SUB I -iarrmurg
A/616025
THE BLACK POETS
Dudley Randall, Editor '
.
-BANTAM BOOKS
NEW YORK • TORONTO • LONDON • SYDNEY • AUCKLAND
'Contents"
Introduction
xxiii
1
FOLK POETRY
Walk together Children
w
1
3
- .. 3
Folk Seculars
-
Song; We Raise de Wheat
•5.
He Paid Me Seven (Parody)
5.
Run, Nigger, Runt
Promises of Freedom
-.. .
.... . ; , - 5.
5
Jack and Dinah Want Freedom Wild Negro Bill
77
Negro Soldiers GiM: War .Chant. Song to the Runaway' Slave. *
• "• . - 8
Down in-the Lonesome Garden. . ^ ;
8
- - 9
This Sun is Hot
That Hypocrite _
°
"; 9
Old Man'Know-All.-' •
'.
:
9
10
Raise a "Rucus" TprNight •
11.
111 Wear Me. a Cotton Dress . ..
. 12
John Henry
. She Hugged Me and Kissed Me' «**
16
16
Slave Marriage Ceremony Supplement
Blessing Without Company- .
" - '-17
17
The Old Section Boss
'
18
The Turtle's Song " . '- . •
'•
19
Chuck Will's Widow Song
CONTENTS
Spirituals
No More Auction Block
21
21
I Know de Moonlight
23
Go Down, Moses
23
Joshua Fit De Battle of Jericho .
24
Dere s No Hidin Place DownDere
25
I Got a Home in.Dat Rock .
•
25
Deep River
"7-26
Steal Away to Jesus
.27
Git on Board, Little Chillen
27
Give Me Jesus
...
28
What Yo' Gwine to do when Yo' Lamp Bum
Down?
.
- •/. - 29
Crucifixion
'
.
29
Were You There when They Crucified My
Lord?
- '
. 30
I Thank God I'm Free at Las'
,
31'
v
De Ole Sheep Dey Know De Road ' ,
32
LITERARY POETRY
Black Poet, White Critic,by Dudley Randall
33
33
The'Forerunners
35
LUCY TERRY
Bar's Fight, August 28, 1746
.
37
37
/
PHILLIS WHEATLEY
from To the Right Honorable William, Earl
of. Dartmouth .
.
'
38
FRANCES E. W. HARPER .
The Slave Auction
/.
Bury Me In a Free Land
39
39
40
from America, by James M. Whitfield
35
38.
CONTENTS
JAMES WELDON JOHNSON ;
Listen, Lord—A Prayer .
. .
O Black and Unknown Bards .
_
41
41
42
V . PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR
44
An Ante-BeUuni Sermon
44
Misapprehension . " . 7
.
,
46
Harriet Beecher Stowe
"
47
Soliloquy of a Turkey
47
When Dey"Listed Colored Soldiers
" . . 48
50"
To a Captious Critic
51
In the Morning
52
The Poet
.
.
53
A Spiritual
54
The Unsung Heroes
• .
55
Philosophy
' > 56
Compensation
;
57
- . .
..." .Esthete In Harlem, by Langston Hughes 57
Harlem. Renaissance.
59
'
CLAUDE McKAY
59
The Harlem Dancer
59
Spring in New Hampshire
60
The Tired Worker.
•
60
To O.E.A.
.
1
%
The White. City
•.
- * 61
'62
Enslaved "
62
Tiger
7
-63
If We Must Die *'• u
- The-Negro's Tragedy
^ 63
64
Truth
• "".
The Pagan Isms .
'
v . 64
I Know My Soul
*
- 65
. JEAN TOOMER •
Karintha
-
-.
66
66
CONTENTS
Reapers
Cotton Song
Georgia Dusk
Evening Song
'
FRANK HORNE
Letters Found Near a Suicide:
- To Mother
To 'Chick'
To You
_
To James ' •
4
Walk .
'Mammal'
Patience
LANGSTON HUGHES
The Negro Speaks of Rivers
Dinner Guest: Me
- Un-American Investigators
Third Degree
!
Who But the Lord?
Ku Klux
Peace.
. Still Here
Cultural Exchange
Junior Addict
Children's Rhymes
•
Words Like Freedom
Justice
American Heartbreak
Frederick Douglass: 1817-1895
Where? When? Which? ,
Angola Question Mark
. Question and Answer
The Backlash Blues
Warning
CONTENTS
ARNA BONTEMPS .
92
God Give to Men
\% •
,92,
Reconnaissance '
'
• - 92
- Nocturne of the Wharves
93
A Black Man Talks of Reaping
'
94
^ COUNTEE CULLEN
Heritage
. ..
