Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones): The Man, the Poet, and the
[ Click to Order the LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka Reader
Lines: (from “Western Front”)
My intentions are colors. I’m filled with
color, every tint you think of lends to mine
my mind is full of color, hard muscle streaks,
or soft glow round exactness registration. All earth
heaven things, hell things, in colors circulate
a wild blood train, turn litmus like a bible coat, …
What a wonderful book… I lucked out a few years ago, finding it in a dusty stack of used books for $1.
These lines you’ve shared are so vibrant, I feel my own muscles shifting and rustling around…
Hey Zoe,
We have a great deal of conversation in this household about the relationship of colors to music, and to apply Baraka’s analogy of colors to intentions, even thinking of intentions as a range, as falling into a spectrum, opens up an interesting pathway for inquiry.
“Don’t be just a hue, be a spectrum!” ~Henie~ :~)
there’s a lot in that Henie…our wholeness is never monotone…
‘My mind is full of colour’ – what a great line this is. I read a book once about near death experiences, and one woman talks about a heaven of sorts, with many coloured flowers, in colours she had never seen before, she recalled them vibrating and that she didn’t recognise the notes. She also said it was so overwhelmingly lovely, that the music produced euphoria in the listener.and was the single most beautiful sound she had ever heard. When you spoke of the relationship between colors to music, this is where my mind went. Anyway i really like this guys style, i’m making a note of the book. Thanks for bringing poetry here Richard, you know it’s a passion for me, poetry gives a voice to many who were lacking one.
Reading that back, forgot to mention the flowers were producing music if it wasn’t clear. Sorry for confluffsion, bit tired.
The link of color and music was explored and mapped extensively by the American painter Robert Henri. He developed a flexible palette that allowed him to approach each painting with a different color chord…so he could do a painting in the chord of b flat for instance.
What do you mean by ‘a flexible palette’?
Many painters have a set palette where the colors they work with are the same for each painting. Henri changed his palette for the painting…hence it was flexible.