Thinking about Elegy for James Knox by Jake Adam York
by Alicia Wilson
You are a Part of This Now
The world of poetry is one that is very new to me. Before spring of this year, I had never picked up a book of poetry over a book of fiction, for I love to be transported, to manifest the words in my mind up and off of the page, but I hadn't realized just how well poetry could do the same. Jake Adam York's work sold me on this. The poetry realm is still very new to me, and I feel always will be, but York's work in Murder Ballads exposed me to poetry that moved me in far fewer words than a work of fiction ever has.
One of the things I have learned about poets and their work this past semester is that most, if not all, are true storytellers. My love of books is strong because I am able to clearly follow their stories - every scene is painted in front of you and every detail is described in length. But poetry, especially York's, does the same in fewer words. His poem Elegy for James Knox convinced me very quickly that a poem can tell stories just as well as any book can. In this poem, York tells the gruesome and unfortunate death of James Knox, a black man who was murdered in Alabama in 1924. What most dominantly pulls me in to the poem is how York loosely writes to his subject, James. It isn't a letter to James Knox specifically, but the poem depicts the setting of James's death and what led up to it by consistently using the word "you", referring to Knox, throughout the piece. For example:
"they took you from prison"
"sold your labor, your body"
"as if you had done this to yourself"
"burn you into textbooks"
In these lines, there is a connection between Jake and James. Why write you, instead of him? Why not:
"They took him from prison…sold his labor, his body"
It doesn't work the same way does it? Why you? You speaks more to the harsh reality of the events of James's death while him starts to describe a scene that is imagined instead of real and begins to turn James Knox into "the other." The use of you instead of him makes the poem so much more powerful. And York's choice to do this was not random or accidental. By doing this, he created a very present link between himself and the being of James Knox. Given that the poem is an elegy, this connection makes sense. One of the most dominant effects I noticed about this method is that, as I cannot help myself from reading this poem aloud (and repeatedly), when the work is voiced, the reader is connected directly to the subject. When I read the poem, I am speaking to James Knox, I am mourning his death, I am writing this poem. This method of York's allows his readers to take his place, and in doing so, subtly forces them to express sorrow for the subject, to mourn the death on a somewhat personal level, and to understand it. This method of writing, to paraphrase Natasha Trethewey, "challenges our historical amnesia" by making us involved.
The more I analyze Jake Adam York's work this way, the more I understand why this poem affected me so much in the first place. After first having read the piece, I immediately glued my hands to the nearest available keyboard, desperately trying to find out more about James Knox. He was obviously important, at the very least to Jake Adam York, but I craved the bigger picture. York wrote his poem in such a way that afterwards, I needed answers, and I strongly doubt that my resulting conviction to take this action was unintentionally guided by the poet.
I should mention that York, for some of his poems, in order to provide some sort of context for the reader, includes very brief "biographies" of the subject of the piece. One, short sentence that aims to prepare you a little for what's to come and basically tells you that his images are based on realities, that these things he describes have actually happened. I feel that these little details are crucial to his work. As Simmons Buntin stated in his own review of the book, "Context matters, but good poetry is not bound by it…Murder Ballads is a book where context matters" and Jake is certainly aware of the fact. In this poem specifically, York "told" me to start reading with the knowledge that the described events were not imagined. If he hadn't included this sort of introduction, perhaps I wouldn't have felt so inclined to find out more about the subject. By doing this, the poet makes it clear that the work is meant to hurt. He does not paint a pretty picture, but he does paint it well, and I feel that this should be a highly valued quality among poets – the ability to realize that the picture doesn't always have to be beautiful, but that the language creating it has to be carefully chosen.
This is not a poem you walk away from. A lot of writing in our world is created for the purpose of escapism. We primarily consume content as a means of getting away from our everyday lives, "escaping" something, but Jake's poem puts a hand in two categories that ultimately contradict each other: escapism and realism. And I absolutely treasure this quality when I find it written so well. When you read Elegy for James Knox, you are escaping something; Jake is transporting you to a world and image that is not the one currently surrounding you. But the interesting thing about it is that the content of this elegy immediately grounds you. He uses these two methods in remarkable tandem with each other, taking readers away to a historic event in time, but simultaneously grounding readers in the present. After learning about James Knox, the story, or rather reality or history, is disheartening. But in a time when the people's voices are loud and protest is very present, this country's history has become a great source of motivation. More than ever, we want history not to repeat itself, because when it does, the realities are harsh ones, as Jake has eloquently pointed out to us, or rather, pointed out to you.
The world of poetry is one that is very new to me. Before spring of this year, I had never picked up a book of poetry over a book of fiction, for I love to be transported, to manifest the words in my mind up and off of the page, but I hadn't realized just how well poetry could do the same. Jake Adam York's work sold me on this. The poetry realm is still very new to me, and I feel always will be, but York's work in Murder Ballads exposed me to poetry that moved me in far fewer words than a work of fiction ever has.
