Octavia Butler
In order to rise from its own ashes, a Phoenix first must burn. ― Octavia Butler
Category: African-American Culture
Audre Lorde
Coming together it is easier to work after our bodies meetpaper and penneither care nor profitwhether we write or notbut as your body movesunder my hands charged and waiting we cut the leashyou create me against your thighs hilly with imagesmoving through our word countries my bodywrites into your fleshthe poemyou make of me. Touching… Continue reading Audre Lorde
Langston Hughes
What can you seek nowTo make your heart still sing? — Langston Hughes, from “Old Age,” The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes (Knopf; 1 edition November 15, 1994)
Langston Hughes
The calm,Cool face of the riverAsked me for a kiss. —Langston Hughes, “Suicide’s Note,” Selected Poems of Langston Hughes. (Vintage; 6th edition September 12, 1990) Originally published 1959.
Jackie Wang
Your body next to my body is being rewritten. I hope that’s okay. I dream of you every night and I worry that the more I dream the more I overwrite you, the more I re-write the memory of you. — Jackie Wang, from “The Vernacular of Our Bodies,” The Sunflower Cast a Spell to… Continue reading Jackie Wang
Hanif Abdurraqib
he says the end isn’t always about what dies and I know I knowor I knew once and now I write about beautiful things like I will never touch a beautiful thing again — Hanif Abdurraqib, from “And What Good Will Your Vanity Be When the Rapture Comes,” Vintage Sadness (Big Lucks Books June 13th… Continue reading Hanif Abdurraqib
Toni Morrison
There is a loneliness that can be rocked. Arms crossed, knees drawn up, holding, holding on, this motion, unlike a ship’s, smooths and contains the rocker. It’s an inside kind—wrapped tight like skin. Then there is the loneliness that roams. No rocking can hold it down. It is alive. On its own. A dry and… Continue reading Toni Morrison
Audre Lorde
and nothing says that you must say helloas we pass in the street,but we have known each othertoo well in the darkfor thisand it hurts me when you do not speak. — Audre Lorde, from “The Dozens,” The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde. (W. W. Norton & Company; Reprint edition February 17, 2000) Originally published… Continue reading Audre Lorde
Yusef Komunyakaa
Safe Subjects How can love healthe mouth shut this way?Say something worth breath.Let is surface, recapitulatehow fat leeches press down gentlyon the sex goddesses eyelids.Let truth have its way with uslike a fishhook holdsto life, holds dearly to nothingworth say -pull it out,bringing with it hard facts,knowledge that the find underboneof hope is also attachedto… Continue reading Yusef Komunyakaa
Yusef Komunyakaa
Say something about real love.Yes, true love—more thanparted lips, than parted legsin sorrow’s darkroom of potash& blues. Let the brain stumblefrom its hidingplace, from its cell block,to the edge of oblivionto come to itself, sharp-tonguedas a boar’s grin in summer moss — Yusef Komunyakaa, from “Safe Subjects,” Neon Venacular: New and Selected Poems (Wesleyan University… Continue reading Yusef Komunyakaa
The Vale of Soul-Making 