Luther Hughes talked about how the painter Jeam-Michel Basquiat was a muse for him in this poem "Tenor" on The Poetry Magazine Podcast. Below is the painting that inspired the poem.
After Jean-Michel Basquiat
After Jean-Michel Basquiat
Crows
and more crows.
One crow
with a rat
hanging
from its beak,
sloppy
and beautiful.
Another crow
with its wings
plucked
empty.
I wanted
so much of today
to be peaceful
but the empty crow
untethers
something in me: a feral
yearning for love
or a love that is so full
of power,
of tenderness,
the words
fall to their knees
begging for mercy
like tulips
in wind.
I don’t wear the crown
for the times power
has tainted
my body,
but I can tell the difference
between giving up
and giving in.
If you can’t, ask the crow
that watches me
through the window,
laughing as I drink
my third bottle of wine.
Ask the sound
the tree makes
when the crow has grown
disgusted
with my whining.
After years of repression,
I can come clean.
I was a boy
with a hole
other boys
stuffed themselves into.
I have wanted
nothing to do with blackness
or laughter
or my life.
But about love,
who owns the right,
really? Who owns
the crow
who loves fresh meat
or the crow who loves
the vibration
of its own throat?
Everything around me
is black for its own good,
I suppose.
The widow,
the picture of the boy
crying on the wall,
the mirror
with its taunting,
the crows
that belong
to their scripture.
Can you imagine
being so tied to blackness
that even your wings
cannot help you escape?
About my life,
every needle,
a small prayer.
Every pill, a funeral
hymn.
I wanted the end
several times
but thought,
Who owns this body, really?
God?
Dirt?
The silly insects
that will feast
on my decay?
Is it the boy
who entered first
or the boy
who wanted everything
to last?
This is the type of poem I love to read. It's not too abstract; it's very philosophical; there is a narrative; and it challenges us as readers to think about the questions asked. It's darkly depressing, but it keeps space for the reader to see hope.
ReplyDeleteI love the connections between the crows, the boy, and the narrator.
Whoa. This poems really stands out among the majority of the ones we have read so far. When writing comes from this place it holds such an audience...as you mentioned, the questions and narrative give us enough background to FEEL so much here. I kept wondering how he found himself within this poem...how the author of the poem places himself inside it as well. It does feel depressing and I loved how you mentioned it "keep[ing] space for the reader to see hope". Such a great comment...!!!! This will definitely be a reread for me in the future. The crow- such a traditional symbol...looked this up in regards to this poem and found this short blog post that I assumed related to this Hughes and was actually in reference to Ted Hughes, the famous poet and husband to Sylvia Plath. We could do an entire month on crows in poetry- wild stuff- we should post some Ted Hughes!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.faena.com/aleph/articles/symbols-of-the-crow/
https://www.npr.org/2015/10/10/447156705/sylvia-plaths-husband-ted-hughes-lived-a-life-of-poetry-and-tragedy
Jimbo’s lost comment:
ReplyDeleteI love the crows. They add so much to the poem. Crows represent the typical and cliche death, but crows have been used as symbols of good luck too. Is there a potential for a good luck change for the narrator?
The connection between the narrator, the boys, and the crows are the strongest. Even with all the freedom of a flying bird, the crow cannot escape its blackness. Niether can the narrator, but that doesn't even seem to be his greatest issue. Of course, it's love.
The narrator's story is so depressing. And the ending is so powerful. The boy/narrator can't end his life because he doesn't own it. Dam, that's terrible. I'm not sure how I should feel after reading this poem. But it has rocked me!