Ohm and Beat Boxing

While we did cover many things in class on Friday, there are quite a few aspects of the poem Ohm that I still would like to delve into. We touched on the parallels between "ohm" and beat boxing some in class, but I think that there is still more to say about it. I mentioned how it seems to me that Saul Williams was drawing a connection between "ohm", the essential sound of the universe, and beat boxing, or just rhythm in general. I think that there are a multitude of lines in the poem to back up my interpretation of this. For example, the first lines in the poem are "through meditation I program my heart/to beat break beats and hum bass lines on exhalation/ [beat boxing] ohm." Programming your heart to beat break beats is likening the beating of your heart, the most essential rhythm of your life, to other rhythms which are found in music. Humming bass lines on exhalation is a reference to "ohm", which is supposedly the sound of exhaled breath. Comparing thins to a bass line is, again, a reference Saul Williams opinion that rhythms in music are, like "ohm", the most essential sounds of life. Beat boxes and "ohm" are both repeated quite often throughout the poem. This is because they are repeated so often in our lives, and in life itself. Just as Williams was comparing musical beats to the beating of our hearts, something that is always there, and that keeps us alive, and signifies life, this repetition signifies the infinite quality of both the "ohm" sound, and that of beat boxing. At points, it even seems like he is incorporating the word "ohm" into the beat boxes. At another point in the poem, Williams claims that "the universe remains our center, like ohm [beat boxing] ohm." He is saying that both the sound "ohm", and the rhythms of beat boxing are our centers, and are at the center of the universe. The last lines of the poem further back up the supposition that beat boxing is, like "ohm", the essential sound of the universe. At the end of the poem, Williams says "and out of darkness comes a [beat box] ohm." This can be interpreted to mean that, when there is nothing (darkness signifying nothingness), there is still these primal and everlasting sounds of beat boxing and "ohm". This would mean that beat boxing imbues everything, including nothingness, and is therefore the bass line of the universe. Another thought that I had about this line, which does not as much support my thesis, is that the darkness could be representative of Williams skin color rather than nothingness. If this is the case, then it would be saying that beat boxing is more essential to black people, as opposed to everything. I think that perhaps Williams means both of these things, paradoxically, at the same time.