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Kool B

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A Poem for April . . . What of Broken Places?

What of a broken place, 

ceaseless actions of muted despair, 

. . . soundless in a crack’s somber crevice, 

shattered starless like windows struck by light 

reflecting from a murky mirror’s throw of shine 

floating on summer’s torrid air? 

What of a broken place, 

where shreds of slinky pages go missing, 

desperate for nails and hammer, 

abandon under gaze . . . brushed off! 

What tried companion shall it know? 

Will it listen to the doubtless future . . . twice plastic, 

fragile like off-colored pandemonium, 

 salty secondhand poems, 

and paucity swatting at dinner flies made of razors 

Does it regain balance, 

maneuver uneven without limits 

slanted between the offbeat lines 

What of a broken place, 

intoxicated by blight, 

bragging of neglect 

How hard could that be? 

                              Alvin Le Blanc, III Copyright2020 Wordville Poetry: Kool B

04/28/2020

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For Alvin LeBlanc, a.k.a. Kool B, a veteran of poetry slams going back to 1990, the South is nothing less than “a literary haven,” with Houston in particular “primed” for poetry. “People in the South talk,” says the 54-year-old LeBlanc, who grew up in Lafayette, La., and came to Houston to study sociology at Texas Southern State University. “They see you down the street, and they want to say something. Southern people are also used to listening to orators, preachers. From all of that, poetry has an ear.” 

LeBlanc, an instructor at the Adult Reading Center, brings his poetry to the people as producer of the online show Wordville and a member of the DJ collective Rebel Crew. In performance, LeBlanc recites his poetry in a way that is fluid, yet sounds unrehearsed, as if the words were being pulled out of thin air. In a performance at the Jazz Church of Houston, with his visor wrapped around his long, braided hair, the bespectacled LeBlanc moves gracefully as he speaks, illustrating each line with slow, simple gestures, like a Tai Chi master talking jazz: A village of windblown desperados in pursuit of a gold train loaded down with precious metals, pressed into bullions that grow like sunset, Texas to California dreamin’… It was the sound of black thunder and gallop that made the canyons quake. Let’s make no mistake about it: There’s no honor among thieves and siege is how the west was won. 

Though poetry has always been a tool for political protest, LeBlanc believes the art often reveals more commonalities than differences. “It brings the races together,” says LeBlanc. “Coming from rural Louisiana, where you would get chased home if you didn’t stay on your side of the city, poetry has shown me that people can work together, that people do have the same heartbreaks and the same anger. Poetry is where you can hear the humanness in people.”

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