New and Collected Poems by Ishmael Reed
"New and Collected Poems by Ishmael Reed" is a significant anthology that showcases the poetic work of the acclaimed American writer Ishmael Reed, who is primarily recognized for his contributions to novel writing. This collection includes Reed's earlier poetry works such as "Conjure," "Chattanooga," and "A Secretary to the Spirits," each reflecting his unique voice and thematic preoccupations. Reed's poetry often intersects with the Hoodoo religion, blending elements from ancient Egyptian, Caribbean, and North American traditions, which offers deeper insights into his novels.
The anthology highlights Reed's distinctive style, marked by wit, inventive typographical choices, and a playful engagement with historical and cultural narratives. Notable pieces within the collection explore themes of identity, creativity, and spirituality, inviting readers to appreciate the complexity of African American experiences. In particular, "Conjure" serves as a foundational work, emphasizing the cultural significance of Hoodoo and its polytheistic nature. The later sections of the collection, referred to as "Points of View," continue to present Reed’s characteristic blend of outrage and humor, demonstrating his ongoing relevance in contemporary poetry. Overall, this anthology provides a rich perspective on Reed's creative output and is a valuable resource for those seeking to understand the interplay between his poetry and broader cultural themes.
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New and Collected Poems by Ishmael Reed
First published: 1988
The Work
Ishmael Reed is primarily known as a novelist. Most critical works about him deal with his fiction, and the leading books about contemporary African American poetry mention him only in passing. His poetry, however, repays reading and study—for the light it casts on his novels, for its treatment of the Hoodoo religion, and for the same verbal facility and breadth of reference that is praised in his fiction.
New and Collected Poems includes the earlier works Conjure (1972), Chattanooga (1973), and A Secretary to the Spirits (1977). Conjure, Reed’s first and longest book of poems, is a mixed bag. Filled with typographical tricks that Reed later all but abandoned, it also has moments of striking wit, like the comparison of the poet to a fading city in “Man or Butterfly” or the two views of “history” in “Dualism: In Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man.”
Conjure largely deals with the Hoodoo religion, Reed’s idiosyncratic combination of ancient Egyptian and contemporary North American elements with the Caribbean religion of vodun, or voodoo, itself a mix of Yoruba and Christian elements. In “The Neo-HooDoo Manifesto,” Reed invokes American musicians, from jazz and blues greats to white rock and rollers, as exemplars of a religious approach based on creativity and bodily pleasure. Hoodoo is polytheistic, excluding only those gods who claim hegemony over the others. Reed’s main disagreement with vodun springs from its acceptance of the “dangerous paranoid pain in the neck . . . cop-god from the git-go, Jeho-vah.” The history of Hoodoo is outlined in Reed’s novel Mumbo-Jumbo (1972). Its view of all time as synchronous informs the setting of Flight to Canada (1976), in which airplanes coexist with plantation slavery, but the fullest expression of Hoodoo’s spirit and aesthetic is given in Conjure.
Chattanooga is named for Reed’s home town, and the title poem is a paean to the area where Reed grew up and its multicultural heritage. “Railroad Bill, a Conjure Man” is a charming account of how the hero of an old-fashioned trickster tale deals with Hollywood. A Secretary to the Spirits is a short book with a few impressive works in it, notably, the first poem, “Pocodonia,” expanding what seems to have been a traditional blues song into something far more complex and strange.
The work since A Secretary to the Spirits appears in the last section of New and Collected Poems, “Points of View.” The quality is mixed, but the outrage and the wit that characterize so much of Reed’s work can be found in this last section, as in “I’m Running for the Office of Love.”
Bibliography
Martin, Reginald. Ishmael Reed and the New Black Aesthetic Critics. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1988.