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Overview
For decades, Michael S. Harper has written poetry that speaks with many voices. His work teems with poetry configured as awe, poetry as courtship, and poetry as elegy and homage. Infused with tales and riddles, sass and satire and surprise, Harper’s poetry takes the form of psalms, jazz experiments, soft serenades, and radical provocations.
In Use Trouble, his first major collection since Songlines in Michaeltree, Harper renews poetry as the art of taking nothing for granted. In three groups--"The Fret Cycle," "Use Trouble," and "I Do Believe in People"--he draws on his seemingly inexhaustible resources to paint, sing, sympathize, and sorrow. Here are his tributes to his father and family, his irrepressible playfulness, and his lifelong romance between poetry and music.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780252091476 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | University of Illinois Press |
| Publication date: | 10/01/2010 |
| Series: | Illinois Poetry Series |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 368 |
| File size: | 980 KB |
About the Author
Michael S. Harper, University Professor and professor of English at Brown University, is the author of numerous volumes of poetry, including Songlines in Michaeltree; Dear John, Dear Coltrane;Honorable Amendments;Images ofKin; and History Is Your Own Heartbeat. He is Poet Laureate Emeritus of Rhode Island and has been honored with the Frost Medal of the Poetry Society of America, the Melville Cane Award of the Poetry Society of America, the Black Academy of Arts and Letters Award, and the Robert Hayden Poetry Award, among others.
Read an Excerpt
use TROUBLE
poemsBy MICHAEL S. HARPER
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS PRESS
Copyright © 2009 Michael S. HarperAll right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-252-07598-8
Chapter One
FRET (A TUNE NEAR COMPOSITION IN THE STUDIO)We're just re-tuning among the dials
engineer a student (Chris) we spoke of Scituate reservoir once
I'm sending him a book in the campus mail
(he has that shorthand on email of watery entitlement a fix)
Paul making new solos in accompaniment writes new music
only he can hear a praxis of support near duet, his unction
I watch him 'fret' over the blur of notched etching awhile back
when we were in the pitch of answering everything behind the beat
we will not be playing today my words now only an arrangement
an order a pace but his polishing a notion of fret to hone
what cannot be gone over again in performance but with dials
amplified in taking away holding the patterns for editing
I told him once (at Madeira's in a list of specials) anecdotes
of growing up into one's song he speaks of his father gone
a stylist of linguistics from abroad from elsewhere his mother
less resonant in a solo career which hoves now around tenure to play
like no other in his sphere every night each day for fresh fret
so we can go back into the zone of talking together over song riffs
not ever gathered into a garden while he practices new cuisine
hangouts with his sensei after workouts to keep his limbered reed
greased for he seldom orders soup but fish like ancestry Icelandic
an airline of composition over space like light near the pole
but his love of warmth say Dominican Brazil a talk of equality
in playing amber smooth canejuice which can't evaporate at palate
when taste is all vintage of genes like spices in our neighborhood
of an alphabet of notes declensions arpeggios floss Monk
taking each black key into embouchures an attitude of gloss
vocabulary a pattern un-thought out but felt in fret his own soup
'sauce' he says with olives the pits a sandpile reservoir
of studio work now fret your folks are waiting to exit over you
A NOTE FROM CATHY AT YADDO
the dog that bit Patty Sopp belonged to Katy De Groot
(Fret will occupy her father's house down by the river
just before studio session) parable of the bite
for a dog that only guards the premises
Yaddo mascot no but De Groots wanted us to know
the story so play it Paul on bass clarinet
so the bell which recites the tones
also catches the pitch of dog
all microphones spiked
in adjacent rooms
THE LESSON FOR PAUL ON CATHERINE CLARKE'S BIRTHDAY
Padre says 'you were bad last night' but not
in performance wondrous overtones sonics
to rhyme with tonic and GIN too much for one
sonata which you could have written 'first thing'
but you were missing breakfast lunch De Groot's
ass the apple of your attention just around the bend
the river where you will compose the suite
of all the ancestors the factory closed down
after Pearl Harbor in nearby Whitehall
(remember when you go for your massage
Raymond Moriyasu's father was in the 442nd in Europe
finally allowed to fight his 'mentors' in the open
too many Japanese-Americans in Hawaii to encamp
the parachutes we lost in metaphor for easy landings
near fresh water) you'll play your bass clarinet
fretting for the answers to how to trap the music
not caught in the bell of Tom Lopez's studio
once a hippie hangout a lowbrow dream of equity
in another lost cause you will come to know
the supply line of the Hudson at this crossing stage
of another war (perhaps Page 1 your own) combining
in the nearby fields a team of mules at the barge
for here was the canal which went to Plattsburgh
an underground rr station for John Brown (Lake Elba)
which is the lesson
as you move your quarters in the woods
FRET IN THE WOODS
Even with drive-up mosquitoes
while you focus on lime
you camp in your head on the river
"ass" is the feature heartwork
the slang of ass a full-time job
(praxis a galaxy of women all vintage)
can you stand this ancient proverb
"the song turns into itself as bramble"
somebody got thrown into the briar patch
honeybee and honeystruck pollination
in the next life you will conjure
your own children the source Bahia
military coups will be native morpho
(a shirt you own but will not wear
a brand of pollen attractive disease
for some species of deceit caretaker)
the reed is to be listened to as Coltrane
cautioned he spent most of his time
conjuring the supreme right here on
earth while Elvin was the mask incarnate
country music is what to focus on now
(the bites you get the price: inoculation)
like any cellphone you speak into dark
by calling out tunes you can't remember
when not driving the gig is just ahead
(you fantasize the drive back easily
don't die on the hwy racing to cabin)
somehow the divine enters your mouthpiece
you will have no more innocence about Y
but you will rewind the clock Fret less!
