Amiri Baraka, 1977, "A Poem for Deep Thinkers" at New College of California —The Poetry Center

[Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] for deep thinkers and it was written I guess for deep thinkers intellectuals Etc Sky people coming down out the clouds land then walking into society try to find out what's happening what's happening they'd be saying look at it where they've been dabbling and missed appearing and disappearing now there's a real world breathing and hailing exhaling concrete and sand and they want to know what's happening what's happening is life itself on with an upward the spirals of fire conflict Clash of opposing forces the dialogue of yes and no showed itself and stabbed children in the hallways of schools old men strangling Bank guards a hard Puerto Rican inmates tears exchanging goodbyes in the prison doorway Army sweeping wave after wave to contest the ancient rule of the minority what draws them down their blood entangle with humans their memories perhaps of the Earth and what they thought it could be but blinded by Sun and their own images of things rather than things as they actually are they wobble they stumble sometimes and people they be cheering a lot because they think the sky people dancing yeah yeah get on it people grinning and feeling good cause the sky people dancing and the sky people stumbling till they get the Sun out the eyes and integrate the in-hid movie show with the material reality that exists with and without them there are tragedies though a bunch of Skies bought the loop-de-loop program from the elegant Babel of the ancient minorities which is where they loop-de-loop in the sky right on just loop-de-loop loop-de-loop and fantastic meaningless curlicues which Delight the thin Gallery owners who wave at them on their way to getting stabbed in the front seats of their silver Alpha Romeos by lump and they have gotten passionate with and the loopty Lewis go on sometimes spelling out complex primitive slogans and shooting symbolic smoke out their gills in honor of something dead and then they'll make daring Dives right down toward the Earth and Scag cocaine money white out and crunch iced into the statue graveyard where Ralph Ellison sits biting his banjo strings re-tightening his instrument for the millionth time before playing the Star-Spangled banjo or else loop-de-loop loop-de-loop up high and higher and thinner and thinner finer refiner sugar ladies in the last days of the locus sucking day Greek lollipops such intellectuals as we is baby we need to deal in the real world and BBB in the real world we need to use to use all the all the skills all the spills and thrills that we conjure that we construct that we lay out and put together to create life as beautiful as we thought it could be as we dreamed it could be as we desired it to be as we knew it could be before we took off before we split for the sky side not to settle for Endless meaningless Circles of celebration of this madness this this madness not to settle for this this madness this madness these these yo-yos these yo-yos of the ancient minorities it's all for real everything's for real be for real That's the Song of the sky tribe walking the Earth faint smiles to open Roars of joy meet you on the battlefield they say they be humming hop then stride faint smile to Roars of Open Drawer hey my man what's happening meet you on the battlefield they say meet you on the battlefield they say what I guess needs to be discussed here tonight is what side y'all gonna be on hey all right I'll see you later

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Length: 5min 11sec (311 seconds)

Published: Wed May 17 2023