Etheridge KnightCritiques

Wow. Maybe his "Indiana Haiku" sums it up:

The Penal Farm

The wire fence is tall.
The lights in the prison barracks
Flick off, one by one.

This book is out of print and hard to find. Most of these poems were reprinted in "The Essential Etheridge Knight," which came out 6 years later. It's interesting what he (or his editor) chose not to include in the later book. If you want to read Etheridge Knight's more political (and politically "incorrect") poems, you'll find them here as well as a few that he may have simply changed his mind about. Some of the cut poems deserve to remain in print, such as:

After Watching B.B. King on T.V. While Locked in No. 8 Cell, No. 5 Cage of the Bridgeport, Connecticut State Jail

And now man
as you stand there
in the white glare
the sound I hear
from your tuxedoed frame
somehow ain't the same
that's filled my belly and ears
for so many many years
yet the pain on your face is the same
despite the gloss and the glitter and the fame
and the new name:
CULTURE...

a cool collection of poems from a real bluesman of words.½