UPDATE: Comments open. Go for it
The devil must be forced to reveal any such physical evil
(potions, charms, fetishes, etc.) still outside the body
and these must be burned.' (Rituale Romanum, published
1947, endorsed by the coat-of-arms and introductory
letter from Francis cardinal Spellman)
I am a cowboy in the boat of Ra,
sidewinders in the saloons of fools
bit my forehead like O
the untrustworthiness of Egyptologists
who do not know their trips. Who was that
dog-faced man? they asked, the day I rode
from town.
School marms with halitosis cannot see
the Nefertiti fake chipped on the run by slick
germans, the hawk behind Sonny Rollins' head or
the ritual beard of his axe; a longhorn winding
its bells thru the Field of Reeds.
I am a cowboy in the boat of Ra. I bedded
down with Isis, Lady of the Boogaloo, dove
deep down in her horny, stuck up her Wells-Far-ago
in daring midday getaway. 'Start grabbing the
blue,' I said from top of my double crown.
I am a cowboy in the boat of Ra. Ezzard Charles
of the Chisholm Trail. Took up the bass but they
blew off my thumb. Alchemist in ringmanship but a
sucker for the right cross.
I am a cowboy in the boat of Ra. Vamoosed from
the temple i bide my time. The price on the wanted
poster was a-going down, outlaw alias copped my stance
and moody greenhorns were making me dance;
while my mouth's
shooting iron got its chambers jammed.
I am a cowboy in the boat of Ra. Boning-up in
the ol' West i bide my time. You should see
me pick off these tin cans whippersnappers. I
write the motown long plays for the comeback of
Osiris. Make them up when stars stare at sleeping
steer out here near the campfire. Women arrive
on the backs of goats and throw themselves on
my Bowie.
I am a cowboy in the boat of Ra. Lord of the lash,
the Loup Garou Kid. Half breed son of Pisces and
Aquarius. I hold the souls of men in my pot. I do
the dirty boogie with scorpions. I make the bulls
keep still and was the first swinger to grape the taste.
I am a cowboy in his boat. Pope Joan of the
Ptah Ra. C/mere a minute willya doll?
Be a good girl and
bring me my Buffalo horn of black powder
bring me my headdress of black feathers
bring me my bones of Ju-Ju snake
go get my eyelids of red paint.
Hand me my shadow
I'm going into town after Set
I am a cowboy in the boat of Ra
look out Set here i come Set
to get Set to sunset Set
to unseat Set to Set down Set
usurper of the Royal couch
imposter RAdio of Moses' bush
party pooper O hater of dance
vampire outlaw of the milky way
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 
I can't believe I've never read this before. It's so smooth, and the wordplay is delicious. I love it. Thanks.
I DID think that you forgot since you get to work out of your bathroom if you want (laptops FTW). To quote a great Primus line: "Weekends don't mean quite so much when you're unemployed, except you get to see your workin' friends."
;)
I spent about an hour of paid work time familiarizing myself with Egyptian mythology (mostly the wiki pages) attempting to decode the meaning in this poetry.
I guess the meaning is not what it's about, but mixing cultural influences and colors that create a consortium--using a tone that's fluid and imagery that makes up for the coded messages most of which flew right over me.
Msotly...it sounds really prettym like this:
"I write the motown long plays for the comeback ofOsiris. Make them up when stars stare at sleepingsteer out here near the campfire."
I love it. I've never before seen the mixing of Egyptian and cowboy mythology. It feels immediate and powerful. I always thought the two occupied very different spheres in my mind, but reading this, I realize it taps into a lexicon that takes me back to a time when I was 10 and obsessed with various fantastic things like Egypt and cowboys. Also I love the word play too. I'm going to spend some time with this one.
Reading it through once, I don't even know what it means on an intellectual level yet, but I felt so much passion and defiance in the words that it made me choke/tear up a little. I'd love to see this poem performed.
