Beyond the Frontier: African American Poetry for the 21st Century
Item
Title
Beyond the Frontier: African American Poetry for the 21st Century
This edition
"Beyond the Frontier: African American Poetry for the 21st Century" . Ed. E. Ethelbert Miller. Baltimore: Black Classic, 2002. xx+572 pp.
Table of contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
THE MEMORY OF LANDSCAPES
● Bruce A. Jacobs / After the 200th White Person Locks Her Car Door at Me
● Toi Derricotte / Exists from Elmina Castle: Cape Coast, Ghana
● Yao (Hoke S. Glover, III) / Born
● Monifa A. Love / Trying to Sleep After Studying Color Photos of Goma
● Joanne M. Braxton / Invisibles
● Ruth-Miriam Garnett / Barrage
● M. Eliza Hamilton / The Woman Who Jumped
● Odetta D. Norton / Bound
● Felicia L. Morgenstern / Soul Roots
● Gale P. Jackson / 1619. Virginia
● Gale P. Jackson / 1691. Tituba of Salem
● Karen Williams / From the Spirit of Phillis Wheatley to the Spirit of Thomas Jefferson
● Calvin Forbes / Gone
● Verneda (Rikki) Lights / If Harriet Tubman Were Alive Today
● Mirlande Jean-Gilles / Circumcising Pandora
● Lenard D. Moore / Praisesong: From Son to Mother
● Stephen Caldwe Wright / Harvest
● Rohan B. Preston / Dream of Mango
● giovanni singleton / thermometer
● giovanni singleton / defensive driving
● Joy Dawson / Locks
● Pinkie Gordon Lane / Port Townsend Poems
● C. Yaphet Brinson / Haiku
● Charmaine A. Gill / Memorial
● Jabari Asim / Memory of Wings
● Angela Shannon / Returning the Water
● Keith Antar Mason / I Am a Creature of the Obvious
● Gideon Ferebee / Refugee
● André J. Baldwin / Moons…tides
● Sydney March / Legacy
● Jude Chudi Okpala / When Africa Speaks
● Wanda Winbush-David / African Sunrunner
● Odetta D. Norton / Senegal Sestina
● Odetta D. Norton / Tattoo, or Henna
● Duriel E. Harris / Meditations I
● Ronaldo V. Wilson / white
● Carl Phillips / Blue
● Yao (Hoke S. Glover, III) / Passing Through This House
● Monifa A. Love / Objects of Desire
● Allison Joseph / Poem for the Purchase of a First Bra
● Afaa Michael S. Weaver / Michele
● Oktavi / At Five
● Rosamond S. King / HELP
● Rosamond S. King / another day
● Maryland Nelson / Washboard Wizard
LANDMARKS: PEOPLE AND PLACES
● Marilyn Nelson / The Prayer of Miss Budd
● Marilyn Nelson / Drifter
● Sam Cornish / Love Song of a Red Cap
● Claude Wilkinson / Landmarks
● giovanni singleton / for my 27th birthday
● A. Van Jordan / A Debt is Paid
● Toi Derricotte / Boy at the Paterson Falls
● Saddi Khali / Walking On: A Declaration of Wholeness
● Sam Cornish / Something Terrible Something
● James E. Cherry / Pretty White Girls
● S. Brandi Barnes / Gentleman at the Barbershop
● mawiyah kai el-jamah bomani / Roots
● A. Van Jordan / Black Drag Queen
● Imani e. Wilson / fruitbowl 1
● Peter J. Harris / I Know I Aint Hip No More
● Crystal Williams / Revolutionary Thoughts
● Toi Derricotte / Christmas Eve: My Mother Dressing
● Crystal Williams / In Search of Aunt Jemima
● Mariahadessa Tallie / Raindrop Women
● Terrance Hayes / What I Am
● William Henry Lewis / To the People of a Small Town in Ohio, Who as I Approach Them on the Street, Are Afraid That This Black Man is Going to Do Them Harm
● Carole Boston Weatherford / The Tar Baby on the Soapbox
● Zak Robbins / Beaches
