To Repel Ghosts: Five Sides in B Minor - Reviews - Book Review

Kevin Young. To Repel Ghosts: Five Sides in B Minor: Cambridge, MA: Zoland Books, 2001. 350 pp. $26.00.

Kevin Young's To Repel Ghosts is a large poetic attempt in which much of the author's ambition is realized. Intrigued by the life and legacy of the late visual artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, Young has crafted a "sound track" to provoke and accompany meditation about Basquiat and his times. The book is structured into two "discs" (containing a total of five "sides"). The stylistic goal is for the work to function as a pulsating musical tribute. In that respect, it does not quite succeed. While there are rhythmic high points like "Discography One" and "Savoy," and while the book is filled with a captivating, celebratory, and haunting genius, the long series of brief tercets, the dominant stanza pattern of the more than 300-page volume, does not readily suggest oral vitality despite the project's billing. Ironically, the aesthetic metaphor one can derive more immediately from the book is that of a visual arts collage, since Young has created, incorporating excerpts from other sources, including the works of Basqui at, word paintings to parallel the brilliant canvases of his primary subject. Also ironic is that Young is the accomplished poet that Basquiat, as Greg Tate has suggested, at times aspired to be.

Minor complaints aside, evident from the very first poems on Side One, "Campbell's Black Bean Soup" and "Poison Oasis," is the poet's deft handling of language. The side may drag a bit as the reader has to try to discern some rather arcane allusions, but a poem like "Defacement," which is about the 1983 death of graffiti artist Michael Stewart at the hands of New York City policemen, is an easily accessible and rousing treatment. Appropriate background information is stitched into the text without sacrificing any of Young's superb verbal play, which often merges with Basquiat's (the latter's words are featured in uppercase letters). For example:

with sticks. The night
Michael Stewart snuck
on the tracks

& cops caught him
tagging
a train--THIRD RAIL

DANGER LIVE
VOLTAGE--
taught him better

than to deface public
property. Choke
hold. Keep NEW YOKE

CITY Clean.
Give those men
a PABST BLUE

RIBBON, a slap
on the wrist
a meddle

of honor. Basqulat
produces Beat
Bop, black

Young, in his artistry, illustrates his and Basquiat's concern with racial injustice, particularly this society's often horrific handling of black males.

Perhaps intentionally, Side Two, labeled "Hits," is the best part of the book. Included is a lengthy and superlative poem about Jack Johnson rendered in first-person that is embellished with quotations about Johnson by Jack London, Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. Du Bois, Miles Davis, Denzil Batchelor (Jack Johnson & His Times), and Bohun Lynch (Knuckles & Cloves) that serve as prologue and interludes. Commentary from folk sources appears as well. These lines are emblematic of Young's poetic dexterity:

always a swinger
a fast talker--
my rights

the kind that broke
men's jaws.
Bigot laws.

As is the case with "Defacement," the power of "Jack Johnson" does not rely upon close association with a painting by Basquiat. In general, though To Repel Ghosts is a tribute, Young's lines are stronger the more he writes around the work of Basquiat rather than more directly to it.

Other genuine "hits" from Disc One (which includes Side Three) are "Langston Hughes," "Out Getting Ribs," "Battle Royale," "Shadow Boxing," and "Television & Cruelty to Animals," the last piece representing a link to the many poems on popular culture on Disc Two like "Riddle Me This Batman" and "TV Star." Also memorable are "The Ninth Circle," a sketch of Charlie Mingus, and "Retrospective."

With stunning nimbleness, Kevin Young has fulfilled the promise exhibited in his 1995 debut volume Most Way Home. Choosing a topic that is tremendously engrossing, he has emerged as a truly important poet.

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COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group