this planet is doomed

by Sun Ra, Amiri Baraka (Foreword), Bhob Stewart (Introduction)

Bhob Stewart writes:
Beyond the interplanetary theatricality, catchphrases, non sequiturs, science fictional costumes and kozmic chaos, Sun Ra (1914-1993) was an innovative bandleader, a potent pianist, an electronic keyboard pioneer, a visionary Afrofuturist poet-philosopher, an inventive composer and a prolific recording artist, releasing more than 100 albums totaling over 1000 tunes. Downbeat called him "the prophet of modern jazz." When the avant-garde arrived, they found that Sun Ra had already been there. "I'm a troubleshooter for the cosmos," said Sun Ra, "sent here by the outer space beings from my home planet, Saturn."

Genres: Poetry, Music, Science Fiction, Fiction

139 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 11, 2011

About the author

Le Sony'r Ra (born Herman Poole Blount, May 22, 1914 – May 30, 1993), better known as Sun Ra, was an American jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, and poet known for his experimental music, "cosmic" philosophy, prolific output, and theatrical performances. For much of his career, Ra led "The Arkestra," an ensemble with an ever-changing name and flexible line-up.

Born and raised in Alabama, Blount became involved in the Chicago jazz scene during the late 1940s. He soon abandoned his birth name, taking the name Le Sony'r Ra, shortened to Sun Ra (after Ra, the Egyptian God of the Sun). Claiming to be an alien from Saturn on a mission to preach peace, he developed a mythical persona and an idiosyncratic credo that made him a pioneer of Afrofuturism. Throughout his life he denied ties to his prior identity, saying "Any name that I use other than Ra is a pseudonym."

His widely eclectic and avant-garde music echoed the entire history of jazz, from ragtime and early New Orleans hot jazz, to swing music, bebop, free jazz and fusion. His compositions ranged from keyboard solos to works for big bands of over 30 musicians, along with electronic excursions, songs, chants, percussion pieces, and anthems. From the mid-1950s until his death, Ra led the musical collective The Arkestra (which featured artists such as Marshall Allen, John Gilmore and June Tyson throughout its various iterations). Its performances often included dancers and musicians dressed in elaborate, futuristic costumes inspired by ancient Egyptian attire and the Space Age. (Following Ra's illness-forced retirement in 1992, the band remained active as The Sun Ra Arkestra, and, as of 2018, continues performing under the leadership of veteran Ra sideman Marshall Allen.)

Though his mainstream success was limited, Sun Ra was a prolific recording artist and frequent live performer, and remained influential throughout his life for his music and persona. He is now widely considered an innovator; among his distinctions are his pioneering work in free improvisation and modal jazz and his early use of electronic keyboards and synthesizers. Over the course of his career, he recorded dozens of singles and over one hundred full-length albums, comprising well over 1,000 songs, making him one of the most prolific recording artists of the 20th century

Reviews

[Troy S]

"I will take you to inner unseen worlds."

After a small period of acclamation I recognized these poems as maximal unrestrained micro-thesis' by a mad genius in sparse but tempestuous vocabulary. There are awesome claims of Earth being analogous to a black hole, that our gravity is the same force that sucks celestial bodies into the depths of those spacious abysses. Many poems reminded me of Holbein, where beyond the politics, the art, the music, the black, the white, the bodies, there is death. Except Sun Ra finds something even further beyond that- the stars.

Death is a manifestation of space, and death on a macrocosmic level is closer than ever. A recurring image in these poems is that big red button that with so little stimulation can send the whole world into flames, and back into stardust.

But fuck the earthman anyways, man. Space is the place.

[Tom]

The second book from the new imprint Kicks, which features retro cover designs and seems, from its initial offerings, to focus on urban themes. To cut to the quick: How does Sun Ra stack up as a poet? His usual themes are here--peace, hate, human divisiveness, a yearning for better world--and one could easily imagine many of these poems either being sung by Ra's band or chanted over his music. The notes with the book tell us that some of poems here were transcribed from spoken performances, now available on record (from Norton Records, Kicks Books parent). Ra's poems remind me of Bukowski's--straight talk, lines you can easily hear someone speaking to you. Lines cutting to the marrow of the issue, eschewing sentimentality, rainbows, and unicorns. Elements common cultivated in traditional Western poetry aren't here: rhyme, scansion, rhetorical tropes, a knowledge of lexicography, etc. Bukowski's poems don't have them, either. Instead, the treasure here is the directness of the work, the knowledge that you can come to the work without a key, and it will still open and speak to you.

