The Poetry Show: Jazz, Gin, Bourbon? Does not matter where ya been...

    Enlighten Radio Presents

 

Soledad Grandfather

 

 

The Featured poem is Robert Hayden's 'Soledad'. It turns out that Case's speculation about a poetical connection to the Soledad Prison rebellion of 1971 and the "Soledad Brothers" is complete fantasy! Hayden's poem does address imprisonment, and race, and addiction, but first appeared in the 1940's. Broadcast LIVE Wednesdays, 10 AM on https://player.enlightenradio.org Hosts: Janet Harrison, John Case This Episode Recorded August 14, 2024

Soledad

by Robert Hayden

(And I, I am no longer of that world)

Naked, he lies in the blinded room
chain-smoking, cradled by drugs, by jazz
as never by any lover's cradling flesh.

Miles Davis coolly blows for him:
O pena negra, sensual Flamenco blues;
the red clay foxfire voice of Lady Day

(lady of the pure black magnolias)
sobsings her sorrow and loss and fare you well,
dryweeps the pain his treacherous jailers

have released him from for a while.
His fears and his unfinished self
await him down in the anywhere streets.

He hides on the dark side of the moon,
takes refuge in a stained-glass cell,
flies to a clockless country of crystal.

Only the ghost of Lady Day knows where
he is. Only the music. And he swings
oh swings: beyond complete immortal now.

 

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