Table of Contents
Foreword xv
Preface: For the Sake of a People's Poetry: Walt Whitman and the Rest of Us xix
Poem for Nana 3
Poem for the Poet Alexis De Veaux 8
Current Events 9
Poem about The Head of a Negro 11
The Morning on the Mountains 12
The Rationale, or "She Drove Me Crazy" 13
Case in Point 15
Poem of Personal Greeting for Fidel 16
Newport Jazz Festival: Saratoga Springs and Especially about George Benson and everyone who was listening 19
Patricia's Poem 21
"Hey, Baby: You married?" 22
TV Is Easy Next to Life 24
1978 26
An Explanation Always Follows 28
Letter to the Local Police 30
Found Poem 32
Poem about a Night Out: Michael: Goodbye for a While 33
Poem about Police Violence 36
Sketching in the Transcendental 38
A Poem about Intelligence for My Brothers and Sisters 39
verse from a fragmentary marriage 41
1977: Poem for Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer 42
Poem for South African Women 44
Notes on the Peanut 46
Unemployment Monologue 48
Toward a City That Sings 50
A Song of Sojourner Truth 51
Alla Tha's All Right, but 54
Nightletters 55
Evidently Looking at the Moon Requires a Clean Place to Stand 56
Free Flight 57
Letter to My Friend the Poet Ntozake Shange 61
Legend of the Holy Night When the Police Finally Held Fire 62
A Poem about Vieques, Puerto Rico 64
Inaugural Rose 69
En Passant 71
For Li'l Bit 72
Niagara Falls 74
Calling it quits 75
Poem toward the Bottom Line 76
Memoranda toward the Spring of Seventy-Nine 77
A Short Note to My Very Critical and Well-Beloved Friends and Comrades 79
Rape Is Not a Poem 80
Memo: 83
What Is This in Reference To? or We Must Get Together Sometime Soon! 84
Poem #2 for Inaugural Rose 86
Poem about My Rights 87
Grand Army Plaza 91
Taking Care 93
A Right-to-Lifer in Grand Forks, North Dakota 96
From America: A Poem in Process 98
About the Author 105