[Andrea]

Sun Ra is better known as a musician, his avant garde jazz part of the Afro American cultural and intellectual 60s revolution, Amiri Baraka writes of his shows in Harlem, far out clothes, amazing sounds. I love it all in theory, turns out I quite like the music though I have to be in the right kind of mood. I like the poetry too, more than the music I think though I am sure that is just my own preference for words and the way they mean more to me than sounds. For Sun Ra, of course, it was more about the sounds, and the music

angels & demons

my music sings of the discipline of depths and darkness of space as matter
and matter of outer space as tone, and it
relates--reaches through the void to stars
beyond the places of thought--worlds
without names

This comes through very strongly in some of his poems that play with words and repetition. But I found this collection so poignant and deep, along with far out and strange -- but the point is that this earth, this humanity is so messed up, that anything true and real and good must come from elsewhere. Sun Ra insists that he is from another planet, some solar system far away from this world of death and hate. Impossible to critique such a rejection and method of coming to terms with yourself and this world's realities. I don't know any others that actually work when this rings true:

I am strange

I am strange
I have a potent degree of love that is so
unwise
in one world that it is wisdom in another
I am strange
I no longer have respect for hate
for I am stronger than hate
I am contemptuous of both those who
hate and those who destroy
I am not a part of the world which hates
and the world which destroys

and I know the feeling that comes late at night sometimes when you just think that change is impossible, that the awfulness is immutable

the damneded air

around the earth
circles the infinity of the damneded air
the damneded inheritance of the earth
are the same vibrations it ever was
we need new air
we need air that vibrates with the
sound of another kind of mind
we need the beam of the future to strike
the earth
like the lightening and the power of a
thunderbolt
in order that the dying embers of the past
should suddenly be extinct

and I know the desire to laugh in the face of despair and claim victory at the end of it all

opposing forces

I never resisted them
they think I did
it was only pretense
desires I projected to
them
were my non-resistant weapon
shield of defense
I did not desire what they
thought I desired
neither now
nor ever then
non-resistance became my resistance
my resistance is my non-resistance
do they challenge?
I have already won the victory

I can imagine finding comfort in the death's bottom line

blessed be the dehydrated brain

uncompromising annihilations
death is greater than life
blessed be the name of death
for in its hands
is perfect equality
for every man
damn these skins and creeds and stupid
beliefs that separated the millions of
tribes of men

blessed be the bones that lie
bleached in the sand,
the skeleton that hangs
dancing in the wind
blessed be the dehydrated brain
that can no longer persecute
and think evil thoughts
or perpetrate or perpetuate
evil deeds
blessed be these
for in the lack of life
or where there's not life
there's no pain and misery

I feel all these things having just fought for a better world, I don't know what it's like for a black kid born in 1914 and growing up in Alabama. Some little girls dream they're actually princesses switched at birth, Sun Ra dreamed he came from somewhere far away, and turned that into a social critique and a powerful way of looking at America from the outside. It is not a pretty sight. I am not sure the ramifications of a better place existing in another solar system, far far away, but there is always hope in a vision of something better.

[Melissa]

I want to stand on a mountain and wave this book around and yell and scream and tell everyone to read it! Sun Ra takes what we don't see or believe, and weaves together open feeling with imagination. Who's to say it isn't real? I want to live in Sun Ra's world, in Sun Ra's mind, but maybe I already do. Maybe I'm just closing myself off to the wonders that already exist. Maybe we all are. He is just a disciple, sent here to remind us of all of these chimerical and scientific rhythms of nature, music, living, love, art... I took so many notes from this book, that if I was to share all of them here, there would be no point in you reading it yourself. Instead, I'll share one poem, which does no justice at all.

"other planes of life"

they cannot seem to accept me
because I'm not supposed to be real
they think that they're the only real
they think that their way of life is the only life
thus, instead of a friendly handshake or
mutual recognition
not caring to understand that I really am I
and that I'm truly being
and cosmically alive
if they would rise above their wisdom
they could see me as I am
and they would understand
that there are other planes of life
greater than the plane they know
all around them are other ways to greater wisdom
but with eyes shut and ears closed
they listen to their inner voices within
their recorded voices of their abolished god
of the past

[Jalyn McNeal]

They don’t understand you Sun Ra but I do <3👽

Don’t let the title scare you. Just read it

[Devin]

Damn.

