Arts Speaking of Chocolate Month
posted by on January 24 at 16:36 PM
It turns out I do own that LeRoi Jones book of poetry that I was hung up on the other day.
It’s called Black magic: Sabotage, Target study, Black art; collected poetry, 1961-1967. It was actually right there on my desk in my apartment with a stack of other special books that are supposed to be my sentimental favorites— that I don’t want to ever lose track of.
Problem is, after gasping with glee when I saw it, I flipped through it and did not find said poem: “Note to America.”
I’m telling you. This poem exists. It’s about Muhammad Ali. I read this poem in my high school library while sitting in detention after school. It totally totally totally changed my life.
Where is this poem? Does anyone know where to find it. “Note to America” by LeRoi Jones. My memory is that it’s just a bumper sticker of agitprop and reads: Note to America. You cannot hurt Muhammad Ali and stay alive.
I want to see it in print.
according to google it's on page 178.
Are you sure you're not thinking of H. Rap Brown?
I am sure I'm not thinking of H. Rap Brown.
He was not capable of writing such a beautiful poem.
-Not Down with H. Rap Brown
Amiri Baraka Boxer
who is...as you said before! i'm confused about what the confusion is.
cutting and pasting will make one look like an idiot...Amiri Baraka (drop the Boxer - duh)
Well, it's not very beautiful, but H. Rap Brown did write a poem, or something, called "Note to America". That's why I asked. It's not about Muhammad Ali, though. Ali is mentioned in the book it appears in, Die Nigger Die (subtlety was not Brown's strong suit).
http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/dnd.html
I found a guy on a blog who thinks the quote is from Langston Hughes, and another guy on another blog (from a year ago) who says Baraka. The phrase does not otherwise appear in google.
Fnarf, you do realize it's pretty damned insulting to suggest Josh didn't try Google, don't you?
And it ought to be embarrassing for you, too, as you've just revealed yourself as one of those internet know-it-alls who's no better than his first set of search results (or the relevant Wikipedia article, whichever comes first). If I were you, I'd be particularly ashamed in this case, since the very first commenter in this thread managed to dig up the cite you couldn't find, and using Google, to boot.
Chris @ #1,
Hilarious. So, I get home and flip to page One Hundred and Seventy Eig..... Oh look! It goes 174, 175, 176, ...179.
There's a remnant of page 177/178, but it's just a leftover scrap in the binding where a page was obviously torn out years ago (by me) and tacked onto some wall in some previous apartment of dorm.
And the poems on page 176 and the facing page 179 are not too good.
Ah, I figured out what chris knows, and Fnarf doesn't.
Chris knows how to use Google Books.
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