so, truth and i were discussing bday presents when she revealed
her distaste of toni morrison

now, anyone can tell u
what i think of toni morrison
...she is...she is...above all else as far as im concerned

tough act to beat
& i dont see any coming even close honestly

song of solomon...sula...bluest eye...
i mean it's literature that simply
will stand the test of time
she really cant be fked w/

so...that brings truth & i to sum more discussion
& truth reveals her love/admiration/cant live w/oness
of alice walker

who....i throw GP coins at for the color prple
& really dont fk w/ outside of that
lemme see...she's got sum short stories
that i think are hard

but...even the color prple
doesnt make me VERY excited

her new work...is pure trash to me
& yes...morrison fell off w/ paradise & love

BUT

she's farrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr from being a walker

*in my honest opinion*

i feel the same way
bout nikki giovanni & sonia sanchez
they just

do not move any part of my body.

i respect em...sure do...
they have pieces
i admire lots,
but collectively

they dont make me look twice.

hwever,
im willing to throw my notebooks down
& cornrow a ponytail over sum

june jordan
or gwendolyn brooks
or audre lourde
or lucille clifton

anyway...
im just interested

feel free to chime in

rudegirl/virgo


o & truth...
u still my girl
we got ntozake & baldwin to agree on

i just want chu to know
how i feel
how i feel

i just dont think
that u should haveta like sumbody
cuz everyone says they are sum prize winner
fk prizes.
alice won a prize, who cares...
i say, what moves u to cry
spill tears all over pages
whut drops your mouth open at 12 or 15 or 24 even
walker does it for me
zake does it for me
suzan lori sumtimes
baldwin most times
baraka til the cows come come
june jordan has the key to my soul

but how u gonna sit up here & say nikki g
aint ever made u angry at the man,
sonia aint ever made u wanna walk a lil taller

to be honest my gurl is ann petry
to the death
cuz that novel, the street
i can rest easy with that joint all day long

i think morrison is boring
i have never finished one novel yet
& imma reader
for realz

but it just dont grab me from the beg
like a real writer supposed to
ppl say, u gotta get into her, dig deep
move thru
i say fk that
why waste my time being bored for an hour so i can sumhow become enlightened in the end

walker grabs me
from jump street
teaches me
kisses me
curls me
back into myself so i can be a better writer


+

I
wrap
myself
around a
celestial
tree

and from there

I can see

Patterns
of
eternity
that stick with me and
make impact, so that
the struggle

has meaning

-gsquared


http://www.myspace.com/nonifashoni

cuz there are lots of prize winners
i wldnt buy on the bargian rack

read louise merriwether

'daddy was a number runner'

morrison....boring

boring ma??

actually, morehouse said it best on the poetry month post
u can see urself in the best of them
thats what its abt

when reading
when a writer can make me SEE me

im done.

& nikki aint ever make me do nuthing
i LOVE the poem 'nikki rosa'
& summa her earlier work

she fell off big, big time
but then she wasnt really on to me

sonia...
outside of
'wounded in the house of a friend'

i find...her..words
meaningless
&
predictable
overused
& empty

u gonna have to recommend sum walker ms. truth cuz i aint convinced

i just want chu to know
how i feel
how i feel

two books are worth it to me
temple of my familiar
mostly becuz of the time changes & character developments
walker writes in non-western time frame & structure
& by the light of my fathers smile
she is forerunner in defining whut a blk woman "shld" be
& maybe boring isnt fair, give me a morrison assignment, i wanna finish a whole book of hers

+

I
wrap
myself
around a
celestial
tree

and from there

I can see

Patterns
of
eternity
that stick with me and
make impact, so that
the struggle

has meaning

-gsquared


http://www.myspace.com/nonifashoni

i will before i talk anymore stuff bout ms. walker

and start slow w. morrison
git u sum sula
then jazz
bluest eye
then song of solomon
read tar baby last

& just dont bother w/ paradise or love

dont worry mama
i gotchu

we gonna git literate NO MATTA WHAT

i just want chu to know
how i feel
how i feel

you will make my list... authors who do it every time save for a couple of books:

alice walker
toni morrison
jamaica kincaid
alice sebold
jenoyne adams

i respect them mostly for the language used in each book i've read from them, time frame, and events circling around every story. they've got spunk, their words hit home to me in so many ways. i wish i could do them justice typing up my love/respect at this very moment.