Damn damn damn. I'm so disappointed. I wanted this to be the best book of poetry I've ever read. I wanted it to change my perception of science fiction, a genre I do not enjoy. But more so, I wanted it to make me love Sun Ra even more. Sun Ra is my favorite composer ever. One of my favorite musicians. I listen to him, often for hours, while writing, reading, driving, etc. From his early days, to the cosmic Intergalactic Arkestra, and everything in-between. To me, he is a watershed in music and music history, one that is virtually untouchable.

But this was a major letdown. I struggled to get through it. At times I outright lost interest. Damn.

I'll admit my bias: I can't stand beat poetry. I've never enjoyed it. So when I read the intro from Amiri Baraka [whose poetry I also didn't enjoy due to it being beat poetry, though I love Amiri Baraka the Marxist thinker], i immediately got nervous when I read this would be mostly beat poetry. I couldnt imagine Sun Ra, a man of very lengthy diatribes on the cosmos and Intergalactic space, doing beat poetry. I thought "well maybe he'll prove me wrong." Unfortunately he didn't.

I still love Sun Ra, just...not this book.

[Peter Landau]

THIS PLANET IS DOOMED is a great title, one that we can all get behind, and it’s about time someone came out and said it. Not just someone, but Sun Ra. Little did I know that he had been writing poetry since he was nine years old, almost as long as he has been composing music. This collection of recently unearth work by the man from Saturn is a journey through time and space, dimensions unfamiliar, for we are like the fish asking what’s water. We need Sun Ra to tell us what we before now didn’t know so we can know what we don’t already.

[Jim]

Astonishing... sure half the time i didn't follow but my consciousness isn't that developed... what i could follow was hyperconcious synesthetic space waves of pure multimusical cosmic light

notably

the earth is a hole in space

i am strange

the outer darkness

science of change

the cosmic eyes

the past is a dream

the universe is endless

the government of death

light from other worlds

[Ames]

Sun Ra is the stuff of legend, and this collection (at times) works best as cosmo-futurist beat poetry. Unfortunately at worst it can start to feel formulaic and redundant. That said, even after it started to wear thin, certain poems could still transcend the very formula to resonate again.

[kayla goggin]

great title but the good times end there. these poems are bad. :(

[Kimber Griffin]

• “if this is their home why do they treat the planet the way they do?”
• “what will change the course of the world?”
• “what type of end do you desire?”

Intergalactic exploration of life and soul beyond earthly consciousness. Ra is on to something expansive and magnificent. What an absolute treat to read while on lockdown - a brain explosion of pathways beyond Earth - sometimes frightening, always exciting. As he both questions and affirms, dreams are sweeter than reality. But dreams are reality. I’m still lingering on all of his words.

Music. Vibrations. Space. Truth. Life. Death. Rocket ships and infinite infinities! Big takeaway — There is no past. Only the future! — Celebrate Sun Ra, and read this collection!

[Antoinette]

One of my favourite books of all time !
Sun Ra's writing brings me so much comfort.
The planet is indeed doomed but alternate realities are also possible.
I like to come back to this book and re-read it in different stages of my life.

[Elizabeth Anne]

Sun Ra's poetry is excellent! Definitely a recommended read!

[David]

I agree with another review on here that points out that while some of these poems hit hard, working in a trance-like mode, discussing cosmic content, other ones feel ineffectively repetitive.

[Zemaemidjehuty]

Sun Ra is a prophet. His words are just as powerful as his music.

[Jim Ivy]

Anything by Sun Ra is a great read, so the only reason this got 4 stars from me is that it is a short read and was over too soon. I did have the extreme pleasure of purchasing the limited edition version from the fine folks at Norton that comes with the Sun Ra medallion and ribbon bookmark as well as the Sun Ra-ish hat!!!! A gift that will keep on giving. Trying to get it all to fit back into the custom box it came in, however, took some time.

[Dana Jerman]

I wanted this to be better overall. Ra does get some killer lines in, tho'. The copy I have from Kicks Books in Brooklyn printed one poem twice.

[Joana]

is reality less true than dreams since
dreams spring
from calls we thought in rebellion

[Nakia]

Sun Ra is brilliant!

[Sara Whizbanger]

Saturn. That is all.