Ka'ba

          Within this poem it is obvious through the images described and through the phrases and words, that the speaker cares about the lives of African Americans in this country. "The closed window look down.., " " And we labor to make our getaway, into the ancient image, into a new correspondence with ourselves and our black family." The speaker gives way a tone of understanding, sincerity, and protectiveness. 

          It seems as if they are trapped in a cold, dark, place when they really should be in  better and glorious place more deserving to them. America is basically a prison African American were confined to.    

          The final idea or theme in the poem is of freedom. Baraka is certain that Black's want to escape. "We read magic now we need the spells, to rise up, return, destroy, and create." You cannot understand the intention of the speaker from the poem but you can tell how he feels.

“In Memory of Radio”

In the poem “In Memory of Radio”, Baraka in the beginning talks about Lamont Cranston and that he and Jack Kerouac only know of him and the rest of us know of Kate Smith. The speaker says he has no healing powers, no advice get saved or rich, no way to order us to the gas chamber, etc. He continuously talk of love vs. evil.

I looked up the people mentioned in the poem to understand their significance.The central image in the poem is a superhero from comic books and radio shows called The Shadow. Under the cloak of invisibility, The Shadow hunts down and roots out evil in the world. The words he uttered after he transformed himself from Lamont Cranston, a millionaire playboy, to The Shadow have become a part of popular culture: "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows." The poem states that the root of evil is love; a very contradictory idea.

There is an interesting phrase mentioned after the third stanza, “and love is an evil word. Turn it backwards see/see what I mean?” This is an obvious contrast and opposition evident in this poem. I find it interesting though that there is no mention of a radio in the poem itself, however, the parentheses and added dialog and humor which created the effect of one.

“Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note”

In the poem “Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note” themes of suicide, depression, and satisfaction/dissatisfaction are present making it quite fitting that Amiri Baraka wrote this poem right before he turns into a black nationalist. Amiri Baraka was initially part of the Beat generation which were “a group of American post-World War II writers who came to prominence in the 1950s, as well as the cultural phenomena that they both documented and inspired. Central elements of "Beat" culture included rejection of received standards, innovations in style, experimentation with drugs, alternative sexualities, an interest in Eastern religion, a rejection of materialism, and explicit portrayals of the human condition.” Many of the Beat writers of the time were considered iconoclasts. After the assassination of Malcolm X, however, Baraka changes route and turns his back on the white world entering into racism and violence.

The poem is about the narrator who is definitely a parent. The parent is depressed and sullen by stating “Lately, I've become accustomed to the way /The ground opens up and envelopes me” By using the word accustomed the narrator is saying that he/she used to and bored with his or her life. “And now, each night I count the stars./And each night I get the same number./And when they will not come to be counted,/I count the holes they leave.” The holes mentioned are a metaphor for the holes or emptiness within the person’s life. After the depressed state expressed in the first two stanzas, a shift in tone takes place in the third stanza. Now there is hope. The child is praying and probably praying that his or her parent is going to be okay.

This has to do with Baraka’s life because he was probably not happy initially his hope was found in black nationalism. Even though many may argue that that would not be an ideal form of hope, Baraka also finds a second hope when he changes his ways and becomes a Marxist and supporter third-world liberation movements.