Essence Magazine's 40 Favorite Poets

To celebrate Essence Magazine's 40th Anniversary, they've posted a list of their favorite Black poetesses. It's a pretty fabulous list filled lots of heavy hitters of the word-space - Phillis Wheatley, Audre Lorde, Elizabeth Alexander, Maya Angelou, Lucille Clifton...the list goes on an on. My favorite part is that they included little snippets of the most famous pieces of each poet. I've included the ones I absolutely adored below. Of course they are love poems...you know me all too well:-)

Enjoy! Check out the full list here.


Did This Happen To Your Mother? Did Your Sister Throw Up A Lot?
BY Alice Walker

“I thought love would adapt itself to my needs.
But needs grow too fast;
they come up like weeds.
Through cracks in the conversation.
Through silences in the dark.”


Loving Again
BY Gloria Wade-Gayles

“Last night
we loved as if the gods
had announced only to us
that they sky would fall
while we slept."

Happy Birthday to the DUKE!

In honor of the great Duke's birthday, I wanted to share some sweet jazz poetry with you. I hope you enjoy these two James Emanuel pieces.

Also, don't forget that today is "Poem in Your Pocket Day." It's easy - Find a great poem, carry it around (in your pocket or purse or man-bag), and read your fav lines to friends, fam, co-workers throughout the day!!

Louis Armstrong And Duke Ellington

Satchmo's warm burlap,
Duke's cool cashmere: fine fabrics
make your love "Come here!"


Jazzanatomy

EVERYTHING is jazz:
snails, jails, rails, tails, males, females,
snow-white cotton bales.

Knee-bone, thigh, hip-bone.
Jazz slips you percussion bone
classified “unknown.”

Slick lizard rhythms,
cigar-smoke tunes, straight-gin sky
laced with double moons.

Second-chance rhythms,
don’t-give-up riffs: jazz gets HIGH
off can’ts, buts, and ifs.

A Clever Battle for Mike's Soul

Watch this hilarious poem of the Angel of Death getting the Mighty Mike McGee treatment. In this great piece, McGee cleverly challenges the Angel to a food eating contest - winner takes his SOUL! A little sacrilegious, but way too funny to miss!!

Rocking the Scrubs

Getting to spend time with my beautiful doctor cousin today gave me so much respect for her profession. I mean...she saves lives on a daily. Pretty impressive stuff. So, in tribute to her and all of the doctors that rock it out everyday, check out this great Anne Sexton poem.

Doctors
BY Anne Sexton

They work with herbs
and penicillin
They work with gentleness
and the scalpel.
They dig out the cancer,
close an incision
and say a prayer
to the poverty of the skin.
They are not Gods
though they would like to be;
they are only a human
trying to fix up a human.
Many humans die.
They die like the tender,
palpitating berries
in November.
But all along the doctors remember:
First do no harm.
They would kiss if it would heal.
It would not heal.

If the doctors cure
then the sun sees it.
If the doctors kill
then the earth hides it.
The doctors should fear arrogance
more than cardiac arrest.
If they are too proud,
and some are,
then they leave home on horseback
but God returns them on foot.

When Gil Scott-Heron Speaks, We Listen!

Ok...I know I'm so freaking late on this, but it's worth a mention anyway. Gil Scott-Heron, who gained poetic immortality with his poem “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” released his first studio album in 15 years this February. While Scott-Heron’s work is most often linked to black militancy, this new album shows his broader range.

According to the Guardian:

"The result is an album that touches on many genres, from hip-hop and gospel to dubstep and blues. Above all, though, is the unmistakable sound of Gil Scott-Heron. His is a voice that suits age, be that on the feral blues of New York Is Killing Me or the redemptive, folk-flavored title track (a cover of a Smog song, indie fans)."

Click on the player below for a listen and be sure to get the CD. It's great stuff!!

When Earth Becomes An "It"

In honor of Earth Day, I wanted to share this very moving poem by the distingushed Native american author, poet, and educator Marilou Awiakta. This is a great reminder of how little respect we've been giving to "our mother." Show Momma Earth some loving today...and check out this cool campaign - One Million Acts of Green. it gives great tips on the small and large things that we can all do to make the earth a better place.

Enjoy!

When Earth Becomes An "It"
BY Marilou Awiakta

When the people call Earth "Mother,"
they take with love
and with love give back
so that all may live.

When the people call Earth "it,"
they use her
consume her strength.
Then the people die.

Already the sun is hot
out of season.
Our Mother's breast
is going dry.
She is taking all green
into her heart
and will not turn back
until we call her
by her name.

No One Ever Told Me about Elmina

15 years of public school education and Eboni Hogan's poem is the first I have ever heard of Elmina. This fierce, beautiful, and frightful fortress was the literal and figurative "point of no return" where over 30,000 west African slaves passed through each year, on their way to Brazil and other Portuguese colonies.

"Elmina, like other West African slave fortresses, housed luxury suites for the Europeans in the upper levels. The slave dungeons below were cramped and filthy, each cell often housing as many as 200 people at a time, without enough space to even lie down. The floor of the dungeon, as result of centuries of impacted filth and human excrement, is now several inches higher than it was when it was built. Outbreaks of malaria and yellow fever were common. Staircases led directly from the governor 's chambers to the women's dungeons below, making it easy for him to select personal concubines from amongst the women.

At the seaboard side of the castle was the Door of No Return, the infamous portal through which slaves boarded the ships that would take them on the treacherous journey across the Atlantic known as the Middle Passage." -PBS

::le sigh:: I won't lie. I broke down when I heard this poem. And, because I'm a sucker for punishment, I just had to do my own research on Elmina. I'm just so sad that I didn't know sooner and heartbroken over that fact that this ever happened at all...

