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.