The poem Ah Billie by Diana Hernandez-Correa does a beautiful job of portraying the late Billie Holiday's career and lasting musical impact. Much more than a simple biographical account, the poem employs its own lyrical and rhythmic elements that allow the poem to parallel the highly emotionally moving effect that Holiday was renowned for having on stage. So much is packed into just a few lines of the poem,

She was Empress
under the lights
as she'd begin to cause the steam
to rise
from bellies' core
in dip and turn
injecting
sound thru waves-the mere sounds of her
first notes could be enough
to shake your soul out of its mundane lane
delivering you to a place of fantasy
where she reigned- Queen

It is no accident that each of these lines forces the reader to progress through the poem at a slow, rhythmic pace. Its as if Holiday and the poet are simultaneously seducing you into a beautiful and inescapable trance. Vivid imagery is used to convey Holiday's impact on her listeners. The poet writes that Holiday is the Queen of "a place where gardenias grew wild in black velvet underground/ midnight blue and red blood hills as lime green rivers glowed/ in/ hollow caves that freely flowed from darkness into/light/ sending electric chili chills of buzz/ thru runaways". What imagery! One can't help but imagine the electric, tantalizing effect that Holiday must have bestowed; for if a poem that is merely hoping to capture her essence can be so powerful, then she must have been nothing short of a goddess. The referentials that the poet includes further add to the biographical insight of the poem. The word/line "injecting" is repeated multiple times in this poem, each time in a non-literal sense. This metaphorical usage of injecting alludes the Holiday's muddied past of drug abuse and self-medication. The poet dedicates an entire stanza to this sad reality, emphasizing Holiday's reliance on drugs and alcohol to remedy her reality. Hernandez-Correa writes,

she'd nurse away the nonsense of life's
(unreliability of love)
in the dark with last song sung
she'd cradle her inner bruises
close her eyes tight long
enough to will herself away
having tucked the pain
deep down inside herself past
that medicated voice

Without prior knowledge of Holiday's past, the reader could still pick up a general sense of her troubles. The line "she'd cradle her inner bruises" refers to the emotional, outwardly-invisible scars that the musician endured. From physical abuse in her relationships to a troubled childhood, Holiday experienced many of the dark sides of humanity. With singing and addiction as her main emotional outlets, it is no wonder that both endeavors were severely powerful.

Interestingly, I get a strong sense of identification between the poet and Holiday. Small inserts such as "(unreliability of love)" and the last stanza (which metaphorically relates listening to Holiday's music and hard drug usage), allude to the poet's own troubled history and perhaps the basis for her strong appreciation for Holiday's work.

With the inclusion of lines from some of Holiday's best known songs ("When you hear a song in bloom/ like a flower crying for the dew/ that was my heart serenading you.../ a prelude to a kiss" and "Hush now, don't explain") also add to the lyrical aspect of the poem. There is just so much to this poem, form its musical impact to its emotional content, and it does a superb job of capturing the essence of the beloved Billie Holiday.


- e. gutilla