Amiri Baraka’s “Black Art” has shown me that a poem can be read as a speech or any form of communication. The video of Amiri Baraka reading “Black Art” transformed the graphical and grotesque poem into a powerful speech for Black equality. Baraka’s long pauses signifies intensity and his tone suggests pride. The dissonant background music in accompaniment with the harsh language magnified the message of his speech. Even though sound effects were included in the poem (Ex. rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr and tuhtuhtuhtuhtuthuthuthuthuthtuh) it adds to the dissonant sounds of his poem to enhance and demonstrate how long the blacks have strived for equality. “The Black Art” as I see it is a speech more than a poem. When read one can feel the impact of his language. One can vividly imagine his idea coming to life.
Frank O’ Hara as we learned is a pretty laid back person. In “Personism: A Manifesto” he talks about a new movement he conjured himself recently after figuring out that he could have talk to the person instead of writing a poem. Frank O’ Hara’s Personism is movement of poetry where instead of being communicated between pages it is communicated between people.He states that this way it is easier to get feelings across. What he described as Personism is speech, communication and the ability to speak and comprehend. Though he says “we won’t get to it” I believe because the movement of Personism is already in effect. Everyday we communicate with each other and that conversation in which we get our feelings and thoughts across cannot be denied as not a poem.
