Poetry rocks

This fall former indie rocker Hadji Bakara joins the U of C's Department of English Language and Literature as a PhD student.

Photo-1.jpgIf there was any debate over whether or not indie-rock band Wolf Parade's lyrics were good poetry, Hadji Bakara has totally killed it:

Bakara = was in Wolf Parade; Bakara = English PhD student; English PhD student = appreciates good poetry; and ∴ Wolf Parade lyrics = good poetry.

My logic is flawless.

Bakara, the band's former keyboardist, didn't write the lyrics on Wolf Parade's 2005 and 2008 albums, but, if you look at some of them, it's pretty obvious he craved intellectual stimulation. I've taken the liberty of reworking some Wolf Parade lyrics into a poem that truly* expresses how Bakara must have felt.


It's in this language that I've found

In my head there's a city at night

So I got a plan

Gotta keep thinking, things, hunters and kings

And I don't sleep, I don't sleep, I don't sleep 'til it's light

And I'm content, I'm content, I'm content to be quiet

Some will sink, some will get called to the light

I spend boring hours in the office tower

I ain't quite the beauty

I might be here all the time

And I share no body, no mind

Oh follow me

Allow me to play the voyager

And I could give you my apologies

By handing over my neologies

Lalalalalala

But the fields are beyond belief

From tower out to where I can see

The band has just released its third album, Expo 86, minus Bakara.

*Truly = Probably

Photo-2.jpg

Ruthie Kott, AM'07

Rocker Hadji Bakara, student-to-be. Photography by Joey Silberhorn.

July 28, 2010