--------------
http://msmind.blogspot.com
http://sadlymstaken.blogspot.com
www.myspace.com/treEmainE

i just wish u happy
b/c im so tired of loving u sad ©rgv

www.sheflypaper.com
www.sheflypaper.com/honeychile.html
www.thejawn.com

i wanna like her
ive tried so hard to like her
i loved annie john so much

but her..
HER as a person
she fkn sucks

and
autiobiography of my mother

xuela
what the fk was that?

like, honestly,
were u enthralled from the beginning to the end??

i FORCED myself to read that
for a sociology & lit class

i had to discuss her, george mead & baldwin

ugh

DONT wanna do that again

alice sebold...doesnt move me

jenoyne...name is familiar; what did she write??

i just want chu to know
how i feel
how i feel

on jamaica: each book that i have of hers, autobiography of my my mother, brother, and annie john, i thoroughly enjoyed. i like her tone, the eveness she never seems to lose with each book.




--------------
http://msmind.blogspot.com
http://sadlymstaken.blogspot.com
www.myspace.com/treEmainE

i just wish u happy
b/c im so tired of loving u sad ©rgv

www.sheflypaper.com
www.sheflypaper.com/honeychile.html
www.thejawn.com

my list looks a little something like this:

toni morrison (i agree about Love, i think she was doing the whole 'let's shock the audience with pedophilia for no good reason at all...but i love Sula and Song of Solomon)

jeanette winterson (mainly cuz of The Passion, Powerbook sucked)

adrienne su (i love her style and voice....i learned a lot about the power of simplicity from her)

paul beatty (white boy shuffle is one of my favorites of all time and his poetry's pretty dope too)

audre lorde

rita dove is bomb

james baldwin...sometimes

i know this is cheesy but the first poem i read that made me want to write was "On His Blindness" by john milton.....

as for new voices, i'm feeling ishle park...i sat on the train reading her book Temperature of this Water through twice and didn't flinch at all.

i wish i could read in french because i've been reading a lot senegalese books which are fucking gorgeous in english but i'm sure they'd be better without translation (i.e. Ambiguous Adventure, So Long a Letter, Juletane)

but that's just off the top

http://www.myspace.com/n_a_a

i got white boy shuffle
& never finished it

ima hit up sum of the other authors mentioned too

thanks mama*

i just want chu to know
how i feel
how i feel

..its' funny but i used to think i was pretty well read, but I've never turned the front cover of any of these people. are they predominantly African Americans?

...guess what, you can't swing in scotland either.

7 years old, listenin to grown folks conversation...heard my grandfather say these words...

Well, son, I'll tell you:
Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.
It's had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor --
Bare. (mother to son)
so i asked him where he got them...he introduced me to poetry by way of Langston Hughes.

Others on my list

Countee Cullen
Anne Spencer "the wife-woman"
Gwendolyn Brooks
there are others...especially the likes of Edgar Allen Poe.
Never been too crazy about anything Maya Angelou ever wrote, altho, I find her life story to be amazing.

As far as writers in general, or novelists, story tellers...i enjoy toni morrison because she has the most unconventional and creative ways of describing situations, feelings and emotions that we feel every day. at the same time, broadening that creativity with interesting stories. to me, her novels read like an epic poem.

ernest hemingway among my favs.

there's more...even some writers i dont exactly care for their style, but i can respect their art.

@asiaradiant

..see i'm coming out of a completely different ballpark. I was intae all the counter cultural stuff of the 60's and 70's, William S. Burroughs, Alexander Troochi, Hunter S. Thompson, Ken Kesey, Philip K. Dick Charles Bukowski's another writer I got a lot out of. Got a nice Iceberg Slim collection as well. I also read and appreciciate George Orwell and a couple of scottish guys, James Kelman and Jeff Torrington.

...guess what, you can't swing in scotland either.

i like iceberg slim.

