Amiri Baraka

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Amiri Baraka (formerly LeRoi Jones) was born October 7, 1934 in Newark, New Jersey. He was an American poet and playwright who published provocative works that assiduously presented the experiences and suppressed anger of Black Americans in a white-dominated society. After graduating from Howard University (B.A., 1953), Jones served in the U.S. Air Force but was dishonourably discharged after three years because he was suspected (wrongly at that time) of having communist affiliations. He attended graduate school at Columbia University, New York City, and founded (1958) the poetry magazine Yugen, which published the work of Beat writers such as Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac. Following the assassination of Malcolm X in 1965, Jones became increasingly focused on Black nationalism. In 1968, he adopted the name Amiri Baraka, and his writings became more divisive. In the mid-1970s he became a Marxist, though his goals remained similar. “I [still] see art as a weapon and a weapon of revolution,” he said. Source

As a Possible Lover

Practices

silence, the way of wind

bursting

in early lull. Cold morning

to night, we go so

slowly, without

thought

to ourselves. (Enough

to have thought

tonight, nothing

finishes it. What

you are, will have

no certainty, or

end. That you will

stay, where you are,

a human gentle wisp

of life. Ah…)

practices

loneliness,

as a virtue. A single

specious need

to keep

what you have

never really

had.

Published:

1962

Length:

Shorty

Literary Movements:

Black Arts Movement

Anthology Years:

Themes:

Doubt & Fear

Identity

Love & Relationships

Literary Devices:

Enjambment

a line break interrupting the middle of a phrase which continues on to the next line