The Listening

by Dargan, Kyle

• ISBN13: 9780820326610
• ISBN10: 0820326615
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-09-20
• Publisher: Univ of Georgia Pr

Summary

Kyle Dargan's debut collection of poetry,The Listening, searches through the cluttered surface of contemporary life to tune into the elemental sounds within the marrow of living/life. Throughout the collection, Dargan interweaves elements of his heritage with the present day--jazz influences blend with hip-hop; neoslave narratives run parallel with the intimate tale of civil rights leaders; post-9/11 America is juxtaposed with family portraits of the sixties and seventies--to reveal the continuous, though ever changing, music of the world around us. Whether capturing the famous Ali-Frazier fight in Manila or a trip to the local barbershop, Muddy Waters or boyhood blacktop games, Dargan gives voice to the most poignant and fleeting aspects of our everyday existence. With singular incisiveness and vigor, these poems act simultaneously as psalms and elegies, praising life at the same time they lament its inevitable passing.

Author Biography

Kyle Dargan’s first book, The Listening, was awarded the Cave Canem Poetry Prize in 2003. He received his MFA as a Yusef Komunyakaa Fellow at Indiana University and is currently a Distinguished Adjunct in Residence on the creative writing faculty at American University. He is also managing editor of the journal Callaloo.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Quincy Troupe	xiii
Acknowledgments	xix
Invocation: Of the Sun	1	(4)
CHRONOGRAFFITI
Search for Robert Hayden	5	(1)
Redefinition	6	(1)
Last Dragons	7	(1)
Satin Touch	8	(2)
Ahboo	10	(2)
Halfway House	12	(1)
Single-Ride	13	(1)
This Knight	14	(1)
Dementia	15	(1)
Life Equation	16	(1)
How Dwayne Got Knocked Out	17	(2)
*Early nineties urban slang for no-name sneakers	19	(2)
nap.i.ness	21	(1)
On Men	22	(1)
Surrender II: Chop	23	(1)
The Battlefield	24	(1)
Surrender III: Study	25	(1)
6:38 A.M., Mississippi Time	26	(3)
SECOND SKY
I. The Pre-land	29	(1)
II. Shard	30	(1)
III. Fable	31	(1)
IV. Orbit	32	(1)
V. The Truth	33	(4)
FINGERS, FADER
Melody Forensic	37	(1)
Chiaroscuro	38	(2)
Misornithology	40	(1)
Rock w/You	41	(2)
[Murk 'n' Teal Izm]	43	(2)
(Black) Jack Johnson or Ghetto Rock and Roll	45	(2)
One's for the money	47	(2)
Letter: Muddy Waters to Michael S. Harper	49	(4)
REMEMORY
Bluff	53	(1)
Parcel	54	(1)
Inventory	55	(1)
Elementary	56	(1)
Nine Winters	57	(4)
CHRONOGRAFFITI (B-SIDES)
1975	61	(1)
Combustion	62	(3)
Letting	65	(1)
On Men	66	(1)
On Men	67	(2)
Surrender I: Commission	69	(1)
Palinode	70	(1)
Writing under the Influence of Dirty Havana Trilogy by Pedro Juan Gutiérrez	71	(1)
Surrender IV: Muse	72	(1)
Yin	73	(1)
Surrender V: Revue	74	(1)
Metro Wet	75	(1)
Letter to an American Cousin	76	(2)
In the Adjacent Days	78	(1)
Nuclear Winter: A Solstice	79	(1)
Tidying Up	80	(1)
Old Ways	81	(2)
Outvocation: For the Returning	83