@asiaradiant

..have you read any of the others?. As for Iceberg Slim there's no really much I have to say about him that hasn't been said by someone with a little more authority than me. I mean the world he describes is pretty strange for someone like me, similarities aye, but there's still a line tae cross.

...guess what, you can't swing in scotland either.

nope, havnt read any of the others. but i wrote down names and will def take a peek at something.

@asiaradiant

...don't know how relevant they. Hubert Selby's another good one to check out. got a lot of ideas about using language fae him.

...guess what, you can't swing in scotland either.

you know what...i have read orwell. and another name sounds familiar but..i have to see some titles. i've read so many books in my lifetime that it's hard to keep up with who wrote what..unless of course it was something that really jerked me on the inside..know what i mean?

@asiaradiant

..aye, i've read some crap in ma time. For Orwell, Homage To Catalonia and 1984 are the essential ones i think. Factotum and Ham on Rye for Bukowski..

...guess what, you can't swing in scotland either.

my favorite author is definitely jack kerouac. this guy wrote so much that he can be a bit hard to keep track of. on the road is really the best. i understand why people like dharma bums so much but thats a little heavy on the buddhism for me. i like desolation angels, thats the lesser known book of his that people really should catch on to. its one of his longer books and its divided into two parts. the first part has him alone in a watchtower looking for forest fires on a mountain, the second part has him coming down and returning to the real world. its the second part that i love. hes going a little too crazy in the first part and sometimes its a bit much but the conclusion is well worth it.

it seems tho, that were talking african american lit. in this post.

my favorite in this genre is ishmael reed's mumbo jumbo. this book basically satirizes western/estern/african/european throughout all of history through a discussion of the emergence of the jazz age. in many ways its crazy as it sounds. the book is completely loaded with historical references and it can be tough to get through without an encyclopaedia, but even a casual read (or som strategic googling) is extremely worth the while. this book is deep funny and lyrical.

ishmael reed doesnt have that much else out there. ive read some of his poems and its not really my kind of stuff. he has a text book out there called from totems to hip hop. only had the chance to read the introductory essay and it was amazing but i dont have my own copy of this one.

i also love richard wright for his books and his essays. toni morrison never did it for me with sula and the bluest eye but i loved song of solomon. just learned first about gil scott heron last year- i love his poems, if you havent heard the full audio versions you are missing out on so much. definitely agree wiith whoever it was up there who said they didnt get maya angelou. read the inaugural poem and the cage bird sings as well as having seen some of her speeches. its just too much for me- it seems hokey and cliched.

...(the end)...

i was gonnae say the same about Kerouac, i think he's a bit over-rated, tends tae ramble a bit. If I was after a big slice of Americana I'd go for Jim Dodge.

...guess what, you can't swing in scotland either.

i just want chu to know
how i feel
how i feel

n/m

"I'm scientific, but my reflex gangsta"- Black Thought

jenoyne adams
zz packer
suzan-lori parks
bernice mcfadden
asha bandele
chimamanda ngozi adichie



---
www.sheflypaper.com

..lost me there.

...guess what, you can't swing in scotland either.

---
www.sheflypaper.com

..aye but no that often. must have pulled a fast one. are they like yer mates? or is that another bunch of authors I've no had the pleasure of hearing of?

...guess what, you can't swing in scotland either.

its a list of authors who currently move me.

---
www.sheflypaper.com

..right. I dinnae really follow too much contemporary literature.

...guess what, you can't swing in scotland either.

because i've never been a fan of the classics, except siddartha.

---
www.sheflypaper.com

..i'll take your word for it.

...guess what, you can't swing in scotland either.

it wasn't meant to be much more than saying were opposites.
---
www.sheflypaper.com

..nae problem it wasn't going anywhere anyway.

...guess what, you can't swing in scotland either.

---
www.sheflypaper.com

o lei
ure breaking mi likkle heart

i just want chu to know
how i feel
how i feel

i started to read one of the short stories
when it was in the ny'er
but i cldnt git into it

suzan lori parks...
i wanna read 'gittin mother's body'

u dig in that yet??

it's on my to-do-soon list

i just want chu to know
how i feel
how i feel

i think...and things blur together in my mind...but i think i remember feeling her too heavy handed.

