Friday, June 26, 2009

for harryette mullen (30)


for harryette mullen


go on sister sing your song
lady redbone señora rubia
took all day long
shampooing her nubia…
from “go on sister sing your song”


to visionary heteroglossia,
u said, or bust, & leaped
from yr univocal rock across
the sinking sands of authentic
voice, across non-newtonian
fluidity unable to support
the significant weight of yr
poetic into a refracted domain
of identity & hybrid utterances
where blackness postures in the
screet, in the face of ĭn'ə-vā'shən,
where experiential tries to bully
experimental in another’s speech,
in sum other’s dialectal vehicle
in an abrupt drive-by of inten-
tions & accents but settle their
differences at poem’s end once
a postmodern pun, a thyme.
oh i do like yr stuff, woman,
yr sandra c. say “hip hyperbole,”
yr dicty sans synecdoche, impish
anagrams & fixations on worldly
wardrobe accessories, yr erotic
intersections of orality & illiterate
literacy. like miz lou say, no lickle
twang. u remind us that poetry is
heavy & fun, tickles our trauma;
is meaningless & tragic, high &
low context & seriously silly…
so go on sister, poet/sing. i hear u.
excuse me while i clear my thought;
forgive me if i can’t join in.


©Joseph McNair;2009

1 comment:

  1. if harryette mullen can't create out of nothing, she comes damn close.What an inventive poet, what a nice tribute.

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