● Bruce A. Jacobs / Vivian, Take 57
● Janice W. Hodges / Annuals and Perennials
● Sam Cornish / Mississippi on the Doorstep
● Angela Jackson / The Love of Travellers
● reuben jackson / Smile
● Sam Cornish / Work to be Done
● Angela Jackson / The Fitting Room
● Charles Porter / Land of the Lost
● Michael Hill / City in You
● Esther Iverem / Peace Be Still
● Eli Goodwin / Untitled
● Wanda Coleman / American Sonnet (46)
● Bruce A. Jacobs / Black on Black
● Willie Abraham Howard, Jr. / Memorial Drive
● Angela Shannon / Sunday
● Toneka N. Bonitto Burwell / Going Home
● Toneka N. Bonitto Burwell / Leaving Winston-Salem
● Christopher Nickelson / charleston, south carolina
● Melvin E. Lewis / My Mother
● Janeya K. Hisle / We
● Melvin E. Lewis / Gullah Women
● Angela Shannon / JoNelle
● Opal Palmer Adisa / Things No One Told Me
● Angela Shannon / Integration
● Stacy Lynn / Dirt
● Eli Goodwin / After an All Day Skirmish with the Clouds
● Toi Derricotte / Black Bottom
● Afaa Michael S. Weaver / Baltimore
● Bruce A. Jacobs / Lost
● Garrett McDowell / Child in the New Delhi Sun
● Kalamu Ya Salaam / Threnody
● Yao (Hoke S. Glover, III) / Soledad
● Wendy S. Walters / Meridian Hill Terrace
● Erren Geraud Kelly / 7-30-96
● Rachel E. Harding / Brother is a Star
● D.J. Renegade / Call and Response
● Kimmika L.H. Williams / Snapshot: West Philly
● Rozell Caldwell / The Bible Buckle
● Lana C. Williams / Saints
● Yvonne A. Jackson / How to Make It
● John Frazier / Audre’s Son
● Bruce A. Jacobs / It’s a Dog’s Life
● Ronaldo V. Wilson / dungle sublime
● Joan Adams / Yellow is Me, But All the Same Are We
● Dorothy Phaire / An Irresistible Light
● George Elliott Clarke / April 19,19—: A Sonnet
● Janice W. Hodges / Bruised Children
● Allison Morris / Worry All the Time
● M. Eliza Hamilton / Midnight in Mississippi
● Matthew Watley / For the Man I Met on Georgia Ave.
● Nyere-Gibran Miller / My Family
● Patricia Elam / Mother’s Day at McDonald’s
● Bernard Keller / The Major
● Brian Gilmore / Hazing
● D.J. Renegade / Father and Son
● tyehimba jess / fathers shoes
● tyehimba jess / father country
● Arnold J. Kemp / 100 Times
● Imani Tolliver / those I love are sometimes white
● Willie Abraham Howard, Jr. / Paralyzed
● Yona Camille Harvey / The Museum Cashier
● Nzadi Zimele Keita / dedicated to the domestics
● Valerie Jean / Astrology?
● Artress Bethany White / Moon Daughters
● Carl Phillips / Passing
● Ronald D. Palmer / Sterling Brown
● Trasi Johnson / Matisse, Cut Outs
● Lorelei Williams / Stranger in the Village
● Carolyn Joyner / The Do Not Have to Nest in Your Hair
● Dana Gilkes / Rain Making
● Dana Gilkes / Thoughts From a 747
● Verneda (Rikki) Lights / Space
● Toi Derricotte / High School
● Monica A. Hand / Tattooed Girl
● Willie Abraham Howard, Jr. / Cross Burning Black
● Monica A. Hand / She-Ghosts of Tiresias
● Yao (Hoke S. Glover, III) / The Science of Forgetting
● Vicki- Ann Asservero / The Lock and Key
DANCING ON THE SHORE WITH SPIRITS, SINGERS AND MUSICIANS
● Lisa Elaine Johnson / Spirit of the Dancer
● Lisa Teasley / As Dancers
● Eddie Bell / Help is a Discotheque
● Reggie Timpson / for lester
● James E. Cherry / Bird
● Everett Goodwin / Mom Used to Listen to Erroll Garner