TABLE NOTICE
Fret reads this with his lunch
(the day he leaves is when the pool opens
and he takes this personally:
Venezuela, Argentina, Italy, LA
all the muses at the table
he will not swim with them
having left his suit elsewhere)
he takes out his bass clarinet
in the woods where he's been moved
since leaving the 'pink' room
with the pitch machine for jive
upbeats, modulations, adjustments
then he takes the Padre texts
he has recorded and walks that music
into the woods it is raining sunny
soon he will be by the river ax ready
where De Groot might appear to hear
him solo he will be alone that dog
who goes for a walk at the same time
known to bite just anybody if pitch
is tonally correct and Fret worries
just a little behind the beat about
this problem the problem of ass is
very different juice off the bell
where only partial aspects of sound
can follow he gives notice to swim
elsewhere with Elvin's ghost
which is still hanging around
hung over just a little on gin
ancestral libations having glow
on both sides of the equator
meridian hemisphere orisha
preferring fish after he works
tonic with his 'ten' without any tab
I tell him this little initiation
is a trial run nothing to worry
ass will always be the problem
fascination that does not come only
from Finland his mother's research
at teaching him to read his father's
linguistic gifts at being foreign
Fret a true American loving the music
of every aboriginal birdcall parse
of organic form his weakness at
writing it all down then explication
to tame the critics while he hears ass
apologizes for it the stiff drink juice
across his lap while waiting to enter
this part of the ensemble improvised
players coming and going some who read
others who can't and won't compress
that part of the schedule Fret won't
ever be the same he knows this truth
he ponders the fact of the river dog
pitch ass mother who made him study
prepare father who outlived her
didn't do right by her or so he thinks plays the
aria of Yaddo (meaning shadow)
FRET SKIPS TOWN FOR A GIG IN NEW LONDON
Recording machine goes with him
though he says otherwise; lost sessions
bother him ass does not he speculates
what's catchable is like gin disappearing
guaranteeing nothing in the creative tank
(yet he struggles with routes only)
his fetish is to play badly for money
(he thinks I don't see this obsession
but Yaddo allows failure every day studio
in the woods also East Room no picnic)
he misses the witticisms of bacon and cakes
(not the Bruce variety but french toast
the inmates love it syrup like molasses
which I attribute to rum trade cane flax)
We will take this up when Haiti swims up
the many bodies of the deep in his craw
We will get some Finland stories Nokia
fishkill serfs pogroms lute fantasies
an instrument akin to ass he says sleep
walking his way to the lotion to dose
Pulitzer's new rules where he can stand up
make changes run down Lacy who just died
I must point out the change of name in obit
Astaire not able to dance any rhythm
but no slouch with partners film silent
it doesn't matter ugly nice threads
FRET DEEP IN THE WOODS
Untuned piano still the birds flock
your sessions prodigious (Elvin spirit
now is lone accompaniment he had no
children in "Nagasaki" or "Pontiac"
but the pied piper of drums calls
you can't help but answer) behind wheel
tunes collapse around your ears
(the smell of women torment you)
you play into and over them for praxis
they write their names on your feet
you begin to clean up around the flat
(little mini-recorder punishments regal)
you stop drinking entirely meals fallow
toasts in the town are unfriendly muse
talks into the meadow across the night
(you can hear horses winnowing silence
across the lap of your shoes anklets
silk shirts the gift of the morpho
alive at riverside) libation libation
in every element you try to go home
early but the melodies have you gutshot
you learn to walk with such pain soldier
formations bayonets infantry lore
sonnets file onto the memo stand padre
has told you so you will listen faintly
