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The Sunday Poem: Idris Goodwin... The Boom

The Boom begs to be heard aloud: it is so crammed with fastball images and tricky rhythms. Well, I haven't got a video of The Boom, but I am embedding a video of Goodwin's What Is They Feedin' Our Kids as a kind of introduction to the poet's style. You will absolutely LOVE the video. And it gives you a starting point for the breakbeat poetics of The Boom.

Idris Goodwin just finished a couple of shows at the Q-Staff Theater as well as a performance at Santa Fe's historic Lensic. And there is more big news for Goodwin fans. He is appearing with Michael Datcher this Saturday, May 9th, at The Outpost Performance Space. Datcher, the critically acclaimed journalist from Los Angeles will read, plus local poets Maisha Baton, Hakim Bellamy, Idris Goodwin, Virginia Hampton and Stephanie Willis. You may recall that the DCF has now published three of the participants. Tickets are $10 and $12.

But first, here is What Is They Feedin' Our Kids. Then scroll down for The Boom.

The Boom

"A lie is the worst thing in the world. A lie is profanity,"
-Richard Pryor

stones bach beethoven’s
ebb & flow cling poe & frost

get a late pass

supply side capital necktie power

play trump dance hollow hobby

nuthin’ new

prisoner clean deep fryers
america malls on highways
tour suburban sprawl

perm james brown’s naps
run with the law
psycho alpha disco maggot
brains

beat the scar
sing my girl under
the poppy field’s hypnotism

quaaludes stash 8 ball
secret affairs with motel 6
drive thru real subscription babies

prejudice freedom fences
all swirled, concocted dark
forgotten frankenstein’s

AM/FM monster coming to electrify
kill you, its got your eyes

decaying glass museums
wall street trader install apathetic
superintendent mass murderer
seed meet flower

it aint nuthin new

--Idris Goodwin

Tags: goodwin, poems

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Comment by Richard V on May 3, 2009 at 10:35am: i caught his friday night show two weeks ago. and last year we had Idris do his thing at 516 ARTS as part of the reading series there. if you haven't heard/seen him read, you're missing a very talented artist at his best. his work is literary, contemporary, musical, and it addresses social and political issues with humor and street smarts (as you can see in the poem featured here.) he has an uncanny sense of wordplay. i enjoy the sounds of language, and my biggest complaint with hip hop influenced spoken word is it is recited so fast, that my ear is unable to enjoy the words. Idris has a pace that doesn't lose his hip hop aesthetic, but still allows me to follow the poem without me throwing up my hands in frustration. and the reading this saturday night at the Outpost is gonna knock your socks off. see you there.

Comment by Margaret Randall on May 3, 2009 at 11:46am: I've also seen and heard, even read with, Idris. He is great, and this poem shows his work can be appreciated on the page as well as performed.