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“Touch…Poems & Other Writings of Love, Erotica & Sensuality” by Jair, the Literary Masturbator is a friendly reminder that living and loving is possible. Jair touches us in many ways weaving familiar sounds and sharing intimate stories (real or imagined) to help unify his theme. These poems touch you physically, spiritually and mentally. One of my favorite poems is “When I Look into His Eyes…”
Much like Etheridge Knight’s “Ilu, the Talking Drum”, Jair’s “When I Look into His Eyes…” is filled with sound devices, specifically alliteration and repetition, which help fuse the poem. For example, the speaker states he drowns in “sweet soulful syncopation” (5). A few lines further the speaker describes the sound from a flute as “feather falling freely” (12). In addition, we hear a rhythmic repetitive rumbling of a drum beating with the repetition of the words “Africa” and “drum”. The sounds of life (drumming and heart beating) in and under the poem summon us because they are familiar. Similarly, the refrain used “When I look into his eyes” is a tool that brings us full circle from Africa to America and back again.
Music is consistent throughout his poems and fittingly, Jair injects music into this poem to help tell his tale. Written with a fluid rhythm, the poem is like a song. My favorite line is “A voice calls out, rising above the mixture of sight and sound to create/ joy unbound…in this island found, in the oasis of your soul” (14-15). Their lovemaking is boundless, vulnerable and free.
My jaded ideas of serial monogamy and Knight’s imprisonment in many ways are isolating, however, the process of writing for Knight, Jair and me is a liberating experience. Jair’s book moved me. I was touched and reminded living and loving is possible.-Review by Dauwd Najimi II
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