Customer Reviews

Somebody Blew Up America & Other Poems

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People like to separate out people like Amiri Baraka as a "Black radical" yet what happened on 9/11 happened to everyone and everyone needs to be just as angry over who was behind it--those who occupy the US and most of the world. Baraka lost his poet laureate title over this truthful poem, by those who occupy this country, so it's no surprise to anyone who's clued in on this horrific situation that that is exactly what happens when you reveal the truth. The poem is brilliant and immensely courageous. We don't make true heroes of the people like this anymore.

the rant, the screed, the curse, forms of voice used by amiri baraka, are not without precedent, as far back as old testament prophets, virgil's rumor, villon, and medieval church books of curses, the torturous battle of god and the devil on the battleground of the soul is continued by baraka. the title of the poem Somebody Blew up America reads like sci-fi, with the seeker of answers to a litany of questions resounding with `who', tiring even the poet as he concludes with the inclusion of an owl. to the questions are different answers. some of the questions the poet answers, not always with reason, giving rhetorical answer to rhetorical question, generally, not the wisest strategy.

in Jungle Jim Flunks his Screen Test, baraka returns to the schoolyard and the way home from school to play the dozens. overheard is the late johnny carson asking: just how ugly is he? and baraka goes on for four pages about how ugly jungle jim is.

ironically, with all the invective, there is purity in baraka's language, a simplicity honed after decades of complexities and juxtaposing disparities and stripping language of grammar and vocabulary. vocabulary for baraka, the poet, anyway, is culled from jazz improvisations, why his poems are better experienced heard as read by him than by the reader holding his text. several of the poems have as subtitles, songs by jazz musicians, Airconditioned Nightmare, by Duke Ellington, Blood Count, by Billy Strayhorn, and Night in Tunisia, by Dizzy Gillespie.

accompanying the poems are intriguing and elegant digital illustrations by angelo rombley of the caribbean island of st martin.

I was there when Baraka read this poem at the Dodge poetry festival, before the controversy. It is an incredibly moving and thought provoking poem.

I found out about the poem, Somebody Blew up America, while watching some September 11th film. I was interested. And the way the poem was portrayed, I thought that Baraka was blaming the Jews for the attacks. I was shocked (but interested) that someone would be so bold because so many people seem reluctant to address the many inconsistencies of September 11th. To have a Poet Laureate talking about these issues is refreshing because he could use his celebrity to talk only of love lost. Instead he is making us uncomfortable with the many problems that plague our society. That is what art used to be about.

The book is really more a booklet. It can be finished in a day, perhaps an hour. But I will come back to these poems again and again to see what else I can gain from them. The introduction puts Baraka's poems into a context that is neglected in the media reports that merely want to incite acrimony. One poem talks of reparations for all of the people that have had their hopes taken from them. I know that topic is a bit out of fashion with mainstream media, but Baraka's poem cuts to the feeling that many Afro-Americans have about the topic.

We are entering this time when you can't say certain things and everyone is supposed to be politically correct, so its easily to paint an Amiri Baraka as a leftist radical racist. I think there is more to this man and this book is a brief introduction to that mind.

When this poem came out, there was a lot of controversy. Not only because of the content, but because New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey had named Amiri Baraka as the state's poet laureate shortly before, and the subsequent outrage over the poem prompted the state to rescind that title from Baraka.

Some believe Mr. Baraka (AKA Leroy Jones) was blaming the Jews in his poem "Somebody Blew Up America" for the 9-11 attack on the Twin Towers. After reading the poem, I understand Baraka's point that he was not blaming Jews, but rather ISRAELIS.

That being said, the only reason anyone bothered to read this book and its poems was because of the controversy. It's not a great of a read at all.