The Essential Etheridge Knight

by Etheridge Knight

Winner of the 1987 American Book Award The Essential Etheridge Knight is a selection of the best work by one of the country’s most prominent and liveliest poets. It brings together poems from Knight’s previously published books and a section of new poems.

Genres: Poetry, African American, Anthologies

124 pages, Paperback

First published December 5, 1986

About the author

Etheridge Knight (April 19, 1931 – March 10, 1991) was an African-American poet who made his name in 1968 with his debut volume, Poems from Prison. The book recalls in verse his eight-year-long sentence after his arrest for robbery in 1960. By the time he left prison, Knight had prepared a second volume featuring his own writings and works of his fellow inmates. This second book, first published in Italy under the title Voce negre dal carcere, appeared in English in 1970 as Black Voices from Prison. These works established Knight as one of the major poets of the Black Arts Movement, which flourished from the early 1960s through the mid-1970s. With roots in the Civil Rights Movement, Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam, and the Black Power Movement, Etheridge Knight and other American artists within the movement sought to create politically engaged work that explored the African-American cultural and historical experience.

Reviews

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 5 out of 5]

So happy I found this poet! Etheridge Knight will always tell you honestly what is in his heart; his reasoning is deep and bitter true; full of the kind of wisdom that only accepts soul minted pain as currency. Taunt and teleological - razor reasoning that will cut deep into your core beliefs - highest recommendation.

[emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

WE GOT A NEW FAVORITE POET EVERYONE!!! etheridge has officially dethroned frank o'hara as my second fav poet of all time (after bob kaufman, of course)

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed these poems. They took me by surprise - in their excellence, in their obscenity, in their clarity. They spoke a world that is not often spoken of in poetry - or at least not heard - or at least not this consistent in clarity and excellence. He writes of the streets and of his life and of his people and of prison. His last piece about the prison system. Wow.

[marcali · Rating 5 out of 5]

Making jazz swing in seventeen syllables AIN'T no square poet's job. ...

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

My lunchtime book . . . it is gobsmackingly gorgeous.

[Charlie · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars.

[Nell Fleming · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is an essential read.

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

If Saul Williams and Gary Snyder have a common denominator, this guy's it. Most of this is too racy (in every sense of the word?) to teach in public schools - it's unfortunate. Knight could make anyone in the world want to be a poet.

[Seven · Rating 5 out of 5]

i am in love with Etheridge!!!

[Walidah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the most powerful collections of poetry I've read in so long. I would finish a poem and say "Damn Etheridge!" out loud. I read it through in a day, and then reread it the next morning.

[Carly Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Powerful poetry written mainly from prison.

[Cassie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here is my review: http://booksandbowelmovements.wordpre...

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. Maybe his "Indiana Haiku" sums it up:

The Penal Farm
The wire fence is tall.
The lights in the prison barracks
Flick off, one by one.

[Stan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant book. Knights poems are raw, dirty, funny, nasty beautiful like life itself.

[Danielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review to come because I have thoughts.

[Shaun · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spectacular collection of poetry for a truly excellent poet. Etheridge Knight's poetry speaks distinctly to a mid-20th century American experience, while having the emotional depth and breadth to maintain universal relevance. Knight's poetry, as other commentators have noted, speaks to the body and a poetics of the belly. His vernacular poetry is musical (at times literally inflected with jazz, blues, and gospel music) and earthy, deeply appealing and accessible when compared to the often cryptic and elusive poetry of other American poets following the modernist movements of the early 20th century.

Knight's poetry is not uncomplicated however, as any thorough reading will suggest. The power of the poems are not in the locking away of meaning behind allusion, metaphor, and complex jargon. Instead, emotional valence, affect, and feeling are allowed to thrive and produce variegated meaning depending on moment and reader. I find Knight to be a really important poet because of the approachability of his verse style, as it seems so unlike poetry in its ivory tower. In Knight I read the beginnings of spoken word poetry of today, as different as early hip-hop to contemporary videos from Button Poetry. They may lack the cerebral and often cold signs that are associated with "great poetry," but they are complex, extremely thought out, and moving pieces of writing.

