James A Emanuel Poems
A collection of select James A Emanuel famous poems that were written by James A Emanuel or written about the poet by other famous poets. PoetrySoup is a comprehensive educational resource of the greatest poems and poets on history.
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A little bit of fool in me
Hides behind my inmost tree
And pops into the narrow path
I walk blindfolded by my wrath
Or shrunken by some twist of pain,
Some hope that will not wind again.
He ogles with his antic eyes
and somersaults a you're-not-wise
Until the patches in his pants
Go colorwheeling through my glance
So fast that I cannot recall
That I was mad or...Read more of this...
by
Emanuel, James A
Stairstep music: ups,
downs, Bill Robinson smiling,
jazzdancing the rounds.
She raised champagne lips,
danced inside banana hips.
All Paris wooed Jo.
Banana panties,
perfumed belt, Jazz tatooing
lush ecstasies felt.
Josephine, royal,
jewelling her dance, flushing
the bosom of France....Read more of this...
by
Emanuel, James A
Once Ugly Duckling,
rich plumage grew. Poised, Bird flew.
Flocks followed. Me too....Read more of this...
by
Emanuel, James A
Pin- La- SCATS :
ball dy
tis- tas- bumps
ket raps ket, back.
yel- bas-
Wins low ket....Read more of this...
by
Emanuel, James A
I hear a whistling
Through the water.
Little Emmett
Won't be still.
He keeps floating
Round the darkness,
Edging through
The silent chill.
Tell me, please,
That bedtime story
Of the fairy
River Boy
Who swims forever,
Deep in treasures,
Necklaced in
A coral toy.
* In 1955, Till, a fourteen-year-old from Chicago, for
allegedly whistling at a white woman in Mississippi, was murdered
by white men who tied a gin mill fan around his neck and...Read more of this...
by
Emanuel, James A
Repeatedly, that sturdy stump in me
bears up like stone,
beneath some ritual I see:
the blinding axe
swings up, holds,
that moment of its weightlessness
inscrutable
till I confirm the arm is mine;
I will it, grip,
feel moist the swelling handle,
the shudder rude,
the difference fallen.
Toward that chopping block
I carry in me woodthings—
infectious undergrowth
pretending upwards
through each stem and branch of me—
all so certain of themselves
they practice, like...Read more of this...
by
Emanuel, James A
When three, he fished these lakes,
Curled sleeping on a lip of rock,
Crib blankets tucked from ants and fishbone flies,
Twitching as the strike of bass and snarling reel
Uncoiled my shouts not quit
Till he jerked blinking up on all-fours,
Swaying with the winking leaves.
Strong awake, he shook his cane pole like a spoon
And dipped among the wagging perch
Till, tired, he drew his...Read more of this...
by
Emanuel, James A
I
My friends do not know.
But what could my friends not know?
About what? What friends?
II
She sleeps late each day,
stifling each reason to rise,
choked into the quilt.
III
"I'll never find work."
She swallows this thought with pills,
finds tears in the glass....Read more of this...
by
Emanuel, James A
Four-letter word JAZZ:
naughty, sexy, cerebral,
but solarplexy....Read more of this...
by
Emanuel, James A
In town to sell his fruit, he saw her—
Françoise in her summer slacks—
turning to him, coming back
to feel the swelling plums,
one held in each soft hand, breast-high,
above them her eyes enclosing him
in quietness brushed up to colors,
urgings green, thrustings yellow.
A vine-like touch, her promise seemed all profit,
surplus to lay aside and store,
quick harvest if he collapsed his stand,
pulled down...Read more of this...
by
Emanuel, James A
Lid's on, steam's risin':
collard greens, Lord, bubblin' JAZZ!
That's appetizin'....Read more of this...
by
Emanuel, James A
He dug what she said:
bright jellies, smooth marmalade
spread on warm brown bread.
"Jazz" from drowsy lips
orchids lift to honeybees
floating on long sips.
"Jazz": quick fingerpops
pancake on a griddle-top
of memories. Stop.
"Jazz": mysterious
as nutmeg, missing fingers,
gold, Less serious.
"Jazz": cool bannister.
Don't need no stair. Ways to climb
when the sax is there....Read more of this...
by
Emanuel, James A
EVERYTHING is jazz:
snails, jails, rails, tails, males, females,
snow-white cotton bales.
Knee-bone, thigh, hip-bone.
Jazz slips you percussion bone
classified "unknown."
Slick lizard rhythms,
cigar-smoke tunes, straight-gin sky
laced with double moons.
Second-chance rhythms,
don't-give-up riffs: jazz gets HIGH
off can'ts, buts, and ifs....Read more of this...
by
Emanuel, James A
"Love Supreme," JA-A-Z train,
tops. prompt lightning-express, but
made ALL local stops....Read more of this...
by
Emanuel, James A
Satchmo's warm burlap,
Duke's cool cashmere: fine fabrics
make your love "Come here!"...Read more of this...
by
Emanuel, James A
« I sing the LORD'S songs »
(palms once tough to stay alive,
alarm clock on five).
Cinnamon cheeks, Lord,
cornbread smile. SONGS feed your ribs
when you're hungry, chile.
Washboard certainties,
soldierly grace, text and style
in her brimming face.
Your hand on your heart,
her voice in your ear: pilgrim,
rest easy. Sit here....Read more of this...
by
Emanuel, James A
There ain't NO-BO-DY
can dance like THAT, 'cept them twins
Jazzlene and Jazzphat....Read more of this...
by
Emanuel, James A
I fish for words
to say what I fish for,
half-catch sometimes.
I have caught little pan fish flashing sunlight
(yellow perch, crappies, blue-gills),
lighthearted reeled them in,
filed them on stringers on the shore.
A nice mess, we called them,
and ate with our fingers, laughing.
Once, dreaming of fish in far-off waters,
I hooked a two-foot carp in Michigan,
on nylon line so fine
a fellow-fisher shook his head:
"He'll...Read more of this...
by
Emanuel, James A
To every man
His treehouse,
A green splice in the humping years,
Spartan with narrow cot
And prickly door.
To every man
His twilight flash
Of luminous recall
of tiptoe years
in leaf-stung flight;
of days of squirm and bite
that waved antennas through the grass;
of nights
when every moving thing
was girlshaped,
expectantly turning.
To every man
His house below
And his house above—
With perilous stairs
Between....Read more of this...
by
Emanuel, James A
In tight pants, tight skirts,
Stretched or squeezed,
Youth hurts,
Crammed in, bursting out,
Flesh will sing
And hide its doubt
In nervous hips, hopping glance,
Usurping rouge,
Provoking stance.
Put off, or put on,
Youth hurts. And then
It's gone....Read more of this...
by
Emanuel, James A