I'm a little partial to the following:

Chinua Achebe
Mario Puzo
Cyprain Ekwensi
Flora Nwapa
Ngugi wa Thiong 'O
Langston Hughes - his short pieces are just I dunno..the word just right..

"Do to others what you would others have done unto you." - The Lord Jesus Christ

SB Video: http://www.youtube.com/soulbrothavideo
SB tweet:www.twitter.com/soulb

langston is prt of the reason why i write.

ultimate respect

i just want chu to know
how i feel
how i feel

>I'm a little partial to the following:
>
>Chinua Achebe
>
this dude is crazy. crazy i tell u. i wanna read everything he's ever written.

i also like vs naipaul a lot. kinda random..but dude is cool with me...despite the objections some have with the way he confronts colonialism.

__________________
http://twitter.com/theloniousfunk
http://havetravelled.blogspot.com
http://instagram.com/arsonwelles

“Be uncomfortable; be sand, not oil, to the machinery of the world.”
- Gunter Eich

_

shakin your block with a 6 million dollar bop

_

www.davidevanmcdowell.com

esp badlwin's non fict

i cant seem to git thru ellison's juneteenth
but ima give it another go head

i just want chu to know
how i feel
how i feel

& n. shange are my ultimate favorites...reading their words move me

zora neale hurston...i dont see how i left her out. and um..thanks to this thread i have added 23 new books to my reading list.

@asiaradiant

her sshort stories arent read enuff
that woman is amazing

and that zake woman goes w/o saying

i just want chu to know
how i feel
how i feel

Dr. Seuss really speaks to my soul.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"When we're writing, I'm not sure that we think of the reader. It's more that we pray not to lie, to get it right, so that if we're writing about a tree, we get that tree and not a petrified log..."

n/m

"I'm scientific, but my reflex gangsta"- Black Thought

And Im dead serious. And Saul Williams.
Ofcourse I luv and respect many of the writers mentioned above. But as far as RESPECT MOST..... its ya'll.....

_________________________________________
"Too weird to live.... too rare to die..."

IG: KnowOne215 | PS+ ID: KnowOne215

manchild in the promised land

gloria naylor
linden hills

every blk man in america shld be made to read these.
im thinking of having my sons memorize em

i just want chu to know
how i feel
how i feel

i think i did...

and

donald goines

--------------
http://msmind.blogspot.com
http://sadlymstaken.blogspot.com
www.myspace.com/treEmainE

i just wish u happy
b/c im so tired of loving u sad ©rgv

www.sheflypaper.com
www.sheflypaper.com/honeychile.html
www.thejawn.com

im so lazy.

but um...i like a lot of people spoken bout in this thread already.

i used to be a morrison-hater. but i read son of solomon last quarter and it was breathtaking at times. i mean, i still think she overdoes things...like, she's just overly dense and abstruse when she probably doesnt have to be...i dont like that..but she can get down so i suppose she can be forgiven.

kerouac is one of my favs. and if dude is rambling, its the kind of rambling that could never bore me. i love him *no homo*, for real. and i like the buddhism...lol

gibran..thats my other man *no homo* probably my favorite author without a doubt.
also love hermann hesse. steppenwolf is a really important book for me.
nabokov is gully.
james baldwin yesss.
chinua achebe, well i already spoke bout him above.
v.s. naipaul - above.
eldridge cleaver - every black person, every person actually, but every black person, black man especially i think needs to read soul on ice. its so relevant today its ridiculous.

__________________
http://twitter.com/theloniousfunk
http://havetravelled.blogspot.com
http://instagram.com/arsonwelles

“Be uncomfortable; be sand, not oil, to the machinery of the world.”
- Gunter Eich

Willie Perdomo
Martin Espada
Tim Seibles
Patricia Smith
Pedro Juan Gutierrez
Walter Mosley
Stephen Dobyns
John Ridley
Sapphire
Ai
Tony Medina
Kim Addonizio
Dorianne Laux
Bayo Ojikutu
Yusef Komunyakaa

that's about it for now. My summer reading list:
Edwidge Danticat
Octavia Butler
(I've read excerpts of their books on amazon.com
and was waiting for this school year to hurry up
so i can get into those books)

George Schuyler is pretty cool.

