Oral Edification
Mr. Joseph Littleshoes Esq.
From Raven's Bones an anthology of Tlingit and
Native American poetry and writings.
Published by the Sitka community association,
Sitka Alaska,1982.
Oral Edification
by
Andrew Hope.
How do storytellers
And Song people
Edit talk?
What to think?
What to say?
What to sing?
An old man walks to the microphone
At a Native convention
"I don't speak good English"
He tells the crowd
Before beginning his story
He talks about diplomacy
Words going out
Public statements
Words coming out
He knows word power
Sometimes words spear people, hurt people
Puncture skin
Tearing
Bleeding
War songs
Hate poems
Wild words
Sometimes you can't get around those words
Like Baraka's hard facts
Words coming down lickety split on public scandal
Those lines rail like a saxaphone
A geography of words
Literary maps
Describe the way you move
Along word landscapes
Telling about place
Place words carefully
Making peace with words
Healing words
Ceremonial words
Plan
Think how your words come out
Transform words
Thoughts
Gossip
Rumour
Talk Talk Talk Talk Talking book
Oral tradition
Spoken word
Conversation
Remembering
Surrender
(Watch their faces)
Stories
Acting
The famous;
"Fidelity to the given word. The man
Standing here by his word."
--after Confucius thru Pound
The translated word?
Think well
Speak well
Remember
Know your words
--
Mr. Joseph Littleshoes Esq.
Mr. Joseph Littleshoes Esq.
====
> "In the poem ÔøΩWhen WeÔøΩll Worship JesusÔøΩ (from Hard Facts), Baraka
> attacks capitalist AmericaÔøΩs tradition of Christianity. The religion
> with which the ÔøΩbeastsÔøΩ of Africa had been domesticated into slaves
> who would endure their suffering as a race (using the suffering of
> Jesus as a model) for the existential good of their souls. Baraka
> takes the proverbial quote by Karl Marx that ÔøΩReligionÔøΩis the opium of
> the people,ÔøΩ and puts it in historical context for African-Americans:
>
> we aint gonna worship jesus cause jesus dont exist
> xcept in song and story except in ritual and dance, except in slum
stained
> tears or trillion dollar opulence stretching back in historyÔøΩ..
> stop moanin about jesus, stop sweatin and crying and stompin
> and dyin for jesus (Baraka Reader, 253-254).
>
> Baraka goes beyond criticizing Christianity and its role in the
> oppression of African-Americans. He goes on to offer a new religion to
> African-Americans based on them and their past as well as their
> struggles and beauty:
>
> we worship the strength in us
> we worship our selves
> we worship the light in us
> we worship the warmth in us
> we worship the world
> we worship the love in us
> we worship our selves
> we worship nature
> we worship ourselves
> we worship the life in us, and science, and knowledge, and transformation
> of the visible world (Ibid)."
>
Reminds me of Crowleys "Liber Oz" though i can only imagine Amiri
Baraka's opinion of Crowley...
There is no god but man.
1. Man has the right to live by his own law--
to live in the way that he wills to do:
to work as he will:
to play as he will:
to rest as he will:
to die when and how he will.
2. Man has the right to eat what he will:
to drink what he will:
to dwell where he will:
to move as he will on the face of the earth.
3. Man has the right to think what he will:
to speak what he will:
to write what he will:
to draw, paint, carve, etch, mould, build as he will:
to dress as he will.
4. Man has the right to love as he will:--
"take your fill and will of love as ye will, when, where, and with
whom ye will." --AL. I. 51
5. Man has the right to kill those who would thwart these rights.
"the slaves shall serve." --AL. II. 58
"Love is the law, love under will." --AL. I. 57
--
Mr. Joseph Littleshoes Esq.
Domine, dirige nos.
Let the games begin!
http://fredeeky.typepad.com/fredeeky/files/sf_anthem.mp3