Any Insomniacs Out There?

If you haven't yet signed up for National Poetry Month Poem-A-Day email, you must!! This beautiful burst of lovely found it's way into my gmail account this morning and I just had to share! It touches on my two favorite subjects...insomnia and love:-)

"if god is love, let me sleep to this sound of her voice."

Fabulous!

ps...click here to find out more about Poem-A-Day program. The poems that they feature are from the spring's hottest poetry books.

Prayer for Sleep
BY Cheryl Dumesnil

The chiropractor sent me home
with my left ankle taped, my neck
cracked, and instructions not to sleep

on my belly, so when it came time
for bed, I dropped a tequila shot,
laid back and closed my lids, entrails

exposed to vultures of bad dreams.
From the neighboring pillow,
my love whispered theories

of meditation, biofeedback, post-
traumatic stress, and prayer. When
she asked, "If a divine creator

made the universe, who made
the divine creator?" I mumbled,
"Are you trying to talk me to sleep?"

She smiled, then babbled
past midnight, contemplating out loud
the metaphysics of leaf production,

the wonder of molecules
that make up our bed, the web
of my cell structure connected

to hers, until I fell asleep,
imagining the mitochondria
of words, thinking, if god is

love, let me sleep to this sound of her voice.

From In Praise of Falling by Cheryl Dumesnil. Copyright © 2010 by Cheryl Dumesnil. Used by permission of University of Pittsburg Press.

Quote of the WEEK

"I arise in the morning torn between a desire to save the world and a desire to savor the world. That makes it hard to plan the day."

- E. B. White

God Made Adam Before He MADE Eve

"Respect yourself by respecting me"

We Follow Your Lead
BY Cheryl 'Salt' James

Holocaust Remembrance Day

Holocaust Remembrance Day is not the rosiest of days, but it is necessary for us to remember. We must never forget that, unless we are vigilant against evil, this sort of evil can easily repeat itself. In honor of the struggle and triumph of the millions of victims of the Holocaust, I've shared this Yala Korwin poem below.

pass it along!

Yala Korwin, artist and poet, was born in Poland. She survived a labor camp in the heart of Germany, and having no place to return to after the end of WWII, she let the winds carry her to France, where she lived as a refugee for ten years. In 1956 she emigrated to the United States with her husband and young children. Her book To Tell the Story— Poems of the Holocaust was published in 1987 by the now defunct Holocaust Library.
-courtesy of thehypertext.com

You, Who Did Not Survive
BY Yala Korwin

Volumes have been written
to explain how they
who murdered you
came to power
and the reason for their crusade
against you.
For you—the truth lay
in black rifle-barrels
in crematorium fires.
None of you died because
of a great virtue
none because of a great sin.
You died because one dies
from exhaustion
you died because guns kill
because gas kills.

They accused you of greed
ordered you
to take off your shirts
before dying.
They extracted your gold teeth
after you died.

Published in Midstream

Creation often needs two hearts

Feeling hella nostalgic today, friends. I can't over-share quite yet, but this poem captures my sentiments exactly.

Motheroot
BY Marilou Awiakta

Creation often
needs two hearts
one to root
and one to flower
One to sustain
in time of drouth
and hold fast
against winds of pain
the fragile bloom
that in the glory
of its hour
affirms a heart
unsung, unseen.

Reprinted from Selu: Seeking the Corn-Mother's Wisdom, by Marilou Awiakta, Golden, Colorado: Fulcrum Publishing, 1993

Quote of the WEEK

"It's not who you are that holds you back. It's who you think you're not."

- Anonymous

Women Everywhere Look Just Like Her?

I was planning on ranting on and on about the objectification of women of color in America. About the decades of media propaganda that have allowed little but half-bakes caricatures of Chinese/ Latina/ Brazilian/ Ethiopian/ Caribbean / bi-racial/ (insert any non-white group of) women to dominate our popular culture. About the ignorance of the word "exotic," when applied to people, and of the cultural/ sexual hierarchy that it creates. But I decided against it...this time.

Instead, I will let Suheir Hammad speak for me:-)

A recent conversation with a friend reminded me of how much I ::HEART:: this piece!! And, in typical Suheir style, "Not Your Exotic, Not Your Erotic" is both fierce and tender. Wonderfully written and beautifully performed. She quickly cuts to the heart of the matter in a way that only she can.

Listen closely and open your hearts.

"don’t wanna be your exotic
some dark, fragile, colorful bird
imprisoned
caged in a land foreign to the stretch of her wings

don’t wanna be your exotic
women everywhere look just like me
some taller, darker, nicer than me
but like me just the same

women everywhere carry my nose on their faces
my name on their spirits

don’t seduce yourself with my other-ness"
(full text)

Happy National Poetry Month!

Ok. I admit it. I'm a few days late, but in celebration of National Poetry Month, I'm making it a mission to share a poem a day with friends and fam in my (real) life. I'll of course be blessing you with poetic awesomeness on the blog, but I'll also be sure to have a poem to share with my boss, my bestie, my pastor, the lady at the Kroger checkout...and the list goes on and on. The word is meant to be shared - by any means necessary:-)

ps...if you're interested in the hottest new collections of poetry, check out poets.org's spring books list. Fantactis stuff!!

no more water. the fire next time.

Before I opened my very first James Baldwin book, the title alone was enough to tell me that this man was pure genius. The Fire Next Time, and every Baldwin work I've read ever since, has rocked me to my core and wedged his beautiful words and provocative ideas securely within my heart. Baldwin was truly a revolutionary of his time and continues to challenge us to see the world through a different set of eyes today. Thanks to the Getblog for getting me hip to this very candid interview below.

Enjoy!