Not a big deal - but because it's Friday - your fellow Atlantic blogger, the grammarian Barbara Wallraf (way over to the right), has commented on the "conversate".
Hey - apparently, "conversate" shows up in Google News 5 times - and YOU account for two of those!!
AllHipHop.com accounts for another two.
Apparently - if 'conversate' DOES every get accepted as a word (and I'll resist to my dying day, most likely), you will be personally responsible!
I've never commented on Friday poetry before (I keep meaning to comment more here in general but the conversations are usually so good I find it difficult to say anything meaningful), but I just have to say thanks to TNC for posting this. This rocks. I'm not familiar with Egyptian mythology enough to completely understand it, but I found this thoroughly enjoyable. I particularly enjoyed this stanza:
"I am a cowboy in the boat of Ra. Lord of the lash,
the Loup Garou Kid. Half breed son of Pisces and
Aquarius. I hold the souls of men in my pot. I do
the dirty boogie with scorpions. I make the bulls
keep still and was the first swinger to grape the taste."
Frakking sweet.
At the turn of the 20th C, the first modernist, imagist poets were taking their formal experimentation from painters, while European poets were already working more ancient, futuristic, and accented with world wide touches.
This mid-late 20th C po-em is all ebulliance and dash. Big bodied, brassy, word juggling, and more, multi-dimensional--surreal, psychadelic, mythic, folky, not to mention muscular, urban, American with blues and jazz beats in it. I can hear Li Po, the 8th C Chinese master of high flown self mythologizing in the joy and irony of the voice. When Ishmael Reed wrote this poem, he came before the painters, and stiding among them. This is a poem so filled with its time that it can stride forward or backward or both simultaneously. Magic-poetic-thinking.
Great poem dont know enough about ancient Egypt to catch all the references but wow!!!
Thanks TC.
People really have to understand Ishmael wrote this poem long before Black folks established a definitive connection with Nile Valley civilizations. Today this connection is firmly establish, and it’s not difficult to find folks who can run down a relationship to almost all of the lines in this poem. But when he penned this he was out there by himself. He was leading our community into an unfamiliar history and connection with our past.
Another one of my favorites by Ishmael is My Friends. I don't have it available right now but the beauty of him expressing the uselessness of friends who ...drink up all you liquor and eat your food while you are out…. And his final loving question, who needs them, continues to resonate years and years after reading this poem. His poetry is genius, but i would suggest anyone who enjoyed this poem check out his novels which he is much more know for, especially The Last Days of Louisiana Reds, Mumbo Jumbo and The Terrible Twos.
JC,
Please don't hijack. I say that with great respect. If you want me to discuss something, I'd ask that you send an e-mail.
I feel Garvey, but I'm not sure I agree with him.
When you say "this connection is firmly established" there's a missing phrase there that begs the question...firmly established by WHOM? (is that right? "whom" I mean...)
Reed writes this poem some time after STOLEN LEGACY comes out. Long after Alpha Phi Alpha adopts Egyptian iconography to describe their pledge process. Reed WAS on some Afrofuturistic shit here, but what he's doing isn't so much creating a "definitive" connection, but digging INTO that definitive connection. Fusing both the classically African and the classically American.
Lester no problem but I think you are off on your timeline. But I won’t drag out the point I’ll just add: Stolen Legacy although first published in 1954 was largely unknown to readers till long afterwards. Dr. Ben’s insistence on its importance caused the book to be reprinted in the early 80’s. And even then it took years before the book was widely available.
When I say firmly established I am speaking to the fact that at one time and this was before Cowboy, Black history/African Diaspora history was taught from a West African beginning. That is to say from slavery to freedom. Teaching that today is to risk raising the roof of universities and museums, as was the case recently with the King Tut exhibitions. Having experienced both periods I clearly feel the history of African people has been firmly connected to our African / Nile Valley origins. and that's not to say there is not still disagreement. Disagree if you will but that’s my take.