put aside the staggered machine: orchestrate
FRET LEAVES YADDO
Because you are drinking beer
the missing of breakfast is strategy
some leave notes others want you
to drop by but packing is proverbial
and not to be tested like water
in the dirty swimming pool
where you can wash your clothes
while you 'chat' en route to email
some you'll meet in new york
others will compress your shuttle
into the weave of materials
the craft of 'making' modest but steady
nest is the order of the day
(last night you saw a deer robust
the leaping factor bright
like the eyes of the hunted
Fret thinks of Haitian music
the cost of that music artmaking
with or without the military)
G8 goes on in Sea Islands Gipper
gives the nation a holiday called
'the communicator' lest you forget
you have been doing in your studio
East Room is not pink room
the pitch moves the tent is collapsed
Vermont two hours north paydirt
GHOST OF FRET AT HIGH TABLE: MANSION
Bouquet squats at center peonies
Chinese garden music Fret quips
sits on the lap of the redhead forlorn
Fiona's papa squeezes all juice
from the Philharmonic vegetarian mama
Juilliard stuck tightens the hold pox
americana jogger killed for no reason
not far from the bridge Fret plays
for the young and old asses of the apple
but does not get lost on city politics
he slyly puts the touch on redhead
(Padre told him about that melody
just one note one finger on sweet spot)
he moves to the silent table a patch
but one of fresh soil Blows his ax
one last time his cellphone on quiet
so allcanhear his solo Music Room
ready acoustics like cathedral tones
at Dutch's flagdraped caissondrug coffin
(Vermont's homebrew faint now riffs
he could not learn in school now evident
in all his muscles the soft reed broken)
but 'strong in the broken places' chants
slowly into the vacant seat beside him
the ghost—ancestor analogy touches
the master chords he memorizes
FRET'S NEWS FROM THE FRONT: YADDO AFTER
Provost with no pouilly-fuisse power
to bring back Ray Charles "Robinson"
sends a word in channels protest
prairie dogs put up resistance
redhead pigeontoed painter no dreds
keeps prancing around the premises
lost but steady martini glasses still
in the back fridge Katy always on
expenses has left the building 'hello'
more resonant than ... "goodbye"
I noticed Daniel pour repaired convertible
with a local washing off to New
Hampshire on personal maneuvers found
several clumps of honeybees in tower
but like the snapping turtle keeping
his distance cellphone opera localfair
on the ready Fiona read about her father
in the nyt his 'animal' implements
a swimming pool opening outdoors from
inside her psychiatric meanderings no
longer disguised in treatments Philharmonic
Mr. caisson is gone dimes
still belong to FDR Nancy chastened
on her knees at sunset (you don't have
any Irish brogue I can fathom so get
yourself a 'Jewish' lawyer) and sue bad
(Continues...)
Excerpted from use TROUBLE by MICHAEL S. HARPER Copyright © 2009 by Michael S. Harper. Excerpted by permission of UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS PRESS. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Contents I. The Fret Cycle Fret (A Tune Near Composition in the Studio) A Note from Cathy at Yaddo The Lesson for Paul on Catherine Clarke's Birthday Fret in the Woods Table Notice Fret Skips Town for a Gig in New London Fret Deep in the Woods Fret Leaves Yaddo Ghost of Fret at High Table: Mansion Fret's News from the Front: Yaddo After Martini Glasses Galore Fret Shows Up at the Metropolitan The List: Yaddo Fret Leaves Yaddo In Disguise Fret Having Survived Modernity Fret Discovers the Blues, Again Ass Fret In Studio With the Ancestors Fret Finds the Instrument of Archipelago Mt. Pleasant Local Library Fret Finds the Open Field II. Use Trouble A Photographic Guide To the City Use Trouble Portrait Esther Truimphs Homage To Jay Saunders Redding On His Natal Day: 10 13 04 Praisesong For Bb Goodbye To All That Public Letter: Visible Ink Dubonnet Archives: The Public Library I Archives: The Public Library Ii Legend of Jeannie Turner Tcat Serenade Sherley Anne Williams: 1944-1999 Chloe: Black Pastoral Luminous Handmade Book On the Theme of the Beloved Pigeon Artist On A Cellphone (Yaddo) Vote (Providence) Marilyn Tattoo Copenhagen Notes On Our Resident Humanist: Mahler B. Ryder Ostseebad Ahrenshoop Ribs Charlotte And Nathan Exchange: 50th Anniversary Charlotte To Nathan Notes On the Hopi Critical Mass Hemingway's Iceberg Saint Dolores (Phillips Exeter Academy) ?Days Remaining?