Voices from Leimart Park has become one of my favorite anthologies (after AAP of course) due to it's diverse nature and vivid coloring of Los Angeles. I think about home and how beautifully different each poet paints their home, but then I came upon Imani Tolliver.
Tolliver in her piece, "Mudcloth" explored something I rather not have explored. It may be she only had "Mudcloth" as her selection in the anthology, but I was lost as to how to contextualize the "who" broader with only one poem of hers.
While reading Jerry Quickley, Nancy Padron and watching the video of The Last Poets, I felt the duality and layered affect wich led to the richly developed work they created and I read Tolliver last and it just flopped for me. The inertia created by Quickley, Padron, and the video of the Last Poets dissipated into thin air.
The dull saccharine lines full of "Mornings with you were always my favorite," or the last lines of "Mudcloth"
notice the soil finger painting
of how we found each other
how we loved
how we forever stained a story
we are still telling
Some parts of the poem I felt as though I was reading a melancholic post on missed connections on Craigslist. Immediately a song came into mind:
I think about the "who" and I think about the broader context, but I can't get over the fact that this is indulgent in ways so different to how I imagine all the other poets I read and visualized for this week's readings.
LOl @ Liz Phair!!!! Wow, we had entirely different experiences with Tolliver's work. I love her so much, especially Mudcloth.
ReplyDelete"Tolliver in her piece, "Mudcloth" explored something I rather not have explored." I'm so interested in the class discussion over this.
Thanks for sharing your personal connection and introducing me to a new artist Joann. I can see how you could interpret "Mudcloth" as the voice of someone who is similar to Liz Phair's song suggests finding it hard to breathe without her former love...hence the following stanza's first too lines
ReplyDeletelife is harder without your lusty affirmation of my body
there was a time you loved my pliant and full brown more than I....
Thanks for being so truthful about how Tolliver affected you (or did not). I also had some distancing from the cheesy lines, but in the end I was left with a image of out and proud brown women in social spaces not always accepting of their kind of love, and particularly not sensitive to the "normalcy" of longing and lost love. In some way the presence of that and the simultaneous admiration for the lost lover and reaching for her made up for the "saccharine" lines. But yeah, I also know what you mean.
ReplyDeleteyes to everything, Liz Phair. hmmm.
ReplyDeleteanyway, i do want to know more. When something is remote, it's great to delve into the divide.
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Holy shit, you guys wrote wonderful personal responses for Tolliver made me think about my words again. The divide is closing because everyone is so fabulously articulate in this class. You guys rock.
ReplyDeleteBut I still have my reserves about the cheesy lines, thank you for understanding Tessa.
Elmaz, it may be Liz Phair came to me when I was being too dismissive and histrionic about this post.
clearly Joann, you're having your response in stages--i love how discussion creates sparks. I was getting that last week in class as well. We don't end up where we start- yay for you.
Deletee