American Poetry in the Face of Violence
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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.