nowhere blues
latest audio visual poemetric mashup w 'special guest' Fork Burke --- inspired mix of langstons bluesy poetry and williams aesthetic/experimental form.
first published here (see here for more info)
http://www.verseofapril.com/verseofapril/2017/4/19/56-jamika-fork-hughes...
Below are the texts that make-up this collaborative tribute to poets Langston Hughes and William S. Burroughs:
them nowhere home blues
(for brothah from another other langston hughes)
by jamika ajalon
blues?
carry in my shoes
from one go to another
stop nowhere
imprints pissed stained
pleasured worlds of road
avenues & boulevards
askLangston
Hughes would agree--
the poetry of the city marianates
skull high sands
in loose coin & blues bones
tide in black froth & indigo
tied upin a knot
outbackmy throat
got me up and left me gone
this road aintso short
but it don't seem so long
them blues sisters
been sitting ‘round me
in they kingdom thrones
singing me they songs
and I been taking notes
like who evah heard
why she take to the road
when nowhere is home for long …
no nowhere is home for so long
NOWHERE BLUES cut up
by fork burke
Langston would agree – black and froth & indigo – pleasured wolds – throat sands – taking notes
who imprints singing – why this road – pissed one go to don`t
they songs - nowhere got avenues
avenues shoes round me kingdom – bones hughes blues loose coin stop
taking when agree
to poetry they kingdom
poetry nowhere marianates like notes
it thrones
stop aint sitting indigo city up
songs the & to
they & tied to pleasured
avenues notes long long the kingdom
they me
short of blues? she and indigo up gone
the indigo my nowhere
from for when worlds back pleasured thrones brothah
the nowhere
don't the in tide been other
to in poetry
brothah bones blues don't road blues
worlds sitting road Langston
been city
another no gone
my the marianates heard coin of blues
when is ask this don't
sands Langston hughes
longroad they singing Langston
go brothah it from brothah
boulevards go pleasured
road tide them home
worlds why worlds
city
Why Burroughs Cut-up?:
William Burroughs is another artist whose form inspires me in the various mutations of my artistic practice. My ode to Hughes had already gone through several permutations as a text on paper, and I wanted to transform it further. Fork Burke is probably one of the biggest fans of Burroughs that I know, and his influence is also very present in her work, so I invited Fork to do a cut up of my poem, my ode to Langston—“Them Nowhere Home Blues.”
Why experimental audio-visual mash-up?:
The word is always the root of my practice, and I often re-work poetry and prose into visual/sonic pieces. In the end, with “Nowhere Blues,” the video has become a kind of a cut-up of the cut, of the cut-up expressed through layers of voicings, sound, and dissected images. The mood, tone, and theme of the poem speaks to Langston, but the transformation reflects Burroughs’ form, technique, and philosophy as an artist. Besides, I get a kick out of bringing seemingly disparate elements together to create a whole new beast.
Name : Fork Burke
Hometown: Detroit, Michigan
Current City: Biel-Bienne - Switzerland
Occupation: Poet
What does poetry mean to you?
Poetry is like Spirit—It is in everything seen and unseen—I think of poetry as a communication I encounter all the time—All subversive moments are poetry and all poems are love poems—Poetry holds space—I am constantly taking notes—the poem emerges over a period of time, and it is the poets calling to witness possibility of truth—Poetry is both destructive and restorative, and writing poems is the work of Poetry.