The Essential Etheridge Knight

CONTENTS

CONTENTS Genesis 3 1 Hard Rock Returns to Prison from the Hospital for the Criminal Insane 7 Cell Song 9 He Sees through Stone 10 The Idea of Ancestry 12 On the Yard 14 A Wasp Woman Visits a Black Junkie in Prison 15 Haiku 17 For Freckle-Faced Gerald 19 The Warden Said to Me the Other Day 20 My Life, the Quality of Which 21 A Poem for Black Relocation Centers 22 2 YouAre 25 The Violent Space 26 A Poem for a Certain Lady on Her 33rd Birthday 28 The Stretching of the Belly 29 As You Leave Me 30 No Moon Floods the Memory of That Night 31 Upon Your Leaving 32 Feeling Fucked Up 34 Indiana Haiku-2 35 Vigo County The Penal Farm Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis Indianapolis War Memorial Harlem For Langston Hughes 36 CONTENTS Welcome Back, Mr. Knight: Love of My Life 37 Another Poem for Me 39 The Bones of My Father 40 Evolutionary Poem No. 1 42 Evolutionary Poem No. 2 42 3 A Poem for Myself 45 Report to the Mother 46 The Sun Came 47 ItWas a Funky Deal 48 Dark Prophecy: I Sing of Shine 49 For Malcolm, a Year After 50 APoem of Attrition 51 For Black Poets Who Think of Suicide 52 For Mary Ellen McAnally 53 The Keeping of a Promise 54 Ilu, the Talking Drum 55 Poem for the Liberation of Southern Africa 57 Television Speaks 59 On Watching Politicians Perform at Martin Luther King's Funeral 60 4 A Fable 63 Memo #9 64 Memo #32 64 Memo #2 65 Memo #5 65 Portrait of Mary 66 My Uncle is My Honor and a Guest in My House 67 CONTENTS I and Your Eyes 69 On the Birth of a Black I Baby I Boy 70 Birthday Poem 72 Cop-Out Session 73 A Poem to Galway Kinnell 74 Missouri Haiku 76 Boone County Outside St. Louis Clay County Mizzu Indiana Haiku 77 Riverside Park Indiana Avenue, 1949 Indianapolis Winter, 1973 We Free Singers Be 78 Talking in the Woods with Karl Amorelli 80 Boston 5:00 A.M.-10174 82 A Poem on the Middle East "Peace Process" 83 Haiku 1 84 Memo #43 84 And Tell Me Poet, Can Love Exist in Slavery? 85 Green Grass and Yellow Balloons 86 Belly Song 88 Apology for Apostasy? 92 Con I Tin I U I Way I Shun Blues 93 5 On Seeing the Black Male as # 1Sex Object in America 97 Last Words by "Slick" 98 Haiku 99 CONTENTS Genesis 11 102 Eat Helen B Happy 103 Various Protestations from Various People 104 At a VA Hospital in the Middle of the United States of America: An Act in a Play 105 On the Projects Playground 108 Circling the Daughter 109 For a Brookline Lady I Love 110 Once on a Night in the Delta: A Report from Hell 111 A Black Poet Leaps to His Death 112 Rehabilitation & Treatment in the Prisons of America 114 THE ESSENTIAL ETHERIDGE KNIGHT ...