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REVIEW & COMMENTARY
(Editor's
Note: Ray Patterson was a well-known figure on the Long Island
poetry landscape, an accomplished and dignified voice for
poetry who served for many years on the board of directors
of the Walt Whitman Birthplace, and a mentor to many individual
writers regionally through his death. Less well known locally
was Ray's profound impact on wider arenas of writing and academic
communities. A funeral service held for Ray, held Thursday,
Apr 12, at the Benta Funeral Home, 141st St, NYC, revealed
a little of that. The funeral home was packed with friends
and colleagues of Ray's from as far and wide as CCNY, and
institutions in the Midwestern US. Ray Patterson (Dec 14,
1929-Apr 5, 2001) was a poet, writer and professor of English
at CCNY ("Ray WAS the Langston Hughes Festival,"
declared one man in eulogizing Patterson at the funeral),
born in Harlem NY and a graduate of the NY Public School System.
He received his BA in Political Science from Lincoln University
in Pennsylvania, where he was class poet, and won the Boretone
Mountain Poetry Award for best poem written by an undergraduate.
He received his MA in English from NYU. A prolific poet whose
work was widely anthologized, Patterson was author of 26 Ways
of Looking at a Black Man and Other Poems (Award Books, 1969),
and Elemental Blues (Cross Cultural Communications, 1983).
He also wrote an unpublished book length poem on the life
of Phillis Wheatley; and two opera librettos. He read his
works widely, from local venues to the Library of Congress
in Washington DC and at the 60th Birthday Celebration of Chinua
Achebe at the University of Nigeria. He collaborated with
his wife in the creation of Black Poets Reading, a non-profit
speakers' bureau; represented the US at the Struga Festival
in Macedonia. He was an Umbra Poet, served on the executive
boards of the Poetry Society of America, the PEN American
Center, and the Walt Whitman Birthplace.)
"Serious"
is the word I associate with Raymond R. Patterson, who died
April 5. I teach my workshop writers how he uses this work-a-day
adjective in a way that illuminates his whole poem, "Long
Island," a short, comic tribute to our Paumanok home.
He tells about a confused convention delegate who arrives
on Montauk Point surrounded by water that he could have described
as "vast," an expected adjective, or "endless,"
an absolute cliche. But attentive to the precise and differently
nuanced use of words, characteristic of modern American poets,
Raymond wrote "our little lighthouse and all that serious
water." Because of that adjective, "serious,"
he had a poem that whips up a friendly summer storm of fun.
Long
Island
1
The people here are all pioneers
who went east. Weekdays
the sons go west, returning each night
with unconvinced faces. Some days
they think this place is Eldorado.
ll
A conventioneer from Peoria
looking for Times Square
once went too far
and ended up in Babylon.
"Not so bad as I thought," he allowed,
"--but where's the Empire State Building?"
So
we showed him Montauk Point
our little lighthouse and all that serious
water.
What could he say?
It's hard not to admire a place
that would stick its neck out
into an ocean like that.
Look
for Raymond's attentive language in his books: "26 Ways
of Looking at a Black Man" (Award Books, New York, N.
Y. 1969) and "Elemental Blues" (Cross-Cultural Communications,
Merrick, N. Y. 1983/1989). I have successfully used Raymond's
blues poems in junior high school classes, these poems being
a musical kind of poetic outlet for the teenagers' often seething
emotions.
As
Raymond says in "A note on the Blues" in the book,
"The language of the blues is, by tradition, the language
of the folk. It is direct, concrete, vivid, terse, 'unlettered,'
rich in figures of speech, imagery, allusion, symbolism, irony,
and double meaning. It addresses the difficult problems of
everyday life as well as the problems of the human condition."
Jelly
Jam Blues
Mama,
I want some jelly. Mama,
I want some jelly for my bread.
Jelly, mama,
I want some jelly for my bread.
If you ain't got no more jelly,
'I'll take a little jam instead.
I
know just how to jam, mama,
When all the jelly's gone.
I say I know how to jam
When all the jelly's gone.
