. . . We want poems
like fists beating niggers out of Jocks
or dagger poems in the slimy bellies
of the owner-Jews . . .
. . . We want "poems that kill."
—LeRoi Jones ("Black Art")
For a white man to read LeRoi Jones or almost any other black poet is like being held in a dark room while listening to an angry voice threaten him in a language he is not expected to appreciate or understand. The angry voices belong to poetry guerrilla fighters who talk "Black English" and ignore accepted aesthetics. They neglect...