The Essential Etheridge Knight

BELLY SONG

BELLY SONG "You have made something Out of the sea that blew And rolled you on its salt bitter lips. It nearly swallowed you. But I hear -for the Daytop Family You are tough and harder to swallow than most . . ." - S. Mansfield 1 And I and I I must admit that the sea in you has sung I to the sea I in me and I and I I must admit that the sea in me has fallen I in love with the sea in you because you have made something out of the sea that nearly swallowed you And this poem This poem This poem I I give I to you. This poem is a song I I sing I I sing I to you from the bottom of the sea in my belly This poem I is a song I about FEELINGS about the Bone of feeling about the Stone of feeling And the Feather of feeling 88 2 This poem This poem This poem I is I a death I chant and a grave I stone and a prayer for the dead: for young Jackie Robinson. a moving Blk I warrior who walked among us, with a wide I stride-and heavy heels moving moving moving thru the blood and mud and shit of Vietnam moving moving moving thru the blood and mud and dope of America for Jackie I who was I a song and a stone and a Feather of feeling now dead and I gone I in this month of love This poem This poem I is I a silver feather and the sun-gold I glinting I green hills breathing river flowing ... 3 This poem This poem This poem I is I for ME-for me and the days I that lay I in the back I of my mind 89 when the sea I rose up I to swallow me and the streets I walked were lonely streets were stone I cold streets This poem This poem I is I for me 1and the nights when I wrapped my feelings in a sheet of ice and stared at the stars thru iron bars and cried in the middle of my eyes ... This poem This poem This poem I is I for me and my woman and the yesterdays when she opened to me like a flower But I fell on her like a stone I fell on her like a stone . . . 4 And now-in my 40th year I have come here to this House of Feelings to this Singing Sea 90 and I and I I must admit that the sea in me has fallen I in love with the sea in you because the sea that now sings I in you is the same sea that nearly swallowed youandme too. 91 Seymour, Connecticut June 1971 ...