QUINCY TROUPE'S DUENDE

 
Speaking of icons of "Black History Month"—Quincy Troupe. Best known probably for co-writing Miles: The Autobiography, and Quincy's revelatory memoir Miles And Me, he's been an integral part of my poetry world since the 1960s. Over the years we've at times done poetry readings together and been published by the same presses. Now from Seven Stories Press comes a huge collection of his new and selected poems, DUENDE: Poems 1966-now.

Let me quote the blurb I wrote for the back of the book: "Quincy Troupe’s Duende is a 'must have' collection of this poetry icon’s lifetime’s output of poetic truth-telling, spell-casting, melodic improvising, record keeping, tonal shape-shifting, and spirit reckoning. And much more."

And here's an example:

WATTS 1965

eye came in the dead of night broke to watts/looking for whatever was there to pick up/since my pockets were empty, had holes in my shoes,/nothing in the refrigerator to eat or drink, though/eye had poems in my imagination, though/eye couldn't make a meal out of those words