If there's no more jelly,
Mama, we can jam right on.
Jelly
Blues
Will make the hard times taste so sweet.
Oh yes, the jelly blues
Will make the hard times taste so sweet.
A little jam, mama, will make the miseries
Good enough to eat.
Raymond's
affection for the language emulates that of the poet whom
he revered, Walt Whitman. For many years he served as a member
of the Board of Trustees of the Walt Whitman Birthplace Association,
this during the decision throes for the Interpretive Center.
With the Center, Raymond had a vision of the Birthplace being
a hub of poetic activity, often with nationally known poets
participating.
As
a member of the Poetry and Education Committee, he offered
many suggestions: A "Long Island Poetry Series"
to support and showcase local poets and poetry organizations."
A "Long Island Poetry Teacher of the Year Award"
with honorable mention given to others. He suggested that
the contest be modeled on the New York City Board of Education
Poetry Teacher of the Year Award.
A
"Monthly Conversation With a Poet," with the guest
artist reading and discussing her/his work or addressing some
"aspect of poetry that is of special interest."
A book signing would follow. An annual "David Ignatow
Lecture and Reading" memorializing the eminent poet whom
Raymond admired and with whom he worked as a trustee and as
a member of the committee. The program would involve a lecture
about David's work or about an aspect of poetry and would
conclude with a reading of the East End poet's work.
An
eight-session workshop of two hours each once a year. In addition
to this learning opportunity, he advocated eight "Master
Classes" a year like that offered by the Poet-in-Residence
at the Whitman Birthday celebration. "Such a program,"
Raymond said, "would give our audience more opportunity
for contact with prominent poets."
He called for performance poetry, an evening of poetry and
music. He suggested holding a Poetry Slam conducted by a well-known
poet.
These
ideas came from his experience organizing and promoting the
annual Langston Hughes Festival at City College where Raymond
was professor (eventually emeritus) of English. The Festival,
which Raymond directed from 1973 to 1993, honors writers and
dramatists of the African diaspora who follow the tradition
of Langston Hughes. Raymond was influenced by Hughes. Like
Raymond, Hughes was a Whitman devotee and wrote a poem, "Old
Walt." Raymond said that "Many see his poem to Whitman,
'Old Walt,' as a striking self-portrait." He said this
in remarks, April 2, 1997, at the dedication of the Langston
Hughes plaque in the Poet's Corner of the Cathedral of St.
John the Divine in New York City. The remarks were printed
in the Winter, 1997, issue of "Starting from Paumanok,"
newsletter of the Walt Whitman Birthplace Association.
"Old
Walt" reveals Hughes' affection and originality with
the language as seen in its playfulness, such as that displayed
in Raymond's "Long Island" and other poems.
Old
Walt
Old
Walt Whitman
Went finding and seeking,
Finding less than he sought
Seeking more than found,
Every detail minding
Of the seeking or the finding.
Pleasured
equally
In seeking as in finding,
Each detail minding,
Old Walt went seeking
And finding.
Add
to Langston Hughes and David Ignatow, another favorite of
Raymond's, the late William Stafford. Raymond and his late
wife, Boydie, were hosts to Stafford in their Merrick home
when the well-known Northwestern poet spent a weekend as Poet-in-Residence
at the Birthplace. People were intrigued by the resemblance
in gracious manners of the two men - a 19th century gentlemaness
about them. Also, like Raymond, Stafford could make a single
word charge a poem with meaning and effect. That is evident
in his great environmental poem, "Discovery" about
plowing a field with nesting larks. Instead of ending the
poem with a line about destroying a nests of eggs, Stafford
concludes with "men had walked,/ on many a nest of song."
Magnificent use of a single word - "song" with Stafford,
"serious" with Raymond.
The
poets mentioned in this remembrance of Raymond were, with
him, wordsmiths of a distinctive powerful vintage. I think
of them walking together in American poetry: Walt Whitman,
Langston Hughes, David Ignatow, William Stafford, Raymond
R. Patterson.
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