Kin: Poems

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments: The following poems or versions of these poems have appeared in: A Gathering oj the Tribes ("Once Upon A Time"); African T0ices ("Collard Folk"); Beyond the Frontier ("In Search of Aunt Jemima"); Catch the Fire: A Cross-Generational Anthology oj ilfrican American Poets ("In Search of Aunt Jemima"); Icarus ("In Search of Aunt Jemima;' "Prayer;' "At 25 I Have Already Begun To Like Lou Rawls;' "Zawadi," and "As On Every Saturday at 12,"); Salonika ("Collard Folk" and "Prayer" which appeared as "Joy"); The Madison Review ("It Wasn't Not Funny" and "Refrigerator Mouth"); The Red Brick Review ("Dre"); Pandora ("Johnny"); WV ("Dreadlock"); and "In Search of Aunt Jemima" appeared in Poetry Nation: the North American Anthology oj Fusion Poetry, edited by Regie Cabico and Todd Swift, published by Vehicule Press. The following people deserve my gratitude: Robert Gumbleton for the walrus; Mary Dorothy Payette for the lessons in having soup; the McGrath's for your sweet songs; Marilyn "Mud" McCormick-for everything and forever; Freida Gorrecht and Virginia Crowthers for brushing off the bruises; Kenneth Carroll for generosity; Mrs. A. Leach for lunch; and Dr. Olive Taylor for context. For their support of and advice on the compilation of this manuscript: Gabrielle Civil, Poppy, Kenneth A. McClane. For their generous encouragement: Martha Ann Bates, Ruth Danon, Jennifer Egan, Susanna Kaysen, James Lineville, M. Mark, Georgia A. Popoff, and Karen Volkman. For their friendship, love to: Barry Abrams, Skip Baker, Ava Chin, E. Catherine Falvey (and Anna Laura Grace), Daryl Garrett, Cheryll Y. Greene (and Kamali), Marie King, Rosamond King, Paula Kennedy, Steven Klym, Anne Larsen, Jennifer Lee, JoAnn McGreevy, Betty Miller, Benjamin Muhammad (and Shakirah), Michael and Claire Neal, James Nevius, and Robyn M. Turner. xi Additional thanks to: my cohorts at the NYU Book Centers, The Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, The Women's Auxilary (Aunt May, Aunt Lynn, Leona, Vicki, and Sandi), Steve Canon, Keith Roach for the ongoing nudge, Bob Holman, all the performance poets (write on!), The Nuyorican Poets Cafe for providing such an essential forum, and wherever you are, whoever you are, to my biological family, for having a faith big enough to let me go ... xii ...