Mr. K

[I'm not back in Oakland from the weekend yet and I didn't get any internet until right now! I could show you the timestamp from when I saved the blog post I wrote as a word document (; haha]

The thing that I liked most about “The Essential Etheridge Knight” was being given samples of different collections of his works and seeing such darkly toned political pieces placed next to others that are much more bright and compassionate.

The pieces that compelled me the most in making this comparison in the first place were “Welcome Back, Mr. Knight: Love of My Life,” “Another Poem for Me,” “Cop-Out Session,” “For Mary Ellen McAnally,” “Memo #5” and “I and Your Eyes.” The first three of the poems that I listed fell into the darker category of tones and subject matter, whereas the last three that I listed fell under the “brighter” side. This compilation of Knight’s works are divided into several different sections, so I think there’s something notable about how (from at least the poems I’ve just listed) the poems in each section mostly correlate to each other, rather  than jump around from different subject matters.

“Welcome Back, Mr. Knight: Love of My Life” is an interesting poem to say at the very least. I think it’s a safe assumption to make that the “Mr. Knight”/”Mr. K” character(s?) spoken about/to in this poem is Knight himself. Looking beyond the title and into the actual body of the poem, a sense of self-proclamation in a third person perspective evolves. This weird third person perspective about Knight written by Knight is interesting because it serves as a way for himself to air out what he needs to make clear to his audience about himself without fully putting himself on blast. This poem addresses a series of problems that “Mr. K” has dealt with, ranging from drinking, lying, racism, paranoia, etc. The way this poem is written is also interesting because of how it flows despite all the breaks brought by line separation, hyphens and question marks. The question marks are almost forgettable altogether because of the rhetorical aspect they imply; the speaker KNOWS what happened (or didn’t happen) to all of these problems and is only framing the poem in a questioning format in order to bring the issues to light without sounding accusatory.

“Another Poem for Me” correlates to the previous poem I mentioned and almost follows in the same suit as “Welcome Back, Mr. Knight: Love of My Life,” except for the stark contrast in the language (such as the use of the n-word). The title of this poem is followed by a parenthetical subtitle “(after Recovering from an O.D.).” Compared to the previous poem, Knight is out rightly berating himself for the mistakes he’s made, predominantly focusing on the abuse of drugs in this poem. In this poem, Knight still refrains from using the “I” to address himself, but does shift to a second person (“you”), which places his readers in that uncomfortable situation of becoming who the speaker is speaking about.

Lastly, “Cop-Out Session” played an important and effective role that combined both of the roles of the two previous poems. Here, Knight does use the first person “I,” attesting to the things he’s done before (mentioned in the last two poems), but also ends the poem by asking his readers if they’ve done the same. Which is a big fat obvious yes, even if the things his readers have done weren’t the same things he’s done. The ending of this poem seems like a fitting transition into the more brightly written pieces of content, seeing as how the questions Knight poses at the end aren’t accusatory, but rather more of an open forum for anyone to clear their air with him.

The more love-filled poems of this collection seem to be centered around a woman named Mary Ellen McAnally (or at least the ones that I chose are!). The first mention of her is on page 53, where her poem reads:

Who is a white / woman / and

a perfect poem

and a song

pulse of love

world of wonders

and the warm black earth

falling thru my fingers

Almost immediately after reading this poem, I was like, “WELL DAMN CAN SOMEONE THINK THIS OF ME OR WHAT.” Speaking in terms of themes and the usual suit of love poems, the metaphors of this women are absolutely swoon worthy, and the lack of punctuation and uppercasing at the beginning of each line seem to make it flow out of one long breath, highlighting the point of genuine love that makes you ramble on and on about the object of your affection, which both “Memo #5” and “I and Your Eyes” also utilize.

“Memo #5” is relatively short (since it’s supposed to be a memo, duh), which reads:

I do crazy things when

I’m away from you: like

putting a match in my mouth

and striking the cigarette

I think the idea of writing a memo of this nature is interesting because it’s a reminder of your crazy, whatever that “crazy” may be. And this “crazy” is much, much different that the “crazy” of overdosing on drugs, being locked up in prison, etc.

“I and Your Eyes,” which was also addressed to Mary McAnally was another poem that played with form and scarce punctuation to accentuate the ideals of the feeling of love, especially in the last portion of the poem:

If I could hold your hillside smile

Your seashore laughter      your lips

Then I

Could stand alone              the pain

Of flesh       alone              the time and space

And steel     alone              but I am shaken
It has taken                        your eyes

To move this stone.

Though division between the line through the middle of the page is a form that Knight doesn’t use often, I think it works well in the same respect that the lack of punctuation and uppercasing that the first poem for Mary McAnally does. This rant about how the speaker wishes he could literally hold and keep this woman’s smile and laughter to be able to endure the pains of just being alive and lone come to a stop at the one period of the poem right at the very end, signifying a finite end, no future change or shift in how he feels.

Knight is a complex and intelligent writer, who plays with SO many variations of style, form, language and voice, which definitely called for more than one or two read throughs. I can’t wait to discuss this book in class!