Quote

Weinstein Auditorium, Wright Hall

Poetry Magazine has called YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA "one of our period's most significance and individual voices," and indeed has he dazzled readers and garnered critical acclaim for decades. Born in Bogalusa, Louisiana, at the start of the Civil Rights Movement, he creates poems rich with history and storytelling, suffused with the rhythms of jazz and blues. Komunyakaa's work relies on both intense emotional logic and creative improvisation, aiming always for the surprise note, that entryway into the secret universe of each poem. Author of seventeen books, with the Pulitzer Prize, the Wallace Stevens Award, and the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize among his many honors, he is currently Distinguished Senior Poet in New York University's graduate creative writing program.

Yusef vs. Art

Poetry Analysis

Blue Light Lounge Sutra:

This poem/song was the last on the album “Love Notes From The Madhouse by John Tchicai and Yusef Komunyakaa. Komunyakaa’s voice moves effortlessly among the other instruments, speaking it's solo alongside the bass, the percussion, and the expressive trumpet of Gonzalez.

Title- 

This title makes the poem seem like it is about music.  Whenever the word lounge is mentioned, usually music is played in there. Yusef is a poet who uses jazz rhythms and music in his work to give it livelihood.  This poem seems that like it could possibly have jazz rhythms in it along with jazz music.  This poem would speak about what would be going on in this blue lounge.

Paraphrase-  

1. the need gotta be

so deep words can't

answer simple questions

He is saying that whatever need you have, you can’t not have a reason why you need that. You have to show that you need it, not that you want it. The need has to be strong, as well as your explanation for the need. The need has to be so strong that when you explain the need, people will be speechless. You have to need to write poetry.

2. all night long notes

stumble off the tongue

All night, the notes of the song he is making comes across his tongue. All night notes are just coming to his head from the blue.  All night he bumps into notes from his head onto his tongue.

3. & color the air indigo

so deep fragments of gut

& flesh cling to the song

When he says color the air indigo, he means that the smell of the air is like the color indigo. As he speaks his poems, they bring a natural smell.

4. you gotta get into it

so deep salt crystallizes on eyelashes

You can’t just make the poem rhyme . He is saying that you have to really get deep into the poem. You have to make someone think about what you are trying to say. You have to get so deep that your audience is speechless.

5. the need gotta be

so deep you can vomit up ghosts

& not feel broken

You have to need to write poetry in order to write poetry. Poetry will only be great if the need for it is great. Yusef is putting emphasis on the need to write poetry.

6. till you are no more

than a half ounce of gold

in painful brightness

You have to put your all into your writing. Your need for writing poetry has so be extremely strong. No matter what it takes, how far it takes you, and what you have become after you have finished.

7. you gotta get into it

blow that saxophone

Poetry is very serious to just rhyme. You have to be extra with it. You have to put extra emphasis on what you are trying to say. You have to do the most. You have to be dramatic.

8. so deep all the sex & dope in this world

can't erase your need

to howl against the sky

You have to put your all into your writing.  No matter how long it takes, your need has to be that strong to overcome time. You can’t give up, no matter what comes your way in the process to make you frustrated.

9. the need gotta be

so deep you can't

just wiggle your hips

& rise up out of it

The need for writing has to be strong. If it isn’t strong then you are writing for no reason. It has to be so strong to where you can’t just give up because you want to. You have to need to want.

10. chaos in the cosmos

modern man in the pepperpot

Your need has to be strong enough that it won't phase you when people might write bad things about it. It has to be so strong that when you see the bad things, you keep on writing.

11. you gotta get hooked

into every hungry groove

The need for writing his to be so strong that you are loving what you are doing. It has to be so strong that you don’t want to stop until you are finished. Strong enough to where you don’t ever want to give up; like you are attached to your writing. You have to fall in love with your writing.

12. so deep the bomb locked

in rust opens like a fist

Yusef is being very dramatic on how deep your need for writing has to be. It has to be so deep that it could take forever. It has to be so deep that you are willing to take forever.

13. into it into it so deep

rhythm is pre-memory

You have to get extremely deep into your writing. You have to be very dramatic. You have to use all types of figurative language and symbolism that your audience is speechless.  It has to be so deep that after a while, you will know what to say. You would have fallen in love and this is a natural thing to you now.

14. the need gotta be basic

animal need to see

& know the terror

Your need for writing has to be extraordinary. You need to see what mistakes you can make, and what can come from those mistakes. You need to spot those mistakes so you can change them. You need to know what is going on so you can prepare for it.

15. we are made of honey

cause if you wanna dance

this boogie be ready

to let the devil use your head

for a drum                    

He is saying that we are all sweet in our own way. But if you want to dance, or play, you should be ready to battle. You are powerful, and you have come very prepared to win.

Connotation-

Yusef Komunyakaa uses the words need and deep in stanza 1 in a positive way.  He uses parallelism for these words to elaborate how serious music and poetry is to him. Yusef uses emphasis throughout the whole poem to elaborate the “need” and how “deep” you need to be. He is saying that your need for poetry has to be very serious and deep. Yusef uses the word stumble in a positive way. He uses the word stumble in stanza 2 as if the music just comes to him. Yusef uses the word broken in stanza 5 in a negative way. He uses anaphora to create a rhythmic pattern. There is order through his logic. In stanza 4, Yusef uses images to portray the amount of need and deepness you have to have for your music. He uses the word pepperpot in stanza 10 in a negative way. Pepperpot is when a person shares opinions or ways that are stronger than the extant social power might predict. Yusef uses the word hooked, in stanza 11in a positive way to explain that your need has to be strong enough where you are willing to stay on your writing for however long it takes.

Attitude-

In the beginning of the poem, Yusef Komunyakaa’s tone starts off very determined. His tone is also very dramatic. Throughout the whole poem, he is very determined to dramatically share what he means by need and deep.

Shifts-

In the beginning of the poem, Yusef is very determined. He starts to get dramatic in stanza 5 when he says  “the need gotta be so deep you can vomit up ghosts & not feel broken”. He gets even more dramatic when he says the words “so deep”. These words put emphasis on how deep he wants you to get, and how deep he wants you to understand.

Title- Blue Light Lounge Sutra

This title is explaining a composition which burns with a brilliant blue flame. The word sutra means a rule or aphorism in Sanskrit literature or a group of aphoristic doctrinal summaries prepared for memorization. Throughout the whole poem Yusef is explaining this rule that you have to have a deep need for writing poetry.

Theme-

This poem teaches that you have to show that you need to write music and poetry, not that you want it. The need has to be strong, as well as your explanation for the need. The need has to be so strong that when you explain the need, people will be speechless. You have to need to write poetry. You have to make someone think about what you are trying to say. You have to put your all into your writing. Your need for writing poetry has so be extremely strong. No matter what it takes, how far it takes you, and what you have become after you have finished.  It has to be so strong that you don’t want to stop until you are finished. Strong enough to where you don’t ever want to give up; like you are attached to your writing. You have to fall in love with your writing. You have to be so deep to where people have to look up the meaning of what you are trying to symbolize.