“Burn” was published in West Trestle Review (January/February 2023). I began to work on it after the 2016 election results were finalized. I continued to work on it over time. Eventually, I let go of it and let it be. The late poet and visionary, Sekou Sundiata, in response to his students asking him how he knew when a poem was ‘done’ said “I don’t.”
Remembering his words just makes me miss Sekou Sundiata even more. His words and the sound of his voice on his recordings The Blue Oneness of Being (Mercury Records, 1997) and [longstoryshort] (Righteous Babe Records, 2000) are powerful and soothing. Sundiata taught at The New School for over 20 years and performed his work, which included collaborations of his words, musicians, singers. I drove down to Palo Alto the year he and his full band were performing at Stanford to hear his collaborative perform the lush and nuanced The 51st Dream State. I was immersed in a soundscape with musicians, singers, and Sundiata’s words, and so happy to be there. Talk about an after work happy hour and more in a theater, no bar.
Sundiata dedicated The Blue Oneness of Dreams, his first recording, to the memory of Alan Booth and Toni Cade Bambara. He dedicated [longstoryshort] to Amadou Diallo. From the CD’s booklet: “Whenever something funky goes down in this country, the talk turns to healing and putting it behind us quicker than a cheap trick. Well, not only is this behind us, it’s gaining on us. I read this term healing as in making amends for an injury done. In a word: reparations. Operating on the same principle that allows Native Americans to get compensated for stolen land (too little, too late); for Japanese-Americans to be compensated for incarcerated during WW2; or for Jews most recently to be compensated for stolen wealth and forced labor. They all deserve to be compensated. So do African-Americans, period. Heal the wounds of slavery? I have my doubts. But reparations would be a good faith move.”
