Homage to John Coltrane by John Sinclair
for David Sandburg
1
you are sorry you are born with ears
or you are sorry. yr
ears. how they can become
the stuff of such lies.
how a man can stand, & fall. stand. a
coil
around things. a sound
(or a test
of what music
can bear. a
SCREAM
for the time
2
John Coltrane can do this for us :
teach us to stand
up right
in the face of the most devas-
tating insensi-
tivity. can touch us
where the hand or mouth or
eye
can t go. can see. can be
a man. make a love
from centuries of unplumbed music
& a common metal tool
anyone can misuse.
can make you think
of a lot of weird & wonderful things :
yrself.
beauty.
love.
gold & miles
of trees. elvin
jones. murdered
dreams. a-
pocalypse.
turtles.
the moon (& be-
yond.
ornette.
grapefruits.
silver pendulums.
M U S I C
t i m e .
Screaming,
jumping up & down, moaning
for some strange new dignity
before anyone can listen. before
time. before promises,
& lies. before it all collapses
on our heads.
before it’s too late
3
If you ve ever sat in a Coltrane audience,
you ll understand
what I mean.
It could happen
to you, too, a loss
of control, a be-
ginning, a reshaping
of what they ve always told you
to believe, the old forms
& music, that we ve been fooled with,
the songs they taught you,
& lied.
when we begin to understand that
what we ve been told is
how they can put us exactly
where they have to believe
we have to be
4
man,
if you can t hear,
what can you do?
yr born
with ears
Detroit
1965
Quotations in italics from LeRoi Jones liner notes to
Coltrane Live At Birdland (Impulse Records)
Source: John Sinclair, from Song of Praise
Tags: John Coltrane, John Sinclair
