Splay Anthem [Paperback]

Nathaniel Mackey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 30, 2006

In a stunning new collection of poems of transport and transcendence, African-American poet Nathaniel Mackey's "asthmatic song of aspiration" scuttles across cultures and histories—from America to Andalucía, from Ethiopia to Vienna—in a sexy, beautiful adaptive dance.

Part antiphonal rant, part rhythmic whisper, Nathaniel Mackey's new collection of poems, Splay Anthem, takes the reader to uncharted poetic spaces. Divided into three sections—"Braid," "Fray," and "Nub" (one referent Mackey notes in his stellar Introduction: "the imperial, flailing republic of Nub the United States has become, the shrunken place the earth has become, planet Nub")—Splay Anthem weaves together two ongoing serial poems Mackey has been writing for over twenty years, Song of the Andoumboulou and "Mu" (though "mu no more itself / than Andoumboulou").

In the cosmology of the Dogon of West Africa, the Andoumboulou are progenitor spirits, and the song of the Andoumboulou is a song addressed to the spirits, a funeral song, a song of rebirth. "Mu," too, splays with meaning: muni bird, Greek muthos, a Sun Ra tune, a continent once thought to have existed in the Pacific. With the vibrancy of a Miró painting, Mackey's poems trace the lost tribe of "we" through waking and dreamtime, through a multitude of geographies, cultures, histories, and musical traditions, as poetry here serves as the intersection of everything, myth's music, spirit lift.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Published in installments across several decades, Mackey's two epic series—one called Mu, the other Song of the Andoumboulou—bring the attitudes of free jazz and the reverberating patterns of West African ensemble music to the goals of the American encyclopedic long poem à la Charles Olson. The mysterious, even hermetic, new verse extends both of Mackey's epics, even (as his prose foreword explains) merging them, so that they form one enormous text describing a mystical quest. Mackey's figures seek the source of inspiration, and his dense stanzas track their uneven progress; "We" pursue it, by foot, train or boat, into realms of fable and myth, via chants, archival and esoteric references, portmanteau words and archeological research. "Atless" (that is, lost without a map) and given to interjections like "wuh," Mackey's crew crosses the "City of Lag" on the "Not Yet Express," as the poet himself sends his spirit "up/ Unreal Street unstrung" in search of new sounds and rituals. (May)
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Review

Mackey plays...scatting across the page an anthem...whose structure widens our poetic notions and splays our mainstream culture. (Poetry Flash, Zara Raab)

Mackey plays...scatting across the page an anthem...whose structure widens our poetic notions and splays our mainstream culture.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: New Directions (May 30, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811216527
• ISBN-13: 978-0811216524
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #451,679 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a poet's singing, January 20, 2008

By 

Case Quarter (CT USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Splay Anthem (Paperback)

the river that runs thru it, thru all of it, it being the writings of nathaniel mackey, his poetry and what prose i've read by him, is jazz, mostly free jazz. poetry on the page when it professes to be music, a specific music, unless the specific piece intended is present, or known by the reader, is there for the mercy of individual interpretation. and i seriously doubt in such instances that any two readers will hear the same music, except in say, a very generalized listening, or listenings, then, at best, there's some consensus: yes, this is jazz i hear when i read these poems.

i believe any and all poetry in hand should, whenever possible, be read aloud, so the rhythms of the poetry, the arrangement of iamb and anapest, of assonance and alliteration, as arranged by the poet can come fully into play, with a turning on of the medium, and the reader as listener to one's own voice speaking or chanting or singing the poet's words fits the reading. now whatever music is heard may or may not have reference to specific recorded music heard somewhere in the listener's experience.

words refer. mackey uses the word 'splay' as having multiple meanings, as with 'mu', one meaning refers to 2 don cherry recordings. mu, along with song of andoumboulou, are 2 ongoing serial poems by mackey, braided together under the title 'splay anthem.' mackey writes in his preface that each was given its impetus by a piece of music from which it takes its title.

what can be annoying about mackey's projects, not just his poetry, is that everything he creates remains in flux, and, as such, is inconclusive. fortunately, he continues where he left off. and fortunately, enjoyment of his books does not rely on having read other books in the 'series'.

the true pleasures of mackey's writing in general, and splay anthem in particular, are the rhythms of his language, the imagery he creates which remains long after the reading, and his generousity in sharing his knowledge and love of jazz. his preface should be read for his remarks on the saxophonist, glenn spearman.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The river of words., April 1, 2008

By 

Robert P. Beveridge "xterminal" (Lakewood, OH) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Splay Anthem (Paperback)

Nathaniel Mackey, Splay Anthem (New Directions, 2006)

There is a (very) short list of poets I keep in the back of my head whom I believe every "performance" poet, "slam" poet, and "spoken word artist" should read-- those poets whose work is offered in the same performance-oriented vein, but still works first and foremost as poetry. I have added Nathaniel Mackey to the list, for Splay Anthem is the epitome of this style of writing-- it sounds great when you read it aloud, and stands up when you read it on the page. Mackey has not forgotten that poetry is, first and foremost, about the sound (where so many of these others are so concerned with the message they're trying to get across that I often wonder if whether it sounds good ever enters their heads), and man, it sounds good:

"Vibrating string held us together,/hostage, nubs what before were/fingers albeit we plucked at it/even so, a subdued drum pounding/past/words, words' amanuensis...Packed up,/departed, booked... 'Cold water/and dirt,' a voice we heard sang,/wasted."
("Song of the Andomboulou: 44")

This is great stuff, made all the more interesting by Mackey's erudite (and quite illuminating) introduction, which traces, in an impressionist kinda way, a string of influences that led to the poems we have here. All the messages that the performance poets are so hot to make sure we humans understand are in this book, but-- and this is the important part, kiddies-- they never get in the way of the poetry itself. And that's what makes this such a fine piece of work. Should be required reading for aspiring poets with messages, and highly recommended for everyone else, too. ****