Four Days in Algeria: Poems

“For Clarence Major poetry matters. He knows there is still much to see and places to go in the world. His work captures the silent joy of meditation.”

“Removing a mask does not necessarily reveal a face.” 
—Clarence Major 

Sometimes when the basketball player Steph Curry misses a free throw there is an immediate shock from the audience. Whenever Major publishes a book one expects nothing but good results. Think of Major as a basketball point guard, his writing the result of training and craft, his books as surprisingly different as a no-look pass. 

Clarence Major is a novelist, painter as well as poet. At 87, he is one of the elders of African American literature along with such names as Alice Walker, Ishmael Reed, and Sonia Sanchez. Age now and then is a dance partner with creativity. Four Days In Algeria is a “bucket list” of poems. A book of poems that is an outgrowth of travel and exploration. 

Major at times writes like the Buddha focusing and observing the moment. In his poem “Houseboat” he writes: 

“On the river the blue houseboat was a comfort, 

a way to get away from the house and routine, 

away from the city and city noise to listen instead 

to the river lapping and shifting and to birds cheeping 

and see frogs leaping, to sit back on the daybed and read a book 

or work on a poem, to stay most of the day.” 

Notice how the poem reaches out to embrace nature, and how the motion and movement of the poem brings one back to reading and writing. There is recognition here of how things are connected and how important it is to take time to relax and observe. In many of his poems Major enjoys writing about water. 

“It’s reassuring to see the sturdy seagulls  

perched on poles in a row along the pier.”

Throughout Four Days in Algeria, Major takes the reader to hotel rooms and cafes in places like Paris and Venice. He is fortunate to be able to undertake these trips abroad with a partner even while writing for the reader hints at the possibility of a threesome. The poems in this book would have been different without a traveling companion. Major at times writes as if he is pointing a camera or thinking about painting. The references to food are like drawings of still life.  

There are poems in which Clarence Major returns to his childhood. “Winning” is one in which the poet recalls the game of hide and seek and contrasts it with the card playing  taking place between adults. 

“I understood none of the terms, 

but I knew they were playing a game, 

maybe playing it with cards, 

not in a way we kids played cards.” 

Ever since Frederick Douglass, the abolitionist, decided to have his picture taken at different times during his life, one might conclude that the African American invented “the pose.” One thinks of Douglass as well as Harriet Tubman as subjects during the early days of photography. In Four Days in Algeria Major presents us with “Sojourner Truth’s Tiny Eyeglasses.” The poem is similar to a sketch or print of the photo of the famous abolitionist. It’s remarkable how Major interacts with his subject. He describes Truth looking at him while he is looking at her through his own glasses.   

Tucked inside this new collection of poems by Clarence Major is the poem “Grief.” Many writers have written about lynchings. These acts of horror are sadly a part of the history of the Black presence throughout the Americas. After personal global expeditions we find Major returning to American history and collective memory. In “Grief” the poem is written from the perspective of the person who has to claim the lynched body, the taking down from the lynching. One thinks of Jesus being taken from the cross. The poem is composed using the second person. The reader becomes the witness.  

“Your trembling hands wrap the body in a blanket 

you remembered to bring.”

Clarence Major’s name is usually associated with fiction. Experimental novels were once his calling card; however like most labels the adhesive eventually falls off, and we come to realize that we overlooked what the label was covering. A few years ago The University of North Carolina Press published The Essential Clarence Major, a collection of prose and poetry. This book is a good companion to Keith E. Byerman’s The Art and Life of Clarence Major. It is Byerman who correctly describes Major as a Renaissance man. 

For Clarence Major poetry matters. He knows there is still much to see and places to go in the world. His work captures the silent joy of meditation. This book is a literary guide for anyone who loves to travel to the heart and beyond.