Ashley Bryan’s ABC’s of
African American Poetry
I thought this book was a beautiful way of introducing children to the extraordinary range of African-American poetry. I read quite a bit of poetry, and thought I would try something similar — but for adults. Below are 26 lines of poetry by mostly contemporary Black American poets. Please pay attention to the titles of these poems — they’re often quite revelatory — and to the author’s names. I’ve also included a list of sources for those of you interested in reading more. The Poetry Foundation is an excellent resource for poetry (with a great search engine), as is the Academy of American Poets.
Delia LaJeunesse, Founder of Subvert, has paired works by Black American artists with the lines below and laid out the page with her gorgeous eye for aesthetics.
We hope you enjoy this special collaboration between our two arts’ organizations, Story Remedy & Subvert.
all images & videos are copyrighted by the artists.
all poetry selections are copyrighted by the authors.
I come to you America, scrubbed almost clean,
but infected with memory and the bellow of broiling spices
in a long-ago kitchen.
from “Practice Standing Unleashed and Clean”
by Patricia Smith
Kitchen Table Series. Carrie Mae Weems.
We are called angry Black women because we bare arms, pay close attention to where babies like to lean, hang our threadbare purses, our satin satchels, there. They call us angry, bare-arm Black women because we use our arms for more than waving to each other, recognize, our arms swing out, keep us balanced while we pose for official portraits and Jet centerfolds.
from “The Bare Arms of Black Women” by Nikky Finney
On the occasion of the unveiling of Amy Sherald’s official portrait
of the First Lady of Arms, Michelle Obama
close your eyes—
make the white
gaze disappear
from Black Imagination, curated by Natasha Marin
Emotional Guidance. Nana Frimpong Oduro
because white men can’t
police their imagination
black men are dying
from “Making Room” by Claudia Rankine
Untitled #5 Parkchester, NY (2015). Jon Henry
Two photographs
of Emmett Till,
born my year,
on my birthday.
One, he’s smiling,
happy, and the other one
is after.
from “Narrative: Ali” by Elizabeth Alexander
Mama Waiting. Alfred Conteh
Sit. Feast on your life.
from “Love after Love” by Derek Walcott
TRY ON DREAMS UNTIL I FIND THE ONE THAT FITS ME. THEY ALL FIT ME. Amy Sherald
God bless our neighborhood
barber, the patience it takes
to make a man
you’ve just met
beautiful.
from “Benediction” by Joshua Bennett
Deity I, 2015. Bre’Ann White
Sometimes I don’t know who he is anymore
traveling the back roads between boy and man.
from “Hoodie” by January Gill O’Neil
Hoods. John Edmonds
today, i am a mother, & my country is burning
and i forget how to flee
from such a flamboyant backdraft
—i’m too in awe of how beautiful i look
on fire
from “litany” by Mahogany L. Browne
Untitled, 2019. Nelson Makamo
Jazz June. We
Die soon.
from “The Pool Players. Seven at the Golden Shovel” by Gwendolyn Brooks
Off Day. Kerream Jones
We have so little of each other, now. So far
from tribe and fire. Only these brief moments of exchange. What if they are the true dwelling of the holy, these
fleeting temples we make together when we say, “Here,
have my seat,” “Go ahead — you first,” “I like your hat.”
from “Small Kindnesses” by Danusha Lameris
Sorrow & I. Kevin Okeith
I begin to see
our lives are like this – we take
what we need of light.
from “Gathering” by Natasha Tretheway
Untitled, Calvin Coleman
The baby wakes. He is almost four
weeks old. I give him a piece
of my body.
from “On the Road to Sri Bhuvaneshwari” by Robin Coste Lewis
listen,
when I found there was no safety
in my father’s house
I knew there was none anywhere.”
from “to my friend, Jerina” by Lucille Clifton
Head 1X, 2008. Lorna Simpson
I am outside of
history.
from “Dualism” by Ishmael Reed
A Man and His Brother. Devan Shimoyama
Summer seemed to bloom against the will,
Of the sun, which news reports claimed flamed hotter
On this planet than when our dead fathers
Wiped sweat from their necks.
from “The Tradition” by Jericho Brown
Deaccessionings, Candice J. Davis
Some people don't remember that
love is
listening and laughing and asking
questions
no matter what your age
from “Love Is” by Nikki Giovanni
DARKROOM MIRROR (_2070386). Paul Mpagi Sepuya
I’ve known rivers:
Ancient, dusky rivers.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
from “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” by Langston Hughes
My Big Black America. Wesley Clark
The blues calling my name.
She is singing a deep song.
She is singing a deep song.
I am human.
from “Deep Song” by Gayl Jones
The Long Journey Home. Mason Archie
in the backseat my sons laugh & tussle,
far from Tamir’s age, adorned with his
complexion & cadence & already warned
from “When I Think of Tamir Rice While Driving” by Reginald Dwayne Betts
for I must only use
the tips
of my finger
with which I will
one day close
my mother’s eyes
from “ode to buttoning and unbuttoning my shirt” by Ross Gay
Back Bone. Al Burts
And it makes me think the biggest and blackest are almost always more vulnerable
from “I Can’t Breathe” by Pamela Sneed
A Missed Prayer. Shikeith
Somewhere
in the light above the womb,
black trees
and white trees
populate a world.
from “My Grandfather Walks in the Woods” by Marilyn Nelson
Los Angeles Sam. Texas Isaiah
sometimes i just forget to
exhale. my shoulders held tightly
near my neck, i am a ball of tense
living, a tumbleweed with steel-toed
boots. i can’t remember the last time
i felt light as dandelion
from “a brief meditation on breath” by Yesenia Montilla
Grief might be easy
if there weren’t still
such beauty – would be far
simpler if the silver
maple didn’t thrust
its leaves into flame,
trusting that spring
will find it again.
from “Redemption Song” by Kevin Young
Wade in the Water, Jerry and Terry Lynn
Have you ever tried silk sheets?
I did, persuaded by postnatal dread
and a Macy's clerk to bargain
for more zip.
from “Used” by Rita Dove
Maktub. Oye Diran
Sources:
Betts, Reginald Dwayne. Felon: Poems. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2019.
Brown, Jericho. The Tradition. Port Townsend: Copper Canyon Press, 2019.
Finney, Nikky. Love Child’s Hotbed of Occasional Poetry: Poems and Artifacts. Northwestern University Press/ TriQuarterly Books, 2020.
Gay, Ross. Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2015.
Harper, Michael S. and Anthony Walton. The Vintage Book of African American Poetry: 200 Years of Visionm Struggle, Power, Beauty, and Triumph from 50 Outstanding Poets. New York: Vintage Books, 2000
Lewis, Robin Hoste. Voyage of the Sable Venus and Other Poems. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2015
Marin, Natasha, Curator. Black Imagination. San Francisco: McSweeney’s, 2020.
Poets.org. American Poets: The Journal of the Academy of American Poets (Fall-Winter 2020, Volume 59)
Rankine, Claudia. Citizen: An American Lyric. Minneapolis: Grey Wolf Press, 2014.
Tretheway, Natasha. Monument: Poems New and Selected. New York: Mariner Books, 2018
Young, Kevin, Ed. The Art of Losing: Poems of Grief and Healing. New York: Bloomsbury, 2013.