the fool
as you babble unhinged in your kente hat.
Bebopping Mao is so very uncool;
what up wit dat ?

Flirtations with Castro (Fidel to the faithful)
and free Cuba Libres imbibed with the Beats
inflamed discontent when your verses turned wrathful
in the streets.

Predictable tirades where Whitey’s the foe,
attacking your hosts like an Afro/eccentric
gets old. It’s a stagnant unmusical show:
dull dialectic.

Who knows why the liberals that bankroll you love it?
Who cares what your most recent pseudonym is?
You old and you mad cause’ you can’t rise above it,
mired in the shizz.

Your lines are pure mannitol: dumbed-down cocaine
(The blow on the head by that riot-cop lingers!)
The syntax is whack in your ghetto refrain.
Snap fingers . . .

Still you wait for your war—or the Black Star-Liner . . .
Your rage was your royalty, paid in white money.
Your verse sought to give the right wing a dark shiner—
it’s not funny.

Insulting, belittling others more noble;
your legacy leaves nothing hopeful or witty
Just putrid black waters, the flow uncontrollable
under the city.

Inside of your Kabaa are yet many idols.
Your New Ark of verse did not save from the flood.
You mau-mau and bludgeon with words all your rivals
but draw no blood.

Lighten up, wise Imamu. Your age is soon closing.
You wrote for the stage and said some of it well.
But your verse has gone rotten and yields, decomposing,
a nasty smell.

Twinkle Schascle Yochim: LEROI JONES Live @ The 5’O Club

LINKED VERSION

God help us, Imamu—stop playing the fool
as you babble unhinged in your kente hat.
Bebopping Mao is so very uncool;
what up wit dat?
Flirtations with Castro (Fidel to the faithful)
and free Cuba Libres imbibed with the Beats
inflamed discontent when your verses turned wrathful
in the streets
Predictable tirades where whitey’s the foe,
and attacking your hosts like an Afro/eccentric
gets old. It’s a stagnant unmusical show:
dull dialectic.
So what if the liberals that bankroll you love it?
Who cares what your most recent pseudonym is?
You old and you mad cause’ you can’t rise above it,
mired in the shizz.
Your lines are pure mannitol; dumbed-down cocaine
(The blow on the head by that riot-cop lingers!)
the syntax is whack in your ghetto refrain
Snap fingers . . .
Still you wait for your war – or the Black Star-Liner . . .
Your rage was your royalty, paid in white money
your verse sought to give the right wing a dark shiner—
it’s not funny.
Insulting, belittling others more noble;
your legacy leaves nothing hopeful or witty
Just putrid black waters, the flow uncontrollable
under the city.
Inside of your Kaaba are yet many idols.
Your New Ark of verse does not save from the flood.
You mau-mau and bludgeon with words all your rivals
but draw no blood.
Lighten up, wise Imamu. Your age is soon closing.
You wrote for the stage and said some of it well.
But your verse has gone rotten and yields, decomposing,
a nasty smell.

Post Script from Bob McNeil:

Soul without a Heaven

Evermore, Amiri’s spirit is a disobeyer,
Fighting all oppositional visions.
On Newark’s numerous walls,
He smears odes to Marxist contrarians.

Evermore, Amiri’s spirit is a disobeyer,
Whose rancor for imperialists
Could torch their needs
To ashen nothingness.

Evermore, Amiri’s spirit is a disobeyer,
Whose right hand manages a pen,
Whose left banks on its shank,
And both will shiv contention givers.

Evermore, Amiri’s spirit is a disobeyer.
Delighting anti-Semites and homophobes,
His published pressure cooker bomb explodes.
Such shaitan ire never erodes.

Shaitan: an evil spirit in Islamic countries

by Bob McNeil Copyright 2014

Betting on the Races: Dark Horse

White folks: pack your bags and go.
Our nut-brown world is quite offended.
Make your shamefaced exit NOW,
And leave your mansions unattended.
Wait—before you pass the doors,
It’s time to settle ethnic scores.

No more ragtime Minstrel show.
Our Moorish science took it down.
Black lives matter. White, less so—
Now move your paleface out of town . . .
But first, shell out for racial shame
Caucasian losers of the game.

Cultural pride is ours alone:
Kings and Egyptian queens, we were.
The glories of our race, well-known,
Bedazzle in a darkened blur—
Clear to Africa’s descendants,
Puzzling to you white dependents.

Blackness lent your world its light,
Taught the Dutch to tend those flowers.
Scandinavia grew bright
Under our beneficent powers.
Negroes gave your blondes their beauty;
Helped those Norsemen shake their booty.

The Seven Wonders of the World:
We built them all. No vain conjecture
Dims our banner, black, unfurled,
Above eternal architecture.
Arts and knowledge gained from us
Are what we threaten to discuss.

We invented math and science
Which you robbed from Timbuktu.
Swarthy wisdom’s brave defiance
Caused Old Europe to renew.
All our treasure that you plundered
Testifies: your days are numbered.

Classics of our Greeks you stole:
Philosophy was never yours.
Shame upon your racist soul;
For Bach and Mozart both were Moors.
Misappropriated treasures
Call for ruthless hard-line measures.

Latino fate falls next—  but, where ?
Jews, Turks, and Arabs: are you. . . white ?
Orientals everywhere:
Choose your side and join the fight.
Blackness rising! Late the hour;
Heed your call to fight the power.

Crackers need to check your race
Stop rooting for that vulgar clown . . .
Rednecks all up in our face;
Racist throwbacks got us down.
But as your statues bite the dust
Your light goes dark (you know it must).

So move on out, oppressor, thief.
Long have you held our nation back.
In some white galaxy seek relief—
But here the light itself is black.
Stars are racist. So is the sun.
Now let God’s great black will be done.

 

 

Mother Hubbard

Old Mother Hubbard
Went to the cupboard,
To give her poor dog a cracker;
When she came there,
The cupboard was bare,
And none of her people would back her.

She rode on her Harley
To sound the alarm;
When she came back
Her rant was still warm!

She posted a YouTube
To challenge the masses;
When she came back
They had covered their asses.