In this Book
- Weary Kingdom: Poems
- Book
- 2017
- Published by: University of South Carolina Press
- Series: Palmetto Poetry Series
A Southern-born poet's journey of reflection and pilgrimage to the streets of Harlem
In this new collection of poems, Weary Kingdom, DéLana R. A. Dameron maps a journey across emotional, spiritual, and geographic lines, from the familiarity of the honeysuckle South to a new world, or a new kingdom—Harlem. Her poems traverse the streets of this Black mecca with a careful eye cast toward the intimacies of the exterior. Still, as the poems move throughout the built environment, they navigate matters of death, love, love loss, and family against the backdrop of a city that has yet to become home. Indeed what looms over this weary kingdom is a longing for the certainties of a lover's touch, the summer's sun, and the comforts of a promised land up North. And as the poet longs, so do readers. Ultimately they grow aware of Utopia's fragility.
Table of Contents
- I. Mapmaker
- First Snow
- p. 10
- Cartographer
- pp. 12-13
- Hudson View
- pp. 14-15
- February in New York
- pp. 17-18
- The Yellow Mug
- pp. 24-26
- II. Migration Story
- DéLana & I
- p. 32
- Douce Campagna
- p. 35
- The Letter I Never Sent, 2007
- pp. 39-41
- Say, Divine
- p. 42
- At the Station
- pp. 46-47
- Migration Story
- p. 49
- Weary Kingdom
- p. 52
- River Bend
- p. 53
- Ode to a Bed
- pp. 58-59
- The A Train Drags Its Way Uptown
- pp. 61-62
- III. Pomegranate Sky
- How Can It Be Time to Leave Me?
- pp. 65-66
- Dear Zemar,
- pp. 67-69
- What Life Were We Expecting
- pp. 70-71
- Fist Blooming Open
- p. 76
- Knowing the Limits of the Earth
- pp. 77-78
- Or Maybe, Apocalypse
- pp. 81-82
- How I Remember the Things You Said
- pp. 83-84
- Reflection, Broken
- p. 86
- Acknowledgments
- p. 91