The Lingua Franca Of Ninth Street

4.6/5 ( ratings)

The Lingua Franca of Ninth Street is an uncommon achievement. What begins in one common language of grit and bought oblivion moves through violence and violated souls from "can't to can." And the movement of one soul, representative of so many, in the hands of gifted poet Randall Horton is filled with music, exquisite pain, horror and a hard won redemption. The Lingua Franca of Ninth Street is a truly important, startling and deftly crafted work. It is so good sometimes it aches and causes us to ache. Each poem is an artistic and social revelation that leads through time to a shining place for Horton and us as readers.

--Angela Jackson

Like Leadbelly’s beautiful ugly Delta blues these poems sing. The dirges and ballads from Ninth Street to the cellblock to their destiny on these pages will cease to be unheard.Horton is a brilliant and wise survivor of the post-modern great migration. His eye and ear and pen are sharper than Rev. Ezell’s suit! This collection is a relief map for a new masculinity. This poet shows us the way.

—Frank X Walker

The poems in The Lingua Franca of Ninth Street are like meditations that fracture us into a burning reflection. This is the mediated life personified through Lyric; the dead coming to radiant life after leaving blood and heart on the street. When I think of that old axiom about the difference between religious and spiritual people , I think of these poems. Randall Horton is a spiritual poet and we’ll all be better for letting him be our guide.

—Willie Perdomo