Dally Kimoko is a legendary Congolese guitarist who has played in Orchestre Kamale, Sam Mangwana’s African All Stars, Soukous Stars, and as a session guitarist. In William Fuller’s Hallucination, one finds a prose poem called “For Dally Kimoko”:
Who forgets to perfect enjoyment flakes apart from the force of a will to fail. After which, claims encumber thought. They cause the phone to be handed to her, into which she speaks, then hands it to me, and I speak, then a voice speaks, then several voices speak, and a shadow breaks apart. To be valid, this episode must be imputed to those who are absent. Then all prior states must vanish before the next phase can begin. But why be anxious? Why care about what else could be possible when the true goal involves having all our senses register every aspect of physical existence constantly and unremittingly? Such an attainment would fill up our hearts without resorting to paradox. Any estimated shortfall would still leave adequate amounts set aside to satisfy our need not to fluctuate. Even a dog knows this. A happy, inquisitive, spontaneous dog, eating hungrily. When in the future a kind of perpetual hum is heard, which grows louder as temperatures rise, strong hands will take command and clear light will darken us. At night a heavy body will be thrown against the floor and a tambourine will vibrate.
On Mr. Kimoko’s Facebook page, he calls the poem “Un vibrant hommage au célèbre guitariste congolais!”
Flood Editions ISBN 978-0-9838893-0-4 $15.95