● Everett Goodwin / John Birks Gillespie: an appreciation and reflection
● Cornelius Eady / Chittlin’s
● Afaa Michael S. Weaver / Thelonius
● Gaston Neal / Monk
● Sydney March / Monk’s Misterioso
● Allison Joseph / The Fourth Supreme
● Lyn’elle Patrice Chapman / Stevie Wonder
● A. Anthony Vessup / The Mighty Blood
● Allison Joseph / Noon Talk at Georgia’s Coffee Shop
● Derrick X (Goldie Williams) / Burn Rubber on Me
● Cornelius Eady / Photo of Ron Carter, Playing His Bass
● Verneda (Rikki) Lights / Savannah Brass
● Houston A. Baker, Jr. / Set Piece
● Sydney March / A Thousand Marionettes
● Reggie Timpson / verbal gun shots
● Thomas Stanley / Dr. Jack
BLOOD AND DISAPPOINTMENT IN THE LAND
● James Coleman / Vipers, Flies, and Women of the Cloth
● John Frazier / Visiting Hours
● Ruth-Miriam Garnett / Concerning Violence
● Baba Lukata / Rehearsal
● Ira B. Jones / Alley Games 6/the ascension
● André J. Baldwin / Glass Box Puzzle No.1
● Zak Robbins / December 12th
● Stacy Lynn / Examination
● Kevin Simmonds / A White Man and the Judge
● Harriet Wilkes Washington / The Good Ole Days
● Dawn L. Hannaham / I Love You, Though You’re Unemployed
● Dawn L. Hannaham / If there’s no sugar
● Paul Jamal / The Edge
● asha bandele / the subtle art of breathing
● Gary Lilley / Who Sez Thunderbirds Can’t Fly
● Thomas Stanley / Imperialism-The Dancing Do Not Die
● Merilene M. Murphy / park mole
● Brandon D. Johnson / The Artifice of War
● Tammy Lynn Pertillar / Generation Gap
● Gary Lilley / Funeral
● Mbali Umoja / Say Something: A Change is Gonna Come
● William Henry Lewis / Some Solace, Some Yearning
● Toni Asante Lightfoot / In Oklahoma
● Nzadi Zimele Keita / black tax
● Nzadi Zimele Keita / what is left
● John Frazier / A Guard
● John Frazier / Sorrow Song
● Jabari Asim / 1st Lt. Vernon J. Baker: Hero on the Hill
● Jabari Asim / Staff. Sgt. Edward A. Carter, Jr.: There and Back
● Jabari Asim / 1st Lt. John R. Fox: Rain of Fire
● Harold L. Johnson / The Names of Summer: A War Memory
● Harold L. Johnson / At the Jackson Pollock Retrospective in L.A.
● Viki Radden / Our Second NIght
● Lenard D. Moore / Letter from Kuwait
● Lenard D. Moore / a black soldier
● S.P. Shephard / Four and Twenty Soldiers
● S.P. Shephard / Come and See My Little Toys
● S.P. Shephard / Homeless Vets
● S.P. Shephard / Suicides and Fools
● Garrett McDowell / Lights of the Bigtop
● Robert Fleming / this mortal coil
BEYOND THE FRONTIER
● Calvin Forbes / The Plea
● Lori Tsang / Girlfriend
● Honorée F. Jeffers / To Keep from Shouting Something
● Melanie Hope / Our Mothers
● Cherryl Floyd-Miller / she kneels at the wailing wall
● Afaa Michael S. Weaver / Color-Struck
● Duriel E. Harris / For My Mother
● Gideon Ferebee / For My Mother
● Gideon Ferebee / Fallen Bodies
● Robert Fleming / The Long Walk Home
● Nzadi Zimele Keita / back road
● Thandiwe Shiphrah / Grand Diva
● Thandiwe Shiphrah / to adam
● Thandiwe Shiphrah / Grandma
● M. Eliza Hamilton / While Communing with a Tree Near My Home
● Bruce A. Jacobs / Friendly Skies
● Janeya K. Hisle / And all the sisters said …
● Christopher Nickelson / angry sisters
● Christopher Nickelson / threemen
● Christopher Nickelson / Untitled
● Janeya K. Hisle / For Fatima and Her Co-wives
● Jacqueline Joan Johnson / What is There for Us?
