beat poetry (2)

Beat Voices Beat On

Last year, somewhere between Poetry Month and Black History Month while taking a class at the Writers Studio in NYC (virtually), I discovered the Black poet, Major Jackson who taught one of our craft classes…

Last year, somewhere between Poetry Month and Black History Month while taking a class at the Writers Studio in NYC (virtually), I discovered the Black poet, Major Jackson who taught one of our craft classes (virtually). I fell in love with “The Absurd Man,” bookended by Major and I and Double Major. In the middle were You, Reader and My Son & Me and you can’t help but love someone who is speaking directly to you and to me, directly, about himself.

This year, not intentionally (like last year) I found myself in the wrong place at the wrong time which is to say I mistook Saturday for Sunday at the Bainbridge Library and found myself trespassing in the books for sale room a day before the actual sale and held in my arms four volumes which included ‘Where I Was From’ by Joan Didion for a dollar which I took to as token from the universe and also ‘Beat Voices’,  An Anthology of Beat Poetry edited by David Kherdian for 50 cents which spoke to where I (as in me, Denise) was from as well as other lives I almost lived and inside of that library, inside of Black History Month, inside of that book, I have so far discovered black “Beat” poets Ted Joans and Leroi Jones, smooth voices still beating and not beat. They are at home with me now because the librarian gave me a pass and because I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, which is to say, it turned out right on.

Why Try

By Ted Joans

And she was brown

And she always dressed and wore brown

And she had a fine brown body

And she had two beautiful brown eyes

And she would sit in the Beat Café

On her brown behind on a hard brown bench

And listen to brown sounds entertain her brown thoughts

And she would often double cross her big brown legs

And reveal her beautiful brown pleasing knees

And as she sat in the Beat Café on her brown behind on the

hard brown bench

And listening to brown sounds coming from

   brown entertainers of brown bohemia

I    saw           a young white girl           throw away her

              brand new jar of

                                                suntan lotion     and sigh:

                                                                        WHY TRY?

For Hettie

By Leroi Jones

My wife is left-handed.

Which implies a fierce de-

termination. A complete other

worldliness. IT’S WEIRD BABY

The way some folks

are always trying to be different.

A sin & a shame.

Beth then, she’s been a bohemian

all her life . . . black stockings,

refusing to take orders. I sit

patiently, trying to tell her

what’s right. TAKE THAT DAMM

PENCIL OUTTA THAT HAND. YOU’RE

RITING BACKWARDS.  & such.  But

to no avail.  & it shows

in her work. Left-handed coffee,

left-handed eggs: when she comes

in at night . . . it’s her left hand

offered for me to kiss. DAMM.

& now her belly droops over the seat.

They say it’s a child.  But

I ain’t quite so sure.


OTHER ARTICLES BY DENISE:

Sculpture in the Front Yard – Yes Please!

BI Online Sites Remind Me of Dumpster-Diving Days

Should I Stay or Should I Go!

Fab Five!

Air Time: Talking Tillandsia with Sam Rader of Valley Nursery

Suggested Reading List for April Poetry Month

Neither Snow nor Rain nor Heat nor Gloom of Night (…but mostly snow)

History, Community and Art Converge at Pleasant Beach Village

Finding Bainbridge

New Sculptures in Familiar Places: Public Art Installations on Bainbridge Island

Green Light Garage: The Motherboard

Denise’s Favorite Virtual Gallery Tour: The National Cowboy Western & Heritage Museum


ABOUT DENISE STOUGHTON. Inspired by globe-trotting, art, fashion, technology and nature, Denise has spent a lifetime in the creative realm first as a home products industry design executive in New York City and more recently as an interior designer on Bainbridge Island. Her line of wall planter décor called Modern Airhead is made locally and sold at the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art (BIMA) gift shop. Writing has been a life-long passion and she’s authored blogs, articles and essays for mo-minski.com as well as for bainbridgecurrents.com. Denise serves on the Public Art Committee and is a board member of Arts & Humanities Bainbridge. Her chihuahuas Tula and Milo are constant companions and often accompany Denise around town riding shotgun in her VW Beetle. Visit denisebidesign.com to learn more about her work.