{"id":100,"date":"2009-01-18T21:06:07","date_gmt":"2009-01-19T01:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/poem.oftheweek.org\/?p=100"},"modified":"2026-10-13T13:30:45","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T17:30:45","slug":"western-front-amiri-baraka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/poem.oftheweek.org\/?p=100","title":{"rendered":"Western Front &#8211; Amiri Baraka"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-100-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/poem.oftheweek.org\/audio\/westerfront.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/poem.oftheweek.org\/audio\/westerfront.mp3\">https:\/\/poem.oftheweek.org\/audio\/westerfront.mp3<\/a><\/audio><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: xx-small;\">read by Amiri Baraka.  audio from <a href=\"http:\/\/writing.upenn.edu\/pennsound\/x\/Baraka.php\" target=\"blank\">PennSound<\/a>.  From a Reading at San Francisco State, University, 4 March 1965.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"display:inline-block; width:35px;\"><\/span>My intentions are colors, I&#8217;m filled with<br \/>\n<span style=\"display:inline-block; width:35px;\"><\/span>color, every tint you think of lends to mine<br \/>\n<span style=\"display:inline-block; width:35px;\"><\/span>my mind is full of color, hard muscle streaks,<br \/>\n<span style=\"display:inline-block; width:35px;\"><\/span>or soft glow round exactness registration.  All earth<br \/>\n<span style=\"display:inline-block; width:35px;\"><\/span>heaven things, hell things, in colors circulate<br \/>\n<span style=\"display:inline-block; width:35px;\"><\/span>a wild blood train, turns litmus like a bible coat,<br \/>\n<span style=\"display:inline-block; width:35px;\"><\/span>describes music falling flying, my criminal darkness,<br \/>\n<span style=\"display:inline-block; width:35px;\"><\/span>static fingers, call it art, high above the streetwalkers<br \/>\nhigh above real meaning, floaters prop themselves in pillows<br \/>\nletting soft blondes lick them into serenity.  Poems are made<br \/>\nby fools like Allen Ginsberg, who loves God, and went to India<br \/>\nonly to see God, finding him walking barefoot in the street,<br \/>\nblood sickness and hysteria, yet only God touched this poet,<br \/>\nwho has no use for the world.  But only God, who is sole dope<br \/>\nmanufacturer of the universe, and is responsible for ease<br \/>\nand logic.  Only God, the baldhead faggot, is clearly responsible,<br \/>\nnot, for definite, no cats we know.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: xx-small;\">text from <em><a href=\"http:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=8b23nGHEgWkC&amp;printsec=titlepage&amp;dq\" target=\"blank\">The LeRoi Jones\/Amiri Baraka Reader<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>read by Amiri Baraka. audio from PennSound. From a Reading at San Francisco State, University, 4 March 1965. My intentions are colors, I&#8217;m filled with color, every tint you think of lends to mine my mind is full of color, hard muscle streaks, or soft glow round exactness registration. All earth heaven things, hell things, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-audio","category-intentions-are-colors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/poem.oftheweek.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/poem.oftheweek.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/poem.oftheweek.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poem.oftheweek.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poem.oftheweek.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=100"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/poem.oftheweek.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":606,"href":"https:\/\/poem.oftheweek.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions\/606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/poem.oftheweek.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poem.oftheweek.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poem.oftheweek.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}