Review: Baldwin the Poet

Award-winning poet Stephen S. Mills offers a reflective review of Jimmy’s Blues and Other Poems, a recently-released collection from the venerable James Baldwin, known best for his novels and essays.

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Baldwin the Poet

When I came out as a gay man in the middle of my sophomore year of college, I was immediately hungry for gay literature. This was important to me as a person, as an English major, and as someone who longed to be a writer. I grew up in a world fairly void of gay people and with very little understanding of their history. That history and knowledge I quickly began to discover through the books I read.

For this reason, I’ve always had a special place in my heart for James Baldwin. His novel Giovanni’s Room was one of the first gay novels I ever read. As the years progressed, I would encounter Baldwin’s other novels and essays, but I never knew Baldwin as a poet, which seems kind of funny now, because I’m a poet myself. Of course, I’m not alone here. Many know Baldwin mostly through his celebrated novels and essays and not necessarily through is poetry.

This is what makes Beacon Press’s new book Jimmy’s Blues and Other Poems by James Baldwin such an important collection. It’s vital to getting the full picture of just what an amazing talent Baldwin was. He could literally write anything, and he did. This book brings together all nineteen poems from Jimmy’s Blues (which was first published in 1983), plus poems from his very limited edition book Gypsy (there were only 325 copies printed).

The new book also includes a thoughtful introduction by poet Nikky Finney. Other than that, the poems stand on their own, which I appreciate. There isn’t some extensive notes section or anything that over explains the poems, and there’s no need.

Baldwin, as a poet, is captivating and musical. He uses language in such a natural way that you can easily speed through the poems getting caught up in the rhythms, but then you suddenly stop and realize he just made some startling observations. The poems work on so many different levels. The sounds and rhymes are prefect, but so is what lurks under them.

As with Baldwin’s other work, a good portion of his poetry deals with race issues. What I’ve always admired about Baldwin is that he was never one to simply say what people wanted to hear (that means often upsetting both white and black people). Baldwin’s way of talking about race seems almost impossible these days when so many seem afraid to have real discussions or choose to speak in such PC terms that meaning or focus gets off track. Baldwin is direct. He uses stereotypes and turns them on their heads. He also uses a variety of language—much of it very common, but it’s always thought provoking.

The book opens with a long rolling poem called “Staggerlee wonders,” which uses the stereotype of “the nigger” to highlight how white people view black people in relationship to important things happening in the world. The poem opens with these lines:

“I always wonder

what they think niggers are doing

while they, the pink and alabaster pragmatists,

are containing

Russia

and defining and re-defining and re-aligning

China,

nobly restraining themselves, meanwhile,

from blowing up the earth”

The poem is very grounded in the world events and pop culture of the time period (the early 80s). Baldwin makes you think and question the current state of things. He uses simple language, but language that shouldn’t be taken at face value. There’s often a playfulness in his work even when he’s tackling such serious issues.

One of my favorite poems in the book is titled “Inventory/On Being 52.” The poem takes “inventory” of where the speaker is at 52 and realizes there’s a lot he knows but a lot he may never know. The poem questions if we can ever truly reach a place of wisdom. It also highlights that life is full of choices and no matter what there’s going to be things we did and didn’t do. He writes:

“I seem to remember, now,

a green bauble, a worthless stone,

slimy with rain.

My mother said that I should take it with me,

but I left it behind.

(The world is full of green stones, I said.)

 

Funny

that I should think of it now.

I never saw another one like it—

now, that I think of it.”

This simple story connects to something very human in all of us. Even the amazingly talented Baldwin had his doubts and regrets. It’s almost refreshing, but with a tinge of sadness.

What thrills me most about this collection is that it provides these wonderful poems to a new audience (myself included). It’s a reminder of the power of Baldwin as a man, as a writer, and as a poet. I hope many new people will discover Baldwin through this strong collection. These poems were written over thirty years ago, yet they still speak to many of the injustices in the world and to our experience as human beings trying to make sense of our own existence.

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Jimmy’s Blues and Other Poems is available from Beacon Press.

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