The poetry of Jayne Cortez is based on the principle that there is an inherent music in words. It comes across like free word jazz when she performs her work, though the words are preconceived. The associations she conjures are sometimes cryptic or surreal but always expressive, contributing towards a greater image and meaning through a mesmeric shifting of perceptions and gradual layering of images. A good example is “I am New York City”

Another rendition can be found here, including further performances of her poems (…and a ghastly introduction sequence, especially dangerous for epileptics).

More on Cortez and her poetry in Heroism in the New Black Poetry @googlebooks.