Tyehimba Jess. leadbelly. Verse Press 2005 117 pp. $14.00

 

In his first published book of poetry, leadbelly, Tyehimba Jess explores the life and music of the blues legend Huddie William Ledbetter, more commonly known as Leadbelly. Jess’ book was chosen by Brigit Pegeen Kelly as one of the five books published through the National Poetry Series in 2004, which is co-supported by the National Endowment for the Arts. Having been a part of the Chicago poetry scene, Cave Canem, and a former Green Mill Slam team member this collection of work represents the power and struggle that comes with the gift and curse of the blues, as well as the struggle of all those gifted and hindered by the odds stacked against them.

The book, all 117 pages of it, is broken into eight parts guided by titles like, “what kind of soul has man?” or “black girl, black girl,” all of which seem to echo the chronological sequence of events in Leadbelly’s life. It opens with the poem, “leadbelly’s lessons,” in which the young musician, age 12, discovers the “pure white envy” of his white boss, Mr. Haney, whose jealousy for the talent of young Leadbelly swells to the point of threat. Though Haney begs Leadbelly to play, he makes his envy clear saying, “nigger, someday i’m gonna kill you.” Supposedly this is one of Leadbelly’s first experiences with the theme of white jealousy and is but one of the many ways in which racism appears throughout the book. Also, this poem, like many, is from the point of view of Leadbelly himself, although the poems are often from the perspective of his relatives, friends, teachers, lovers even his guitar Stella. It’s as if Jess attempts to create what might be compared to a posthumously published body of work, like Dickinson or Darger. But here it is only the distilled interpretation in poetry-form of what could have been the inner-thoughts and writing of the mythical man who lived and breathed music. And music is ever-apparent. For example the last three stanzas of the poem, “fanning street signifies,”

…i cut a hole in his heart,
nail in a dozen metronomes,
each timed to the rhythm
of a newfound sinners sigh

i line his throat with a church-
load of moonlight, smear blues’ afterbirth
of bible and baal acros his skull.

i stuff his ears with 1000 bales
of barrelhouse folklore,
plant his tongue in the cunt of song.

 

As evident in the line above, there is nothing (here or elsewhere) that suggests music is a pleasantry or that it is solely meant for times celebration or joy. On the contrary music here is often coupled with agony, burden, rape, death, sin, and sexual themes like in the poem, “mistress stella speaks” (Stella being Leadbelly’s guitar). Stella says, “you think I’m his property ‘cause he paid cash/ to grab me by the neck,/ swing me ‘cross his knee/ and stroke the living song my from hips.” At a deeper level it further confirms and defines the blues as a form of catharsis, dating back to the black spirituals that arose from the pain of slavery.

The diction used throughout the book fittingly reflects the dialect(s) of a southern black vernacular in which Leadbelly and his contemporaries would probably speak. There is nothing forced or fake about the way in which Jess presents the dialectical lingo and there is much to praise when it is balanced with the well-versed voice of the poet. Besides this balance between slang and poetic verse, Jess is alive to the voices of magic, sinister and mystery-ridden, prison, slavery, religion and all the sounds and images that are directly associated with the south and the life of Leadbelly.