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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
A drumdrumdrum.
Humbly we come.
South of success and east of gloss and glass are
sandals;
flowercloth;
grave hoops of wood or gold, pendant
from black ears, brown ears, reddish-brown
and ivory ears;
black boy-men.
Black
boy-men on roofs fist out "Black Power!" Val,
a little black stampede
in African images of brass and flowerswirl,
fist out "Black Power!"--tightens pretty eyes,
leans back on mothercountry and is tract,
is treatise through her perfect and tight teeth.
Women in wool hair chant their poetry.
Phil Cohran gives us messages and music
made of developed bone and polished and honed
cult.
It is the Hour of tribe and of vibration,
the day-long Hour. It is the Hour
of ringing, rouse, of ferment-festival.
On Forty-third and Langley
black furnaces resent ancient
legislatures
of ploy and scruple and practical gelatin.
They keep the fever in,
fondle the fever.
All
worship the Wall.
I mount the rattling wood. Walter
says, "She is good." Says, "She
our Sister is." In front of me
hundreds of faces, red-brown, brown, black, ivory,
yield me hot trust, their yea and their
Announcement
that they are ready to rile the high-flung ground.
Behind me. Paint.
Heroes.
No child has defiled
the Heroes of this Wall this serious Appointment
this still Wing
this Scald this Flute this heavy Light this Hinge.
An emphasis is paroled.
The old decapitations are revised,
the dispossessions beakless.
And we sing.
Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!
Other Poems of Interest...
HUNCHBACK GIRL: SHE THINKS OF HEAVEN by GWENDOLYN BROOKS
MEDGAR EVERS by GWENDOLYN BROOKS
WHEN THE SPEED COMES by ROBERT FROST
THE PASSIONATE SHEPHERD: PASTORAL 3. THE HAPPY COUNTRYMAN by NICHOLAS BRETON
A WOMAN'S QUESTION by ADELAIDE ANNE PROCTER
THE FOOL'S ADVENTURE by LASCELLES ABERCROMBIE