Out of the fire comes firmness, through stress we pass to strength.
~Charles F. Binns
Happy Poetry Friday! Today's poem mixes music, pottery, poetry, defiance, and positivity. It's a lot, but it holds holds holds.
Praise Dave
by Glenis Redmond
Enslaved potter-poet
Edgefield, SC
First time I see a jar rise up,
I be midwifed into life.
Understood how these pots and I be kin
––dismissed to what’s under foot.
I learned to turn and turn––
people the world with pots.
I pour my need into the knead
until forty thousand around me crowd,
but everything I love, I lose
so I want what I mold to hold.
Even my empty pots
be full. One say:
I wonder where is all my relation
Friendship to all and every nation.
There are lanterns in my words––
every story got another story.
Some call me Dave the slave, if that’s all they got,
I say leave the rhymes to me.
When people look at me, a slave be...
read the rest here
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My Juicy Little Universe has the Poetry Friday round-up. Thanks, Heidi!
Wow, what a great poem!!! Thanks for sharing!!
ReplyDeleteThere are numerous lines I love, but this feels like it all: "I take the wind out of can’t." Did you know there's a picture book about him, Tabatha, titled Dave the Potter, Artist, Poet, Slave, by Laban Carrick Hill, illustrated by Bryan Collier, a Caldecott honor? I have it & re-read it once in a while; a wonderful book. And now, you've shared this lovely poem. Thank you!
ReplyDelete"There are lanterns in my words––
ReplyDeleteevery story got another story."
This is so so good--went and learned all about Glenis. The voice gave me chills, and that's rare for me. Thanks, Tabatha, and hope you and yours are well!
Tabatha, I see that I chose the same lines Linda did. I enjoyed the poem and would love to read the picture book. I am friendly with Bryan Collier and love his illustrations.
ReplyDeleteTabatha, I love this poem. I love the voice, the strength of the voice and the detail. A book I rec for this poety is 'Etched in Clay' by Andrea Cheng. Thank you for sharing this particular person's story.
ReplyDelete"I want what I mold to hold" - Amen! Powerful words. Thank you, Tabatha
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this beautiful and powerful poem, Tabatha.
ReplyDeleteMay we all have lanterns...and I love the thought of peopling the world with pots! xo
ReplyDeleteThis resonated:
ReplyDelete"When people look at me, a slave be
the first excuse they use not to see me."
In reference to the ongoing slander of the Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ibram X. Kendi wrote about one of the pictures that sparked the whole thing -- a black man carrying a dead goose. The Ohio Division of Wildlife has clarified that this man was picking up geese after they were hit by a car, and the photo wasn't even taken in Springfield. "Evidence doesn't matter when you are Black. To be racist is to see someone's racial identity as the evidence," writes Kendi.
What a powerful poem, Tabatha! I love it.
ReplyDeleteI love the word play of need and knead.
ReplyDelete