African American Poetry from the Black Arts Movement to the Present

EDITED BY JOANNE V. GABBIN

University of Virginia Press Charlottesville and London CONTENTS

Preface xv Introduction xvii

Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000) The Second Sermon on the Warpland 3 Winnie 4 A Bronzeville Mother Loiters in Mississippi. Meanwhile, a Mississippi Mother Burns Bacon. We Real Cool 9 The Near-Johannesburg Boy 10 Uncle Seagram 77

Samuel Allen (b. 1917) The Apple Trees in Sussex 14 A Moment, Please 15 The Lingering Doubt 16 To Satch 77

Adam David Miller (b. 1922) My Trip 19 Forever Afternoon 22 Song of the Wheel 23 Pinkie Gordon Lane (b. 1923) Girl at the Window 25 Lyric: I Am Looking at Music 25 Children 26

Naomi Long Madgett fa. 1923) Reluctant Light 29 The Last Happy Day 30 Packrat 33

Dolores Kendrick (b. 1927) For Gwendolyn Brooks: As I Civilize a Space 35 Where the Grieved Ones Sat 36 The Drowned River 38

Raymond R. Patterson (1929-2001) Harlem Suite 41 Forerunner 43 Baobab 44

Alvin Aubert (b. 1930) Nat Turner in the Clearing 46 James Baldwin, 1924-1987 46 December 1982/Detroit 47

AmiriBaraka{b. 1934) I Am 50 In the Funk World 55 John Coltrane (1926-1967) 55

Sonia Sanchez (b. 1934) Ballad 59 Letter to Ezekiel Mphahlele 59

viii Contents Under a Soprano Sky 61 For Sweet Honey in the Rock 62 Philadelphia: Spring, 1985 64 For Sister Gwen Brooks 65

Lucille Clifton (b. 1936) dialysis 68 donor 68 1994 69

Jayne Cortez{b. 1936) There It Is 72 The Guitars I Used to Know 73 The Heavy Headed Dance 76

Eugene B. Redmond(b. 1937) New York Seizures 79 11-haiku-poem for a magnificent million 81

Michael S. Harper (b. 1938) Dear John, Dear Coltrane 84 Last Affair: Bessie's Blues Song 85 High Modes: Vision as Ritual: Confirmation 86

AskiaM. Toure{b. 1938) Summer Worlds: A Mythic Landscape 89 Ab original Elegy: The Once and Future Queen 91 O Lord of Light! A Mystic Sage Returns to Realms of Eternity 93

Sterling D. Plumpp (b. 1940) Be-Bop 98 History, Hollers, and Horn 98

Contents ix Ornate with Smoke 700 from Mary 106

Toi Derricotte (b. 1941) The Minks 777 After a Reading at a Black College 772 For Black Women Who Are Afraid 712

Everett Hoagland (b. 1942) From Ground Zero 775 How Could All That Have Happened Here ? 777 Time Break 720

HakiR.Madhubuti{b. 1942) Books as Answer 126 The B Network 727 Mothers 725

Bernice Johnson Reagon (b. 1942) Greed 132 They Are All Falling around Me 136

Nikki Giovanni (b. 1943) The Wrong Kitchen 139 Legacies 139 Nikki-Rosa 140

Jerry W. Wardjr. (b. 1943) I Have Felt the Gulf: Mississippi 143 Journey 55 143 After the Report from Iron Mountain 144

Lorenzo Thomas (b. 1944) Dangerous Doubts 148

x Contents L'Argent 745 Back in the Day 149

YusefKomunyakaa (b. 1947) Songs for My Father 752

Kalamu ya Salaam (b. 1947) Sharing is hereditary 755 The Call of the Wild 755 Directions for Understanding Modern Jazz Criticism 762

Dorothy Marie Rice (b. 1948) Taproots 164 Ambrosia 164 Remains 165

LamontB. Steptoe{b. 1949) Spookism 167 Contraband 767 Coming Ashore 765

Quo Vadis Gex-Breaux (b. 1950) Jazz Rain 770 Padded Steps/Sister Song (a litany) 777 Wisdom Is 174 Memory Waves 775

E.Ethelbert Miller (b. 1950) Roy Campanella: January, 1958 775 Bringing Back the Draft 775 Whispers, Secrets, and Promises 775

Contents xi Mona Lisa Saloy (b. 1950) The "N" Word 750 This Poem Is for You, My Sister 753 We've Come This Far 756

Afaa Michael Weaver (b. 1951) Thelonius 755 The Poets 750

Rita Dove (b. 1952) Freedom Ride 193 Claudette Colvin Goes to Work 193 Rosa 755 The Enactment 755

Opal Moore (b. 1953) Eulogy for Sister 755 The Taste of Life Going On 755

Cornelius Eady (b. 1954) How I Got Born 207 Composite 207 Birthing 202

Carole B. Weatherford (b. 1956) The Tan Chanteuse 207 From Birmingham to Bristol in a Boxcar 207 Queen Ijo's Blues 208

LenardD. Moore (b. 1958) Airport 277 Black Girl Tap Dancing 2 7 7

xii Contents Sharan Strange (b. 1959) Offering 214 Night Work 214 Hunger 276

Adisa Vera Beatty (b. 1960) Distance 275 Memorization 275 Geography 220

Elizabeth Alexander (b. 1962) The Josephine Baker Museum 222 At the Beach 224 Passage 225

JabariAsim{b. 1962) 1st Lt. VernonJ. Baker: Hero on the Hill (Company C, 370th Infantry Regiment, 92nd Division) 228 Let's Just Tell It 230 Baby's Breath 234

Joel Dias-Porter [D] Renegade) (b. 1962) Fireflies in ajar 237 Thursday Poem 239 Subterranean Night-Colored Magus 240

Thomas Sayers Ellis (b. 1963) Sir Nose D'VoidofFunk 244 View of the Library of Congress from Paul Laurence Dunbar High School 246

John Keene (b. 1965) After C (3): Tayloriana 249 The Haymarket 249

Contents xiii Natasha Trethewey (b. 1966) Limen 252 Bellocq's Ophelia 252 Drapery Factory, Gulfport, Mississippi, 1956 253

Major Jackson (b. 1968) Indian Song 256 Block Party 256 To Afaa Michael S. Weaver 257 Some Kind of Crazy 257

Kevin Young (b. 1970) Quivira City Limits 260 Everywhere Is out of Town 261 East Jesus 262

Poetic Retrospective: A Blooming in the Valley Garrett McDowell 263

Notes on the Poets 267

Acknowledgments 283

xiv Contents