The Immeasurable Equation: The Collected Poetry and Prose

by Sun Ra, Hartmut Geerken (Editor)

A talented pianist and composer in his own right, Sun Ra (1914 - 1993) founded and conducted one of jazz's last great big bands from the 1950s until he left planet Earth. Few only know that he also was a gifted thinker and poet. Sun Ra's poetry leaves everything behind what's called contemporary, and flings out pictures of infinity into the outer space. These poems are for tomorrow. This is the only edition of Sun Ra's complete poetry and prose in one volume. The Contributors James L. Wolf Earned a music degree from Carleton College, and studied ethnomusicology at the University of Washington, Seattle. Now works at the Library of Congress in the Music Division. Active musician in various bands in the DC area. Many contributions to Sun Ra scholarship. Hartmut Geerken Oriental studies, philosophy and comparative religion at the universities of Tübingen and Istanbul. Writer, filmmaker, musician, composer. Since the 1970s, close relationships to Sun Ra and his works, setting up the world's most comprehensive Waitawhile Sun Ra Archive Sigrid Hauff Studied oriental languages and arts, philosophy, and romance studies at the universities of Tübingen and Istanbul. Free lance writer on literary and philosophical subjects. Klaus Detlef Thiel Studied philosophy and history at Trier University, Ph.D. Philosophical author, focussing on theory and history of writing. Brent Hayes Edwards Teaches in the English Department at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ. Author and Co-Editor of works on jazz and literature.

Genres: Poetry, Music, Jazz

530 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

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

[Gerhard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reality has touched against myth
Humanity can move to achieve the impossible
Because when you've achieved one impossible the others
Come together to be with their brother, the first impossible
Borrowed from the rim of the myth
Happy Space Age to You…

This “cheery poem inaugurating the new age” (Szwed) was Sun Ra’s contribution to William H. Honan’s Le Mot Juste for the Moon July 1969 piece in which ‘Esquire’ elicited suitable pronouncements for the First Step.

The impressive list included Robert Graves, Nabokov, Anne Sexton, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, William O. Douglas, Ed Koch, Timothy Leary, Bob Hope, Isaac Asimov, William Safire, George McGovern, Tiny Tim, Truman Capote, John Kenneth Galbraith, Marshall McLuhan. And, of course, the space age jazz poet, Sun Ra.

In an illuminating essay included in this collection, Brent Hayes Edwards argues that far from being a ‘space freak’, Sun Ra’s poem was an expression of his idea that “myth and history walk hand in hand.” It doesn’t help perhaps that he admits it is an “odd little poem”.

What was interesting was that, of all the statements, Sun Ra alone expressed a kind of ‘universalism of the impossible’ that went against the grain of seeing the Moon landing as a ‘national accomplishment’.

These ideas are expressed further in poems like ‘Points of the Space Age’ and ‘The Space Age Cannot be Avoided’. I read portions of this collection in conjunction with the Szwed and Youngquist biographies.

While certainly not the planet’s greatest poet, these poems do give a fascinating glimpse into the mind, vision, and mission of the ‘father of Afrofuturism’, whose welding of Egyptian and African mythology collided with the Space Race to produce something transcendentally humanist that was certainly way ahead of its time.

[Internet · Rating 4 out of 5]

True outsider art. Sun Ra was compelled to express himself in poetry as in music, and he did so voluminously. Much like his music, his poetry can be very abstract and hard to follow. There are glimpses of profound love and hope, though, and a moving kind of universality; something like humanism, but not so quaint - the author was from Saturn, after all.

[Jalyn McNeal · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t think there are appropriate words in my current lexicon (or the human language, truly) that can fully encompass how dear Sun Ra is to me or how radical and unfettered he is in his worldview. Understandably, some may be put off by his wording and “Sun Ra-isms”; he often rejects westernized writing conventions and bends syntax as he sees fit, pulling neologisms out of the ether and improvising linguistically as if the English language itself were comprised entirely of jazz notes.

Much like any great mystic (unlike the purposeful didacticism of say, Neville Goddard), he tends to obscure and obfuscate truths behind a veneer of allegory and metaphor — which he admits himself, and is pretty adamant that those who are meant to hear it will understand.

This can sound sanctimonious coming from most, but he has such a kind and thoughtful disposition that shines through in his writing that truly underlines his love for love itself, even when the human race tends to frustrate him with dogmatic theories and constructed manacles. He isn’t from here, after all. This is his “visitation,” as he calls it, and really, isn’t that an apt description for all of our lives?

Prominent themes in Sun Ra’s writing frequently circle around space being “the place,” otherness likened to alien origin, music being the proverbial transition to the impending and “irresistible space age,” and that this very life itself is nothing but an illusory dream.

Standout poems for me: Astro Black, The Far Off Place, Points on the Space Age (1957), The Potential, [This world is not my home] which was read to him on his deathbed by Trudy Morse, Words and the Impossible, and a myriad more. ⭐️👽

[Jerrica · Rating 3 out of 5]

At times very abstract and difficult to grasp. Some of these poems have been set to music and, despite that music being free jazz, the change in form lends itself to a better comprehension at times. Also, highly recommend the 1974 film Space is the Place if you're interested, it sheds more light on Sun Ra's beliefs and what he felt his mission was for the people of planet Earth.