/Bloom's Day, Dublin Freud: Lessons On Boundaries George J. Makari Blues Songbirds (Habitat) ?Ponta De Areia? [Brazil] Tagore On Brodsky's Collected Three Poems: October 17, 2004 I. Archival Secrets of Mary Lincoln II. At the Square III. The Secret Lore of Will's Presidency Zen: The Trainride Home to the Welcome Table The Flight Home Tatum Baseball (Orb) Josh Gibson Blackjack Lookbackwards: Henry Aaron's Hammer A Centenary Ode to Eke: The Duke of Ellington Ray Charles Robinson Dead at 73 Womb of Space (Yaddo) What I Know This Very Day Along Came Betty Repeat Button Digesting Dexter Gordon at 80 Goodbye Pork Pie Hat Photo: Letter (Joel Chandler Harris) Ernesto Victor Antonucci ?Craft? Talk Elder On the Theme of Self-Knoiwledge And Education ?In Society? Though Not Defined By Falsehoods Joseph Santos Ileto The Broke And the Unbroken Jacuzzi Serenade On Arrival Christine Frey's Resurrection The Open Studio Iowa (1961) Or ?How To Use Trouble? [Writers Workshop] Shirley of Little Falls Philip Roth ?American Masters: Pbs? (Ralph Ellison) Neighbors Leonard Brown. Musican/Teacher Richard Davis's Trampolines Year of the Firepig In Chinese New Year Eulogy Framed As Requiem Mass On the American Frontier: Gordon Parks Modulations On A Theme?Josephus Long Eva's Song at the End Los Angeles Coliseum Olympic Swimming Pool Frederick Armstrong Hetzel Zambia Massey's Ministry The Tank And Its Narrators Judge & Jury The Revolutionary Garden Royce Hall (Ivie Anderson) Gwendolynian Staccato Dance Muse Spencer Trask's Den Spoon Newk Horacescope For Horace Silver Miles Davis Shirt: Monterey Jazz Festival ?On Green Dolphin Street? The Life of Jackie Mclean Blues For A Colored Singer Interstate 80 Freeway Return Last Song Libation For Elvin Jones 1927-2004 Dexter Leaps In The Book On Trane A Coltrane Poem: 9 23 98 A Coltrane Poem: 9 23 98 (2) Coltrane Notes On the Millenium 9 23 99 Sermon on O?Mealy Larry Doby Panhandler (New Haven) Galveston: 9 8 00 Notes On the Long Poem (Tuscaloosa, Al) John Killens at Yaddo Haircut On the Solstice Ten Years of Freedom Certainties: For James Alan Macpherson Hooded Cobra Eyes Bouillabaisse Ars Poetica Bellow Berryman James Arlington Wright III. I Do Believe In People Poem On the Contents of Harper/Johnson Kin Horoscope 3 12 98 Horoscope 10 3 98 Driving Up Van Aken Blvd. My Mother Said Rome, NY My Aunt Ella Mae Ice Snapshot Sacrament Elizaville Subcode Five Gallon Water Bottles Couch Why I Don't Do Surveys ?Sleeping Under A Wool Blanket? Patrice Among the Elders Getting My Head Shaved By My Son at Odd Hours Glass (Crystal) Bermuda Triangle Papa's Day: Notes On Patrition? Broadside (Pch) (Omaha) Utah Beach, France 5 8 92 Josh Gibson's Bat Portrait of Son at Rhineback Paris Mama To Son Katherine Louise Johnson Harper Headset Juneteenth Indespensable Meditation On the Family Tree The Latin American Poem Airport Altura Maroons When I Was A Boy Pull-Ups at Ps 25 Hives Iowa My Mother's Bible I My Mother's Bible Ii Pigeons Caretaking Supreme The Patriarch, W.Warren Harper, Circa 1938 Cathair On His Blackwatch Jacket Manhattan Beach Homage To Flight 103 Commencement Address Father: A Parable of Riches Attributes And Eccentricities of W.Warren Harper Meditations On Catskill Creek Talk Therapy On John Milton Snapshot Lovesong 1965 Watts Riot Domestic Relations The Red Dress Walking Tour 1 Walking Tour 2 Squire of Taunton Jaxon's First Song 5 21 2000 Natal Visit on the Theme of Shoes Shoes Forty Loyalty Paul Urabe (1938-2003) Yaddo: Mrs. Amer and Black MenFrom the B&N Reads Blog
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