1'
Incident
_
Simon the Cyrenian Speaks
From the Dark Tower
.^
Yet Do I Marvel
To Certain Critics
" 95
95
.98
99
. 100
100
-101
Post-Renaissance
-'
1.03
"Summertime and the Living.
by Robert Hayden
-
.
STERLING A. BROWN
Slim In Hell
~
Old Lem
~ '
Southern Road
;
Long Gone"
Strong Men
Crispus Attucks McCoy
- ' .
103
.
-105
105
109
.111
112
113
'115
MELVIN B. TOLSON
A Legend of Versailles
.
The Birth of John Henry;'
. *;
;
Satchmo
*• •. *
\
118
118
118
.119
' FRANK MARSHALL DAVIS
Robert Whitmore . .
Arthur Ridgewood,' M.D.
'
Giles Johnson, Ph.D. i
'
121
121
121
122
ROBERT HAYDEN
Middle Passage •...
. ..
Runagate Runagate
.
.
123
.123
' 128
Xiii
CONTENTS
A Ballad of Remembrance
The Ballad of Nat Turner Full Moon
The Diver
'
,
The Wheel
In the Mourning Time - . . .
DUDLEY RANDALL
Analysands
Primitives
'•
*
Hail; Dionysos
The Melting Pot
- •
A DifiFerent Image
'Roses and Revolutions
/, ,
Ballad of Birmingham - .
„
The Idiot
...
George .
'
Souvenirs
The Profile on the Pillow
Abu"
Ancestors
131
. : 133"
... -135
••-.130
V :' -137
138
- 1 3 9
139
139
i 140
141
: • 142
142
143
. 1 4 4
145
140
~ 147
<
147
'
148
•
v
149
MARGARET DANNER .
149
Garnishing the Aviary
•' ;
r":
The Convert . .
.. , - " : 149
. 151
This Is an African Worm
' " 152
The Painted Lady
152
And through the Caribbean Sea
153
Goodbye David Tamunoemi West
154
The Slave and the Iron Lace • "
MARGARET WALKER
Street Demonstration
. '
Girl Held Without Bail
For Malcolm X
*
For Andy Goodman—Michael Schwerner
and James Chaney.
Prophets for a New Day
156
150
150
157
V
158
160
CONTENTS
163
163
164
RAY DUREM
I Know I'm Not Sufficiently Obscure
Award
- -
T
GWENDOLYN BROOKS
165
165
The Mother
.
166
Kitchenette Buildings
What Shall I Give My Children?
. 166
The Rites for Cousin Vit
: .
167
A Lovely Love
- • ' 167
When You Have Forgotten Sunday:
The Love. Story
168
.169
The Chicago Picasso
The Sermon on the Warpland
170
The Second'Sermon on the Warpland
. 171
Young Heroes
172
I Kedrapetse Kgositsile (Willie)
172
.11 To Don at Salaam ;
173
III Walter Bradford
' .174
Riot
•
•
175
Riot
175
The Third Sermon on the Warpland
176
An Aspect of Love, Alive.in the
Ice and Fire
179
The Nineteen Sixties
. 181
• . 181
>
- SOS by Imamu Amiri Baraka
<
MARI-EVANS
Black jam for dr negro r
To, Mother and Steve
Spectrum; "
Where.Have You'Gone
Marrow of My Bone
Nightmare
The Negro
JAMES EMANUEL
;
. 183
183
• 184
"186
' < 186
"i 187
.J
; 188
'. 188
188
XV
XVi
CONTENTS
Negritude
The Treehouse .
For "Mr. Dudley," a Black Spy
Panther Man
- .
189
190
191
192
NAOMI MADGETT
Quest
Star Journey
v .7
•
Dream Sequence, Part. 9
•
The Race .Question
Pavlov '
Midway
Alabama Centennial
•
194
194
195!
195 '
196
196
197.
197
, CONRAD KENT RIVERS
A Mourning Letter from Paris
Four Sheets to the Wind and a One-Way
Ticket to France
In Defense of Black Poets.
The Death of a Negro Poet
-
190
, 199
-
199
: 200
201
203
ETHERIDGE KNIGHT
203
The Idea of Ancestry
• - For Freckle-Faced Gerald.
• x - : 205
. 206
Haiku
207
It Was a Funky Deal
'208
The Violent Space
209
I Sing of Shine
"
211
IMAMU AMIRI BARAKA
211
An Agony. As now.
1
*- - 212
The Pressures.
"
'
. -213
Ka 'Ba
Beautiful Black Women ...
- ' - ' v . -213
214
Babylon Revisited
215
leroy
,
A Poem Some People Will Have to
216
Understand
CONTENTS
Letter To E. Franklin Frazier
Numbers, Letters
• ; .
