terrance hayes american sonnets for my past and future assassin

Unlike the Petrarchan or Shakespearean sonnets - 14 lines of verse ruled by octave and sestet, iambic pentameter and volta, alternating end-rhymes or rhymed closing couplets - the American sonnet, like this peculiar political era, is governed by only the loosest relation to established, formal principles: yes, 14, at least 10 syllables each, but no rhyme or reason seems necessary. And as Hayes inquires in a later poem, “Why give good money to Death?”

You share a fantasy with Trinidad James, who said, ‘Gold all in my chain, gold all in my ring, / Gold all in my watch’.” But that glittering, “metallic narcissism” is fool’s gold, it can only offer a dead gaze in return. A leader whose metallic narcissism is a reflection / Of your own. For example, Hayes hears in trap music some reflection of the chaotic trappings of our degrading democratic arrangement: “America, you just wanted change is all, a return / to the kind of awe experienced after beholding a reign / of gold. In that collection, the poet offers “American Sonnet for Wanda C.,” an elegy for the late Los Angeles poet and critic Wanda Coleman: “Those who could hear / No music weren’t listening - and when I say it, it’s like claiming / She’s an elegy.” Rhyming “clamped” with “claims” and “calm,” Hayes names Coleman, “Miss Calamity,” a mythic wordsmith “hurling hurt / Where the moon should be and stomping into our darkness calmly.”Ĭoleman’s influence drapes Hayes’ “American Sonnets.” Her definition of the American sonnet (which Hayes quotes in his acknowledgments) suggests that the form ought to be issue-driven, improvisational, minimalist and fun.

Hayes has worked with sonnets before, most recently in “How to Be Drawn,” a finalist in poetry for both the National Book Critic’s Circle award and the National Book Award. These aesthetic and intellectual preoccupations also charge “American Sonnets.” His writing demonstrates a serious commitment to revising, extending and advancing American poetry while recording, celebrating and mourning black American life. In his five previous poetry collections - “Muscular Music” (1999), “Hip Logic” (2002), “Wind in a Box” (2006), the National Book Award-winning “Lighthead” (2010) and “How to Be Drawn” (2015) - Hayes innovates new poetic forms and hacks the codes of canonical containers, pimping them up dynamically. Now’s the time for “American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin,” Terrance Hayes’ electric, new book.

Terrance hayes american sonnets for my past and future assassin