As to the Alpha's, no disrespect, but if you haven't already, you should read the work or attend the lectures of Tony Browder, a writer and scholar who is an Alpha. He has long railed on the frat’s adoption of the symbols without an underlining understanding or connection of those symbols to the African past. I would also add centuries before the Alpha’s, the Mason’s also borrowed our stuff without understanding what they were borrowing. You can see, as pointed out by Browder and others, the effect everyday, on your currency and in your nation capitol.
Ishmael is not on some afrofuturistic s… as you say. Not that I’m sure what that is. Rather Cowboy and his other works reflect a deep caring and embrace of our sometimes forgotten past.
afrofuturistic s... as you say. no he was clearly mining the rich African past.
I'm putting this link here for TNC's reference - I think it updates and clarifies most of the Prop 8 brouhaha.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-ridley/faith-not-race-the-big-fa_b_156780.html
Oops - sorry, I missed that you already blogged that report.
This piece highlights one of the things I love about Reed, which is the fact that he's never afraid to irreverently mash things together. You'll read his writing, laugh at the incongruity, and be amazed at how he's able to turn fact into myth and vice versa.
Case in point: Mumbo Jumbo
Um, I don't like it. I'm trying to figure out why, but it strikes me as false bravado, insincere images, more interested in a striking image than a sincerely expressed emotion, and testosterone-enriched (which I love in others but find insufficiently interesting as a wellspring of verse). I also distrust Egypt as a usable past. No more real than Narnia.
Garvey where am I off in the timeline? Black Americans make clear references connecting themselves to Egypt as early as the 19th Century. I use Alpha Phi Alpha as only one example of how this idea took hold in black organizations in the early part of the 20th century. Regardless of their challenges--and I'm familiar with the work of Browder--they had enough "sense" to recognize what many black American organizations did. Now you're right in that whites by and large didn't recognize it...and you couldn't get this type of teaching in a university.
But why would that matter here? Reed himself isn't taught in universities (black or non-black) until when?
As for my reference to Afrofuturistic shit. I say that in GREAT respect. Bringing together the cowboy and Anpt? He's mining the past to create the future. That is what Afrofuturism is at its best.
OMFG...This is a thrill ride of powerful words against a heart-pounding backdrop of rhythm minus blues. It is not for women who dislike a man's man;loud drum beat of a man. "black feathers--ju-ju snake" section made a sharp turn; I loved that!
I can't believe I never caught this before either.
You are so right--"delicious" is the only way to describe it.
That was fantastic. Man, I love this blog. As far as I can tell, I have almost nothing in common with TNC (I can't stand football or the word conversate), but I just can't stop coming back here. I swear I learn more cool stuff here than anywhere else online.
Gushing praise aside, what's the history of the emergence of Egyptian mythology in black American society? I'm a big fan of Sun Ra's music, and this poem naturally made me think of him. I don't know all that much about Sun Ra the man, but I assume he latched on to the Egyptian mythology thing rather than being its progenitor.
WHOA! Glad somebody else liked this.
This was the last poem in my Norton Anthology and one day, I idly read it. Loved it then and thirty years later, still love it.
As a young white guy, the sheer word magic just drove me wild: jazz, sex, cowboys and Egyptians! vampire outlaw of the milky way was simply a thrilling line.
As an old white guy who appreciates Reed's iconoclasm, I now hear the doubled play on the sexed black man, the personal behind the persona. The mix of self assertion and subversion remains delicious as ever. The use of cowboys is especially interesting for the way Reed takes the cultural image and re-mythologizes it, using it to step outside of the cultural box where blacks were supposed to belong.
Also interesting is how the poem is so different from the Movement poets of the period. Reed dresses his anger in pop inventiveness; the political lurks there in the incantation at the end, but the poem formally walks away from it; incredible sexual politics.
Impressive, Ive never read any of Reed's poetry--I thought he was merely a kick-ass essayist but damn!
Reminds me a LOT of the great beat poet (and one of my favs in any genre) Bob Kaufman...