Allen brings poetry, rhythms to Shaman

It is too easy sometimes to leave the words of a poem lying on the page, and to forget the spoken, rhythmic roots of the form. Detroit poet Ron Allen will visit Shaman Drum tomorrow to remind Ann Arbor that "rhythm is the most sacred principle of the universe."

Allen's book, "I Want My Body Back," is a blend of artistic and human concerns, reflecting his other occupations as a teacher at a homeless shelter and a drug center and as an avant-garde jazz and theater advocate. But poetry is most important, Allen stated in a recent interview, calling it his personal "quest for survival."

PREVIEW
	Ron Allen Tomorrow night at 8 p.m. Shaman Drum Free

"Body" boils over with first-person immediacy, supercharged through his rhythmic focus. Allen brings poetry down to exposure and examination of the physical experience, declaring in his title poem, "I want my body so I can dig my toes in the Earth and walk like a natural man." Avant-garde jazz musician, Faruq Z. Bey attests to Allen's success. "Ron's is the poetry of sensation ... the primordial rhythms of the street/bush native who ogled his own core seeking meaning."

Allen also focuses on unnatural barriers to celebrating identity ranging from racism to television. Lines damning television's "post mortem examination of my guts for consumerism," defy traditional form and swing at the reader with violent syntax.

Allen's work is never far away from his roots in jazz, the music that shapes many of his unusual rhythms. The music is captured in the tribute lines, "the blues rippin little brother's ear into pieces of sour mash in the sweet riff of the night." And like jazz, the discord and experimental sounds of Allen's poetry need work to digest. While not every single note connects, the book is worth the attempt.

Allen dropped out of the ninth grade, and his wayward life was saved at 32 through a "spiritual transformation." This theme of enlightenment also lives in Allen's poetry, with references ranging from Christianity to Egyptian deities. But the harmony of Buddhism is Allen's guide in poetry, as "on being weightless" proves. "you the window the extension of words. from the hara, the center the closed math of air ... i tie you to this thing called words to keep you inside," the poem chants.

This spiritual, inner focus is Allen's chief message, passing on his personal reformation to the reader. He hopes "to break down the abusive and oppressive logic of language" through his work. Allen believes this is one road toward healing the nation's psyche. "Theoretically, when I read at Shaman Drum, there shouldn't be any crime for four blocks around," he stated about his faith in Buddhism's balance of energies.

11-07-97