Amplify Black Poets, Day 2

Poem about Police Violence

by JUNE JORDAN

Tell me something
what you think would happen if
everytime they kill a black boy
then we kill a cop
everytime they kill a black man
then we kill a cop

you think the accident rate would lower subsequently?
sometimes the feeling like amaze me baby
comes back to my mouth and I am quiet
like Olympian pools from the running
mountainous snows under the sun

sometimes thinking about the 12th House of the Cosmos
or the way your ear ensnares the tip
of my tongue or signs that I have never seen
like DANGER WOMEN WORKING

I lose consciousness of ugly bestial rapid
and repetitive affront as when they tell me
18 cops in order to subdue one man
18 strangled him to death in the ensuring scuffle
(don’t you idolize the diction of the powerful: subdue
and scuffle my oh my) and that the murder
that the killing of Arthur Miller on a Brooklyn
street was just a “justifiable accident” again
(Again)

People been having accidents all over the globe
so long like that I reckon that the only
suitable insurance is a gun
I’m saying war is not to understand or rerun
war is to be fought and won

sometimes the feeling like amaze me baby
blots it out/the bestial but
not too often tell me something
what you think would happen if
everytime they kill a black boy
then we kill a cop
everytime they kill a black man
then we kill a cop

you think the accident rate would lower subsequently?

Originally published in Passion: New Poems, 1977–1980 (Beacon Press, 1980)

MoSt Poetry will post a poem by a black poet each day during the month of June.

Amplify Black Poets, Day 1

MoSt will be posting a poem by an African American poet on Facebook, and here on our blog, each day during the month of June. Here is our first poem. 

alternate names for black boys

BY DANEZ SMITH

1.   smoke above the burning bush

2.   archnemesis of summer night

3.   first son of soil

4.   coal awaiting spark & wind

5.   guilty until proven dead

6.   oil heavy starlight

7.   monster until proven ghost

8.   gone

9.   phoenix who forgets to un-ash

10. going, going, gone

11. gods of shovels & black veils

12. what once passed for kindling

13. fireworks at dawn

14. brilliant, shadow hued coral

15. (I thought to leave this blank

    but who am I to name us nothing?)

16. prayer who learned to bite & sprint

17. a mother’s joy & clutched breath

Originally published in Poetry Magazine, March 2014

Consider donating to the poet’s Venmo @Danez-Smith, collecting for food, first aid, and other materials for Minneapolis protesters.

Please visit our Facebook page to like/view the original post!

Second Tuesday @ Barkin’ Dog – On Zoom!

We will be holding our Second Tuesday poetry reading series on June 9th, 2020, via Zoom. We hope you’ll join us. Please see the flyer above for more information on our featured poets, Karen Terrey and Dane Cervine.

Summer Poetry Workshops 2020

Join us on June 6th for our first Summer Poetry Workshop of 2020 with MoSt Board member Linda Scheller. The topic is “Correspondence and Connections” and it will be a Zoom workshop from 1:00-2:30. Please contact us at info@mostpoetry.org to receive detailed Zoom information!

All experience levels are welcome. This event is part of the MoSt Summer Poetry Workshop series.

All workshops are FREE TO THE PUBLIC with materials and inspiration provided. Sponsored by Modesto-Stanislaus Poetry Center and the Friends of the Modesto Library.

Second Tuesday Poetry: Ulalume González de León

Join the Modesto-Stanislaus Poetry Center via Zoom on the second Tuesday in May to celebrate the publication of Ulalume González de León’s PLAGIOS/PLAGIARISMS VOL. 1, with project translators Terry Ehret, John Johnson, and Nancy J. Morales.

Poet, essayist, and translator Ulalume González de León believed that “Everything has already been said,” and, thus, that each act of creation is a rewriting, reshuffling, and reconstructing of one great work. For this reason, she chose the title Plagios (Plagiarisms) for her book of collected poems. Nobel Laureate Octavio Paz called Ulalume González de León “the best Mexicana poet since Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz,” recognizing the visionary quality of her work.

Plagios (Plagiarisms), just out this year from Sixteen Rivers Press, is the first of three bilingual volumes of González de León’s work. This first volume presents several short collections of poems González de León produced from 1968 to 1971, each of which explores the ephemeral nature of identity and its dependence on the ever-shifting ground of language and memory.

ABOUT THE TRANSLATORS

Terry Ehret, one of the founders of Sixteen Rivers Press, has published four collections of poetry, most recently Night Sky Journey from Kelly’s Cove Press. Her literary awards include the National Poetry Series, the California Book Award, the Pablo Neruda Poetry Prize, a nomination for the Northern California Book Reviewer’s Award, and five Pushcart Prize nominations. From 2004–2006, she served as the poet laureate of Sonoma County where she lives and teaches writing.

Nancy J. Morales, a first-generation American of Puerto Rican parents, earned her bachelor’s degree from Rutgers College, a master’s in teaching English as a Second Language from Adelphi University, and a doctorate in education from Teachers College at Columbia University. She has taught at Dominican University, College of Marin, Sonoma State University, and other schools, from elementary to graduate levels. Currently she is a board member for the Northern California Chapter of the Fulbright Alumni Association and teaches Spanish to private clients.

John Johnson’s poetry has appeared in many print and online journals, including Boxcar Poetry Review, Clade Song, Triggerfish Critical Review, and Web Conjunctions. He is a long-time student of the Spanish language and has studied letter-press printing with Iota Press of Sebastopol, producing chapbooks and bilingual broadsides.

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