I was in Colombia while reading Muse & Drudge by Harryette Mullen. I went there for the RBD concert, and to spend a long weekend with my longest friend, my cousin Santiago. The combination of physically being in Colombia and the book's impact on me really got me thinking about the direction I want to take in my own work.
Until now I haven’t been super political with my work. So many topics feel like they’re not my place to speak on, while the ones that are I tend to mask behind prosody, and a young voice that obsesses over being metropolitan. Yet the idea of Court Jester poetics is so intriguing to me, and I did write a poem after finishing the book, albeit in Spanish:
Me arde la espalda Marica
De ver tanta gente en bola
Comiéndose
Aquí las cosas cuestan tan poco
Que me abro de patas al ver
Lo tanto que me piden
Que les diga Hello
Hello…
Contigo hay manera de saber doler
Colombia. Hay veces que no tenemos
Que hablar Colombia
Solo decirnos que más que hubo
Cuanto tiempo corazón
Si nos habláramos más a menudo
Tendríamos menos por que parcharnos
De manera tan linda…
Sos tan linda
Que me brilla el cuello cuando llego
A tus poquitas
A tus ganosas
A tus nubes chimbas
Llenas de incendios y chivas
Al final veremos cuanta plata te toca
Ya que de que sirve tomarse un guaro
En el Peñol si tu vieras
Cuantos pendejos quieren
Comerse tus buñuelos
11/2/2023 (Jala Jala Poem)
I was trying to memorize this poem while I was there and my cousin had to bear the brunt of listening to me repeating it, but he actually told me he thought it was hilarious. He is not really an artist at all, and doesn’t know much of my poetry because he can’t speak English, so through this poem he was learning my style. Through the conversation we had about it, his conclusion was that: “I see, you want to be funny, but political, but not actually ironic with your poetry.” Which I let him believe, but I actually would have never described my poetry like that. I would describe Mullen’s poetry that way however. In the poem above I used so much Colombian vernacular that it carried the “humor” of the piece, yet the topic is of the push-pull of immigration, and it is very direct, with zero irony. There’s a kind of street artist in Colombia called Cuenteros, which translates to storytellers, who are essentially guerilla style stand-up comedians, who stand on streets or in small stages in parks to tell humorous stories for money. Growing up, there was even a TV show a la Saturday Night Live that had competitions for these Cuenteros. My cousin compared my poetry (this poem) to their style.
Because their goal is to make money, their stories are seldom outwardly political. Yet their style is very much Court Jester, making fun of themselves, MCs and people in the audience. A lot of the times they wear extravagant costumes as well:
Colombian culture is so heavily language-based, which is part of the reason why I believe I am drawn to poetry so much. I grew up in a culture where attention spans are a little longer if you know how to speak well. There are thousands of metaphors in everyday conversation, people appreciate big dictionary words, I’ve even noticed that tik tok influencers from Colombia trend towards making long skits and monologues that are heavy with language, as opposed to American content which peaks fast and ends fast.
Thinking back to Mullen’s use of vernacular speech to create dynamism, sometimes humorous but mostly staunchly political, I see a way to link the youthful voice I have with a cultural marker that can produce more political commentary in my work. The alignment of the readings, the poem, and the conversation with my cousin was very enlightening, as I tend to get lost in the insecurity of “can I speak on that?” or “what does that way of speaking/ writing have to do with who I am?” Yet here is a part of what I grew up with that I can feel comfortable claiming, the voice of a Colombian Jester. Now I just have to find that voice in English… If I can write the Colombian Jester version of Muse & Drudge, or at least just the following few lines, I’ll be a happy:
Devils dancing on a dime
Cut a rug in ragtime
Jitterbug squat diddley bow
Stark strangled banjo
11/8/2023 6:40pm