One of the things I have learned about poets and their work this past semester is that most, if not all, are true storytellers. My love of books is strong because I am able to clearly follow their stories - every scene is painted in front of you and every detail is described in length. But poetry, especially York's, does the same in fewer words. His poem Elegy for James Knox convinced me very quickly that a poem can tell stories just as well as any book can. In this poem, York tells the gruesome and unfortunate death of James Knox, a black man who was murdered in Alabama in 1924. What most dominantly pulls me in to the poem is how York loosely writes to his subject, James. It isn't a letter to James Knox specifically, but the poem depicts the setting of James's death and what led up to it by consistently using the word "you", referring to Knox, throughout the piece. For example:
"they took you from prison"
"sold your labor, your body"
"as if you had done this to yourself"
"burn you into textbooks"
In these lines, there is a connection between Jake and James. Why write you, instead of him? Why not:
"They took him from prison…sold his labor, his body"
It doesn't work the same way does it? Why you? You speaks more to the harsh reality of the events of James's death while him starts to describe a scene that is imagined instead of real and begins to turn James Knox into "the other." The use of you instead of him makes the poem so much more powerful. And York's choice to do this was not random or accidental. By doing this, he created a very present link between himself and the being of James Knox. Given that the poem is an elegy, this connection makes sense. One of the most dominant effects I noticed about this method is that, as I cannot help myself from reading this poem aloud (and repeatedly), when the work is voiced, the reader is connected directly to the subject. When I read the poem, I am speaking to James Knox, I am mourning his death, I am writing this poem. This method of York's allows his readers to take his place, and in doing so, subtly forces them to express sorrow for the subject, to mourn the death on a somewhat personal level, and to understand it. This method of writing, to paraphrase Natasha Trethewey, "challenges our historical amnesia" by making us involved.
The more I analyze Jake Adam York's work this way, the more I understand why this poem affected me so much in the first place. After first having read the piece, I immediately glued my hands to the nearest available keyboard, desperately trying to find out more about James Knox. He was obviously important, at the very least to Jake Adam York, but I craved the bigger picture. York wrote his poem in such a way that afterwards, I needed answers, and I strongly doubt that my resulting conviction to take this action was unintentionally guided by the poet.
I should mention that York, for some of his poems, in order to provide some sort of context for the reader, includes very brief "biographies" of the subject of the piece. One, short sentence that aims to prepare you a little for what's to come and basically tells you that his images are based on realities, that these things he describes have actually happened. I feel that these little details are crucial to his work. As Simmons Buntin stated in his own review of the book, "Context matters, but good poetry is not bound by it…Murder Ballads is a book where context matters" and Jake is certainly aware of the fact. In this poem specifically, York "told" me to start reading with the knowledge that the described events were not imagined. If he hadn't included this sort of introduction, perhaps I wouldn't have felt so inclined to find out more about the subject. By doing this, the poet makes it clear that the work is meant to hurt. He does not paint a pretty picture, but he does paint it well, and I feel that this should be a highly valued quality among poets – the ability to realize that the picture doesn't always have to be beautiful, but that the language creating it has to be carefully chosen.
This is not a poem you walk away from. A lot of writing in our world is created for the purpose of escapism. We primarily consume content as a means of getting away from our everyday lives, "escaping" something, but Jake's poem puts a hand in two categories that ultimately contradict each other: escapism and realism. And I absolutely treasure this quality when I find it written so well. When you read Elegy for James Knox, you are escaping something; Jake is transporting you to a world and image that is not the one currently surrounding you. But the interesting thing about it is that the content of this elegy immediately grounds you. He uses these two methods in remarkable tandem with each other, taking readers away to a historic event in time, but simultaneously grounding readers in the present. After learning about James Knox, the story, or rather reality or history, is disheartening. But in a time when the people's voices are loud and protest is very present, this country's history has become a great source of motivation. More than ever, we want history not to repeat itself, because when it does, the realities are harsh ones, as Jake has eloquently pointed out to us, or rather, pointed out to you.
References:
- Buntin, Simmons B. "Murder Ballads, Poems by Jake Adam York : Reviewed by Simmons B. Buntin." Terrain.org. Terrrain, n.d. Web. 20 May 2017. <http://www.terrain.org/reviews/18/murder_ballads.htm>.
- Trethewey, Natasha. "Remembering Jake Adam York (1972–2012)." Agpike. Southern Spaces, 01 Jan. 1970. Web. 20 May 2017. <https://southernspaces.org/2012/remembering-jake-adam-york-1972%E2%80%932012>.
- York, Jake Adam. "Elegy for James Knox." Murder Ballads: Poems. Denver, CO: Elixir, 2005. 4-5. Print.
INSCAPE EDITOR'S NOTE
You can read more about Jake Adam York and his life-long project to write elegies to memorialize the heroes on the Civil Rights Memorial here in an article by Jon Tribble, Editor of Crab Orchard Review. Jake Adam York died suddenly of a stroke in 2012 at the age of 40. Although he did not complete his elegies project, he left us all of his poems. Please read them. His last book, Abide, was published posthumously in 2014. Inscriptions for Air is the name of his elegies project. Read more about it here.
You can read more about Jake Adam York and his life-long project to write elegies to memorialize the heroes on the Civil Rights Memorial here in an article by Jon Tribble, Editor of Crab Orchard Review. Jake Adam York died suddenly of a stroke in 2012 at the age of 40. Although he did not complete his elegies project, he left us all of his poems. Please read them. His last book, Abide, was published posthumously in 2014. Inscriptions for Air is the name of his elegies project. Read more about it here.
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Alicia Wilson is a first year PCC student completing her second year of college. She says, "I started out at an art school in Oakland, CA and quickly found my way back to Southern California, where I've basically lived my entire life. At the moment, I am undeclared but while I'm here, my intent is to major in English and pursue my love of writing. I have a lot of freckles, my hair never stays one color for too long, and I absolutely love Converse."
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