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Laumont Posted 17 years ago
Vocabulary

"nickel hearts" ; "out of Jocks" ; "girdlemamma" -- words in a poem by Amiri Baraka

Hello,

I've been studying Amiri Baraka's poem "Black Art". He wrote this poem during the Black Arts Movement in the 60's, in tune with the black nationalism of the time. I am trying to understand some words and I would be grateful to get some feedback on them:

First of all, I don't know what "wd" is -- "when" ? but what does the letter "d" stand for?

The other words I don't know are: "nickel hearts" ; "out of Jocks" and "girdlemamma":

Thank you for your attention, Laumont.

Black Art (Amiri Baraka)



Poems are bullshit unless they are

teeth or trees or lemons piled

on a step. Or black ladies dying

of men leaving nickel hearts

beating them down. Fuck poems

and they are useful, wd they shoot

come at you, love what you are,

breathe like wrestlers, or shudder

strangely after pissing. We want live

words of the hip world live flesh &

coursing blood. Hearts Brains Souls splintering fire. We want poems

like fists beating niggers out of Jocks

or dagger poems in the slimy bellies

of the owner jews. Black poems to smear on girdlemamma mullato bitches

whose brains are red jelly stuck

between 'lizabeth taylor's toes'. (...)






  

Top answer

(I think)

  • (I think)
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5 Answers
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wd stands for Words.(I think)
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Wd is would. In most black literature that utilizes dialect, you will see it spelled "wud." The spelling "wd" acknowledges the pronunciation of the word as "ud."
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nickel hearts are necklace pendants in the shape of a heart that men would give to women as a token of love

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"nickel" is only 5 cents; its not much worth; so, probably, nickel heart means a "heartless" person or one who has no heart (metaphorically speaking).

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