-----sig starts here-----
interested in buying my chapbook,
"Transfer"? Just visit http://myspace.com/alanking81

or

http://myspace.com/bustransfer
(see what people are saying
about "Transfer")

"I used to walk through the valley
like Psalms 27"
--

i thought i was the only person who read that! nobody ever knows who im talking about when i mention dude....

a lot of writers here i need to check out

*thanx

the edit: thanx gio

i just want chu to know
how i feel
how i feel

_____________________________________

The cry I bring down from the hills
__________belongs to a girl still burning
__________inside my head. At daybreak

____________________she burns like a piece of paper. - YK

i just want chu to know
how i feel
how i feel

i don't know why i cannot/could not (even in grade school) get into his work.


--------------
http://msmind.blogspot.com
http://sadlymstaken.blogspot.com
www.myspace.com/treEmainE

i just wish u happy
b/c im so tired of loving u sad ©rgv

www.sheflypaper.com

..never had a lot of time for any of his work. The language is so archaic its hard to relate to. even for me.

...guess what, you can't swing in scotland either.

guess i gotta love u anyway, hunh?

i just want chu to know
how i feel
how i feel

..I got my hands up lady, just throwing an opinion in. I'm more of a Rabbie Burns man.

...guess what, you can't swing in scotland either.

so cut the bull...

i don't know, old boy just does not lure a chick in... i remember when we were getting into sonnets in my poetry writing class, and we had to view some of his poems, choose one, and read aloud... i couldn't feel it... neither of them that were read, i felt. he's just too "comehitherish" to me... but this is not to say, i don't respect him, not at all.

--------------
http://msmind.blogspot.com
http://sadlymstaken.blogspot.com
www.myspace.com/treEmainE

i just wish u happy
b/c im so tired of loving u sad ©rgv

www.sheflypaper.com

dont worry tre
when u git to NY
we're going to the bardavon
to see shakespeare

i have othello
henry V
romeo & juliet
macbeth
richard III
merchant of venice

all on video

we'll watch & learn together

atleast

ATLEAST

richard, henry & othello

i mean...henry v

cld be my favorite
i dunno

*dances*

just u wait

i just want chu to know
how i feel
how i feel

*edit

you used to be my favorite person on here.

*sigh.

blame rgv

_____________________________________

The cry I bring down from the hills
__________belongs to a girl still burning
__________inside my head. At daybreak

____________________she burns like a piece of paper. - YK

i just want chu to know
how i feel
how i feel

jokes.

never anything more.

_____________________________________

The cry I bring down from the hills
__________belongs to a girl still burning
__________inside my head. At daybreak

____________________she burns like a piece of paper. - YK

but this is more important.

i respect langston hughes a lot, but i don't get into his work. i've been reading about his personal life and he's a fascinating man, an enigma of sorts as well.

gwendolyn brooks...i love maud martha, will cut someone over that book. though i dont think she'd like that, r.i.p. and we share a birthday...i love her brevity, the way she packs it in with a studied simplicity

shange got me to start writing poetry, i think. i dont write poetry anymore, least i dont consider it poetry, but i respect her muchisimo, especially as a novelist, essayist, and short story writer.

gayl jones. i need to pick up her books again, but i love me some her. she's witty and brilliant and she's been through hell and back, her style has changed but i like her old and new work, she understands several languages, she's my hero.

more later. i really need to get to work.

i just want chu to know
how i feel
how i feel

Shakespeare everyday and all day
Toni Morrison for her mastery of language
Langston Hughes
Rita Dove
August Wilson
Tennesse Williams
Khalil Gibran

Peace
Blaze

I'm moody, I'm cranky, I'm emotional-Dammit just leave me alone

Step into my lair and see what happens next

toni
gloria
dianne

_____________
Kamikaze Genes
____________♌♀
goddess; small g.

he's so damned funny

_____________
Kamikaze Genes
____________♌♀
goddess; small g.

i just want chu to know
how i feel
how i feel