SCARS AMERICAN POETRY IN THE FACE OF VIOLENCE
EDITED BY CYNTHIA DUBIN EDELBERG
THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA PRESS TUSCALOOSA AND LONDON CONTENTS
PREFACE xiii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xiv
I. DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ALBERT GOLDBARTH Of Ontology 2
HARVEY SHAPIRO How Many Times 3
JANICE MIRIKITANI Autumn Comes 4
BRUCE WEIGL For the Wife Beater's Wife .. 5
JANICE MIRIKITANI Healthy Choices 6
RACHEL BLAU DUPLESSIS Medusa 8
JANICE MIRIKITANI Without Tongue 13
AMYCLAMPITT Meridian 14
ROBERT WRIGLEY The Creche 15
MAXINE KUMIN Leisure 16 Self-fulfilling Prophecy 16
ALICIA OSTRIKER The Boys, The Broomhandle, The Retarded Girl 17
SHARON OLDS Leaving the Island 18 VII
GERALD STERN The Bull Roarer 19
MARK RUDMAN from Bottles 22
RITA DOVE Taking in Wash 24
ALICIA OSTRIKER The Leaf Pile 25
TOI DERRICOTTE Poem for My Father 27
DIANE WAKOSKI Wind Secrets 29
TOI DERRICOTTE My Father Still Sleeping After Surgery 30
PAMALA KAROL [LA LOCA] Crib Death 31 from The Mayan 34
TOI DERRICOTTE Abuse 38
CHARLES WRIGHT What I remember is fire, orange fire from Bloodlines 39
ELIZABETH McKIM Taking the Name 40
BRUCE WEIGL The Impossible 41 The Man Who Made Me Love Him 41
II. VIOLENCE AND RACE JAMES WELCH The Man From Washington 44 from Blackfeet, Blood and Piegan Hunters 44 Plea To Those Who Matter 44 VIII
ADRIAN C. LOUIS Sunset at Pine Ridge Agency 45 Fullblood Girl on a Blue "Horse 46 Pabst Blue Ribbon at Wounded Knee 48
JOY HARJO For Anna Mae Pictou Aquash 49
LESLIE MARMON SILKO The Fourth World 50
YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA New Amsterdam 59
HENRY JOHNSON The Middle Passage 60
RITA DOVE Someone's Blood 62
YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA Modern Medea 63 History Lessons 63
MICHAEL WARR We Are All The Black Boy 65 Cabrini Gulag 65
WILLIAM LOGAN Seductions of the Swimming Club 66
ETHERIDGE KNIGHT A Fable 67
HAKI R. MADHUBUTI Aberrations 68
TOI DERRICOTTE A Note on My Son's Face 69 The Weakness 71 At An Artists Colony 72
NIKKI GIOVANNI Tb Be Black in America 81 IX
PAMALA KAROL [LA LOCA] Why I Choose Black Men For My Lovers 83
MARTIN ESPADA Niggerlips 88
LUIS J. RODRIGUEZ 'Race' Politics 89
MARTIN ESPADA Cross Plains, Wisconsin 91 From an Island You Cannot Name 91
JIMMY SANTIAGO BACA The Handsome World 92
MARTIN ESPADA Nando Meets Papo 93 Tonque de queda: Curfew in Lawrence 94
LUIS J. RODRIGUEZ Overtownl984 95
JOS£ MONTOYA The Uniform of the Day 97 Hispanic Nightlife at Luna's Cafe When Th' Mexicans Came to Visit Th' Chicanos in Califas 98 A Chicano Veterano's War Journal 100
PEDRO PIETRI Beware of Signs 101
CARLOS CUMPlAN Veterano . 103
MARTIN ESPADA Tony Went to the Bodega but He Didn't Buy Anything 105
JANICE MIRIKITANI Recipe 106 Doreen 107
DWIGHT OKITA The Nice Thing About Counting Stars 109 JANICE MIRIKITANI Prisons of Silence 113
LAWSON FUSAOINADA Rayford's Song 118
GARRETT HONGO Four Chinatown Figures 120 The Legend 121
LAWSON FUSAO INADA On Being Asian American 123
MICHAEL McCLURE The Death of Kin Chuen Louie 124
LAWRENCE JOSEPH Sand Nigger 126 Not Yet 128 Then 129
DIANE ABU-JABER Arabs and the Break in the Text 130
PETER ORESICK Poem for Hamid • 134
JOYCE CAROL OATES There Was A Shot 136
DAVID IGNATOW The Faithful One 137
MICHAEL BLUMENTHAL Stones 137
III. THE SCARS OF WAR CLARENCE MAJOR In Hollywood with the Zuni God of War 140
SHARON OLDS The End of World War One 145 XI
DAVE SMITH Leafless Trees, Chickahominy Swamp 146
SAMUEL CHARTERS Of Those Who Died: A Poem of the Spring ofl945 147
WILLIAM STAFFORD At the Grave of My Brother: Bomber Pilot 163
CORRINNE HALES Consummation 163
PAMALA KAROL [LA LOCA] War 170
ALLEN GINSBERG How to Make a March/Spectacle 172
AMY CLAMPITT The Dahlia Gardens 176
JOHN BALABAN Words for My Daughter 182
W. D. EHRHART Letter to the Survivors 184 Guerrilla War 185 The One That Died 185 Coming Home 186 Imagine 186
BRUCE WEIGL Song of Napalm 187
ROBERT WRIGLEY Shrapnel 188
GEORGE EVANS from Under the World Escaped Exotics 190 Words in the Underpass 193 Victor of the Wolves 195 Valentine's Day 196 Revelation in the Mother Lode 197 XII
SAMUEL HAZO War News Viewed in the Tropics 198
ROSMARIE WALDROP The Road is Everywhere or Stop This Body 200
WILLIAM STAFFORD Entering History 200
WILLIAM HEYEN The Truth 201
HAYDEN CARRUTH On Being Asked to Write a Poem Against the War in Vietnam 202
ROBERT CREELEY Sonnets 203
PERMISSIONS 207