- Belly Song (for the Daytop Family)
“You have made somethingOut of the sea that blewAnd rolled you on its salt bitter lips.It nearly swallowed you.But I hearYou are tough and harder to swallow than most . . .”
1 And I and I / must admit that the sea in you has sung / to the sea / in me and I and I / must admit that the sea in me has fallen / 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 give / to you. This poem is a song / I sing / I sing / to you from the bottom of the sea in my belly
This poem This poem This poem / is a song / about FEELINGS [End Page 953] about the Bone of feeling about the Stone of feeling And the Feather of feeling
2 This poem This poem This poem / is / a death / chant and a grave / stone and a prayer for the dead: for young Jackie Robinson a moving Blk / warrior who walked among us with a side / 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 / who was /
a song and a stone and a Feather of feeling now dead and / gone / in this month of love
This poem This poem / is / a sliver feather and the sun-god / glinting / green hills breathing river flowing—for Sheryl and David—and their first / kiss by the river—for Mark and Sue and a Sunday walk on her grand / father’s farm for Sammy and Marion—love rhythms for Michael and Jean—love rhythms love / rhythms—love rhythms—and LIFE
3 This poem This poem This poem This poem / is / for ME—for me and the days / that lay / in the back of my mind when the sea / rose up / to swallow me [End Page 954] and the streets I walked were lonely streets were stone / cold streets
This poem This poem / is / for me / and 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 / is / 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 and I and I / must admit that the sea in me has fallen / in love with the sea in you because the sea that now sings / in you is the same sea that nearly swallowed you— and me too.
Seymour, Connecticut
June 1971
Etheridge Knight (1931–1991) is author of Poems from Prison, Belly Song and Other Poems, and Born of a Woman: New and Selected Poems.
Footnotes
Reprinted by permission of Broadside Press.