Young Soul
Cold Term
In one battle
Return of the Native
•
Black Bourgeoisie, .
Black Art
''
Poem for Half White College Students
Bliack People!
• -
217
218
220
220
.221
222
-223
223
225 ;
226
A.. B. SPELLMAN . .
When Black People Are
In Orangeburg My Brothers Did
.
JOHARI AMINI
Saint Malcolm
Utopia
•
-
XVli
228
228
229
. 230
230
. .
230
SONIA SANCHEZ
231
to all brothers
<
231
poem at thirty
i
231*
nigger
232
black magic
•
233
summary
.
. .
233
LISTENEN TO BIG BLACK
AT S.F. STATE .
235
a poem for my father
' 1 ' 236
hospital/poem
236
r
simimer words of a sistuh addict
*
237
—answer to yo/question of am i not yo/
woman even if u went on shit again-—
'238
poem for etheridge
... 239
a chant for young/brothas & sistuhs
240
•
'
JUNE. JORDAN.
Okajr "Negroes7
;;
Cameo No. H
•
.:
,243
• ' . 243.
243
.
xviii
CONTENTS
Poem for my family:,Hazel Griffin
and Victor Hernandez Cruz
Poem from the Empire State
My Sadness Sits Around Me
Nobody Riding the Roads Today
What Happens
;
-
LUCILLE CLIFTON
Good times •.
.
L o v e Rejected
Admonitions .
If I Stand in My Window '
J
..•••'
JAMES W. THOMPSON
A Constant Labor _
The Greek Room .'
The spawn of slums
The Plight.
JOHN RAVEN
An Inconvenience
Assailant
The Roach
-
245
247
248
248
249
*
250
* 250
250
251
252
:
i-
253 .
253
254
254
' 256
, .258
258
.. 258.
259
CAROLYN M. RODGERS
. 260
Now Ain't That Love?
*
.
260
Testimony-.
_ ."
261
:'
' One
_ „261
for h. w. fuller
.
_ • " '262
J 263
Breakthrough
.
*; .
What Color is Lonely
265
Yuh Lookin GOOD '
/
. 266
LARRY NEAL
Harlem Gallery: From the Inside
James Powell on Imagination
Malcolm X—An Autobiography
268
268
269
_ 269
CONTENTS
xix
JAMES A; RANDALL, JR. .' . 272
Who Shall Die?
i. ,272
Untitled
.•
. '273
Don't Ask Me Who I Am
, 274
When Something Happens ; *
275
Execution
v.
- 277
X 278
Jew
;
•>
" WELTON SMITH ,
malcolm
The Nigga Section
'
ISHMAEL REED
badman of the guest professor :
black piower poem
Beware : Do Not Read This. Poem
MICHAEL HARPER
Elvin's Blues
•
American History
A; Mother Speaks : The Algiers .
Motel Incident, Detroit
'YUSEF I^AN
, Love Your Enemy
-
280
- -280 .
. . 282
"\
284
284
.'
288
288
-
290
290
291
291
'
293
293
.
DON L. LEE
. 295 .
BACK AGAIN, HOME (confessions of an "
ex-executive)
' ' "
'295
RE-ACT FOR ACTION
296
THE PRIMITIVE :
'
.297
The Self-Hatred of Don L. Lee
- 297
communication in whi-te
.••••'
299
But He Has Cool or : he even stopped for
green lights
;
299
a poem to complement, other poems _
300
v•
Orie Sided Shoot-out
301
CONTENTS
Big Momma
i
Mixed Sketches
'V
We Walk the .Way of the New World
304
306
307
DOUGIITRY-LONG . . .
Ginger Bread Mama
One' Time Henry Dreamed, the Number
310
310
310
312
312
'313
314
315.
EVERETT HOAGLAND
love Child—a black aesthetic
My Spring Thing
The Anti-Semanticist f
'
It s a Terrible, Thing! NIKKI GIOVANNI
The True Import of Present Dialogue:
Black vs. Negro
"' .
My Poem
.
Beautiful Black Men
. ' . •
;
ForSaundra
Knoxville, Tennessee
, The Funeral of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Concerning One Responsible Negro
with Too Much Power
Poem for Black Boys
Kidnap Poem
' _
; .
Poem for Aretha
STEPHANY,
In the Silence
- _
Who Is Not a Stranger Still
My'Love When. This Is Past
Let Me Be Held When
the Longing Comes '
That We Head Towards
.
*
318
318
- 319
320
321
322
- 323
323
325
326
' . 327
330
330
331
r 332
332
333
• CONTENTS
Publishers of Black Poetry
. , 335
Periodicals Publishing Black" Poetry
339
Phonograph Records
~ .
343
Tapes
- * 347
Video Tapes
- 351
Films r
_
'
353