For Sonia Sanchez on the Publication of Shake Loose My Skin, 1999
- For Sonia Sanchez on the Publication of Shake Loose My Skin, 1999
Cave Canem: A Special Section
You held the knife to evil
when you were just a girl You have always
made a clear line.
I think of you singing, how the words rush over you like a
waterfall, how your body shivers, like a saint
holding still in the tongues
of fire. You stutter now in God’s name.
Out of what haze & sleep
(in which nobody knows my name) do you call me? I
hold you tender. Our life is short.
We’ve chosen who we love.
Toi Derricotte is author of four books of poetry and a memoir, The Black Notebooks. The Black Notebooks won the Annisfield-Wolf Award in nonfiction and the nonfiction award from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association in 1997. Her latest book of poems, Tender, won the Paterson Poetry Prize in 1998. She is co-founder (with Cornelius Eady) of Cave Canem, the first workshop for African-American poets.
