Recent (re) Reading
"...Old Jimmy Lyons, who used to tear up the Hammond organ over at Stompit had told him he was a four, and fours were builders, but lots of fours never got around to doing what they were put on earth to do cause they was so busy feeling boxed in by them four sides of their nature that they didn't have sense to look up and appreciate all that space they could build into. And Jimmy Lyons had told him another thing, that the Negro people were fours and so long as they paid more attention to folks trying to pen the in, hem them in, box them in on all four sides thinking they had them in prison than to the work at hand, why then they would never get a spare moment to look up at the sun and build. That Jimmy Lyons was one philosophizing fool..."
Toni Cade Bambara (1939 - 1995),
The Salt Eaters (1980)
"...Old Jimmy Lyons, who used to tear up the Hammond organ over at Stompit had told him he was a four, and fours were builders, but lots of fours never got around to doing what they were put on earth to do cause they was so busy feeling boxed in by them four sides of their nature that they didn't have sense to look up and appreciate all that space they could build into. And Jimmy Lyons had told him another thing, that the Negro people were fours and so long as they paid more attention to folks trying to pen the in, hem them in, box them in on all four sides thinking they had them in prison than to the work at hand, why then they would never get a spare moment to look up at the sun and build. That Jimmy Lyons was one philosophizing fool..."
2 comments:
Just lovely. A lovely poet honors a lovely cultural worker.
Toni Cade..ToniCade..ToniCade! The way this woman effortlessly weaves together so many elements of our culture in a phrase is magnificent. Her rhythm, tone and ear for how we speak (and capturing the talk under the talk) is nothing short of genuis. Toni Morrison edited the hell out of this work! and Toni Cade wrote a novel so singularly brillant that all I can do is shake my head, smile and say her name. I am so Thankful that she brought something to my life that continues to make me feel so much inside. So thankful!
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