When a man starts out to build a world, He starts first with himself.
~Langston Hughes
Happy Poetry Friday! It's almost Black History Month, but any time is a good time to celebrate Black excellence. Today we have Langston Hughes and Airea D. Matthews.
To You
by Langston Hughes
To sit and dream, to sit and read,
To sit and learn about the world
Outside our world of here and now—
Our problem world—
To dream of vast horizons of the soul
Through dreams made whole,
Unfettered, free—help me!
All you who are dreamers too,
Help me to make
Our world anew.
I reach out my dreams to you.
*******************
excerpt of Eviction
by Airea D. Matthews
for Wislawa
If one sister is silenced into salt
without body that remembers,
then I will batter my cymbals
bearing witness for us both
with what body still remains.
*******************
excerpt of ‘Black Ecstatic Ode’
by Airea D. Matthews
Praise to that which endures
To old doors, layers of paint
To years of storm beating solid oak
Praise to the gable roof that is a ceiling
coffered ceiling that is also a floor
Praise to open wombs and caskets
To any mother who must decide either
Praise to what shoulders weight
To brackets and load-bearing walls
beams and spindly skeletons
sacred geometry and tangents
To levees and pregnant summers
the bullet-ridden body
To coilspring and wheel
Praise, soon, to the crown and seed lowering
To both the thorny and fertile soil
Praise to the ground unfastening
To every earthworm bristle
and every seraph’s six wings
Interlocked in songdance of welcome
To the body relenting only to dust
the spirit ascending straightway to stars
Praise to all who rejoice in becoming
To all who rejoice in return
*******************
Bookseed Studio has the Poetry Friday round-up. Thanks, Jan!
The Brave zine has been updated! We added two poems that came in late.
Sipping Grief by Betsy Kahn ("There is actually a firehose of grief at my disposal, but everybody knows you can’t drink from a firehose. So when these images float up, I just take a little sip of grief, and mourn the loss")
Poetry Temple with Sage Cohen. February 8 from 3-4:30
11 comments:
Tabatha, appreciations for such a spot-on pairing of brilliance. One supreme poet I've long-cared for & one, a new-to-me poet, (you've beautifully educated me here) who likely will be named our Library of Congress Poet Laureate some day soon, reading her words, following your link to Airea D. Matthews' deep poetry/fantastic achievement trajectory.
Tabatha, Langston Hughes' poem is one that should be read to our problem world now, especially after listening to today's presidential speech. Thank you for all the poems that make me ponder.
Tabatha, thank you for the hope in the poems you have shared. Can poetry help us get out of this mess? Yes, I know it can. Thank you for being a brave leader, and I'm glad Heidi's (and was the other one Linda M's) poems got into the collection! Wonderful and thoughtful of you too.
Thanks for these poems -- both uplifting and inspiring hope. Happy to be introduced to Matthews's work, and the Hughes poem, lyrical, beautiful, powerful. Needed it this week!
Thank you for sharing such beautiful and hopeful poems, Tabatha.
Sitting, reading poetry, and dreaming, thanks for Hughes' uplifting poem, and for all the praises in Matthews' poem too, they both make the din of the week a bit more palatable!
I've printed out "Brave", so will look for the new ones, too, Tabatha. They have been a boost to me every day! Thanks for starting our Black History Month with special poems, despite the orders from DC, I will celebrate & work for Hughes as he asked, "Help me to make
Our world anew."
oooooh! I love that quote at the top of your post. I've tucked that one away in my journal. And, the first poem is so perfect for students. I've snagged that one too. I have all sorts of African American author/book tidbits in announcements for students. I'm going to add some poetry too. Great post today, Tabatha.
Thank you, Tabatha--I always find poems to think about at your blog. xo, Laura
Reading these aloud!! Thank you!
Powerful selections, Tabatha!
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