Knight's poetry has gone on to inspire numerous other voices, and this collection really shows why. I have marked so many poems so I can revisit them with ease. Some particular highlights include: "A Wasp Woman Visits a Black Junkie in Prison," "As You Leave Me," "Dark Prophecy: I Sing of Shine," "Green Grass and Yellow Balloons," "Rehabilitation & Treatment in the Prisons of America."

I recommend this to anyone interested in poetry. I think the collection is just fantastic. If you are already a fan of Etheridge Knight, this is as the title says "Essential." If you are looking for more background material on Knight, I would look elsewhere, as this book has nothing in the way of supplemental materials beyond a very basic gloss about the author, and what can be gleaned from Knight's own personal (if very mask-like) writing. This collection is very useful for those interested in the Black Arts movement, especially the earlier poems of the collection from Knight's time in prison.

[S.W. Gordon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book on MLK Day 2017 and discovered that my privilege does not make me immune to the power of this poet. I was introduced to his work by the inimitable poet Tracie Morris who I had the great fortune of meeting at a Stetson MFA workshop (Jan 2017). She played a recording of Mr. Knight reading his poem Ancestry accompanied by jazz. The upbeat music and his celebratory voice clashed with the pain of his words. I knew I had to read more. Through poetry this man found salvation and meaning in what would have otherwise been a tragic life. He overcame poverty, racism, war, injury, addiction, prison, marginalization. His words speak across generations, across races, across classes, and unite us all in a common humanity. Thank you EK.

[Tynan Brooks]

Brilliant poems. Clearly influenced by the jazz poetry of the Harlem Renaissance, along with the whole blues tradition, but Knight stakes his own claim to originality; he's no mere imitator. There's a harshness and obscenity to many of his pieces which contrasts, quite effectively, with the tenderness he so often exhibits. More than anything, he has range; he's not content to be pigeon-holed as solely a Black prison poet, though he very much is that, but to have the full breadth of experience that any white poet claims.

[Alisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to sink into and savor this one because I know how much he rocked Terrance Hayes. No dice.
But, his use of slashes in poems is like the trickery and elegance of e.e. cummings. Check this out:

and I / must admit
that the sea in me
has fallen/ in love
with the sea in you
because the sea
that now sings / in you
is the same sea
that nearly swallowed you --
and me too.


Magic.

[Jack Heller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential

What happens if we listen first?
I don't think I would have paid attention to these poems when I was in my 20s. The basis for my judgments would have been different then.
Now, I think, the best of these poems show the tragedy of imprisonment, both in and out of prison. I wish this were a longer book. I want to read more of Knight's poetry.

[Ian Carpenter · Rating 5 out of 5]

So good. And Belly Song just knocks my socks off. He's incredible.

[Cate · Rating 5 out of 5]

grateful to be loaned this one.

[Andrew Stone · Rating 5 out of 5]

dang good poetry

[EIJANDOLUM]

“O Poet your tongue
is split.”

An essential discovery.

[lucy · Rating 5 out of 5]

every time i read etheridge knight, i cry. his haikus are particularly great but i love em all.

[Faloni © · Rating 5 out of 5]

🙂Why am I still at work. ⭐️💛⚓️💛⭐️

[Tori Thurmond · Rating 4 out of 5]

An honest and important book for contemporary poetry.

[Brooke Noelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliantly written - powerful format that paints a vivid picture without feeling overly verbose.

Content warning: frequent use of the n-word and expletives

[Raheem Curry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably one of the best books of poems that I have read. He does a very good job of expressing himself in a raw way that I only saw him do. A brilliant writer.

[jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

straddling political and personal, i adore this collection and the full image of knight you get from its totality.