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‘Nothing to Fear From the Poet but the Truth’

 

THREE  POEMS

Ted Jonas

[1928-2003, American poet of Beat Generation]

I poem my life to poetry . . .

 

ALL

Dear poem . . .
I write you
because you
are the
truth
and
nothing but
the truth
dear poem
pure poem
our poem.

 

THE TRUTH


If you should see 
a man 
walking down a crowded street 
talking aloud 
to himself 
don’t run 
in the opposite direction 
but run toward him 
for he is a POET! 

You have NOTHING to fear 
from the poet 
but the TRUTH

 

JAZZ ANATOMY

my head is a trumpet

my heart is a drum

both arms are pianos

both legs are bass viols

my stomach the trombone

both lungs are flutes

both ears are clarinets

my penis is a violin

my chest is a guitar

vibes are my ribs

cymbals are my eyes

my mouth is the score

and my soul is where the music lies

 

Ted Joans (1928–2003), a Black American poet, remains an enigma, often associated with the Beat Generation in the late fifties or the Black Arts Movement in the sixties. He refused to separate the poem on the page from the poem that was his life. “Jazz is my religion, and Surrealism is my point of view,” he proclaimed.

Beyond poetry, Joans was a multimodal, interdisciplinary artist, just as at home playing his jazz trumpet as he was creating Surrealist oil paintings, kinetic “jazz action” paintings, drawings, collages, “poem-objects,” novels, and short films.

In 1960, Joans left the US for the first time travelling through five different European countries in search of Surrealism. He moved between Tangier, Paris, Timbuktu, and other locations in Africa where he often explored the continent on foot.

 “This is a self-imposed exile,” he said, “I’m disgusted and unhappy with America because of racial discrimination and the general attitude toward artists in this country . . . I plan to stay away until America has its moral revolution. I’m splitting and letting America perish in its own vicious puke.”

With occasional support from wealthy patrons and, more often, a hand-to-mouth existence based on selling artwork and poems, Joans wrote prolifically, though much of this work remains unpublished. Black Surrealist: The Legend of Ted Joans (Bloomsbury, 2025) is his new biography written by Steven Belletto.

For more visit poetryfoundation.org

Courtsey: POETRY, Sep., 2026  

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