● Pat Russell / Be Careful When You Go Looking For a Madonna Cuz You Just Might Find a Woman
● Nzadi Zimele Keita / Rising
● Nzadi Zimele Keita / Cycles
● Gary Lilley / Meetin the Conjure Woman
● Angela Shannon / Wet Oak
● Angela Shannon / Hands
● Artress Bethany White / The Beelzebub Chronicles
● Kay Lindsey / Stringbeans
● Clyde A. Wray / The Star
● Clyde A. Wray / Private Thoughts
● Afaa Michael S. Weaver / Sin, 1969
● Afaa Michael S. Weaver / Lines
● Terrance Hayes / Midnight
● Baba Lukata / Ashy Gal
● tyehimba jess / what does man do
● Kalamu Ya Salaam / Why I Don’t Leave the Apartment Until After Ten Some Mornings
● Kalamu Ya Salaam / haiku #135
● Estelle E. Farley / Grand Canyon
● Estelle E. Farley / Home Cookin
● Niama Leslie Williams / Daniel’s Hands
● Vincent Woodward / cornbread blues
● Laini Mataka / Licorice
● Laini Mataka / Can We Talk?
● Baba Lukata / Interpretations
● Carletta Carrington Wilson / kiss her that she don’t know how
● Imani Tolliver / fisher king
● Darrell Stover / Fire/Water Blues
● Dawn L. Hannaham / To a Flasher
● Michelle Calhoun Greene / Finished Poem
● Michelle Calhoun Greene / For My D.C. Girlfriends
● Lisa Pegram / Perspective
● Kevin Simmonds / The New Sestina
● Jennifer Lisa Vest / In This, the Fifth World
● Melvin E. Lewis / Hearts
● Tracie Morris / Why I Won’t Wear a Tatoo
● Tracie Morris / Lover’s Total Recall
● Tracie Morris / Just Say No Blues
● Tracie Morris / Prelude to a Kiss
● Lisa Pegram / yet another epiphany
● John Frazier / Deposed
● Lauren Anita Arrington / Untitled
● Nadir Lasana Bomani / (1/vacant)
● Kimmika L.H. Williams / I Watched
● Nzadi Zimele Keita / my sleeping husband
● Sybil J. Roberts / Poem #3
● reuben jackson / Love #49
● michael datcher / soul gestures in spring
● Charlie R. Braxton / Word/Life
● C. Yaphet Brinson / Sextet
● S. Brandi Barnes / Back to the Blues
● Merilene M. Murphy / when you say no
● mawiyah kai el-jamah bomani / Voudou Mama
● Cherryl Floyd-Miller / roots I: big momma speaks to jimmy’s wife
● Cherryl Floyd-Miller / roots II: the conjure woman replies
● Cherryl Floyd-Miller / taboo
● Nzadi Zimele Keita / lessons in lying
● Tisa Bryant / Stranger
● Doreen Baingana / More Than Anything
● reuben jackson / One More Once
● Janice W. Hodges / Control
● Alison Morris / Imani’s Song
● Stacy Lynn / Crushin
● Primus St. John / Obessions are Important
● David Earl Jackson / Nice SIster-Scholars Need Loving, Too
● Felicia L. Morgenstern / Temple of Your Familiar
● Felicia L. Morgenstern / Ride Me Baby, Ride Me
● Felicia L. Morgenstern / Hues of Electric Blue
● James Coleman / Black Women with Jewish Names
● Angela Jackson / Loving
● Viki Radden / Sex
● Viki Radden / When You Talk That Talk
● Viki Radden / Blood
● esther louise / jesus’ song
● Angela Jackson / Moment
CULTURAL WEBS AND NETS
● Joanne M. Braxton / Zoning
● Brian Gilmore / coming to the net
● Kwan Booth / Untitled One
● Matthew Watley / Negroes
● Peter J. Harris / The Next Malcolm Poem
● Allison Joseph / Shame of the Writers Conference
● Ta-Nehisi Coates / Gale Sayers
● Sam Cornish / Brown Bomber
● Sydney March / The Knockout
THE SONG TO COME
● Stephen Caldwell Wright / And the Birds Sing of Life
● Eli Goodwin / Confession
● Carl Hancock Rux / Just Asking
● Stacy Lynn / look in good
● Rohan B. Preston / When I Leave My Body
● Carl Phillips / As from a Quiver of Arrows
● Kiamsha Madelyn Leeke / october death
● Zak Robbins / October 7th
● Ira B. Jones / Haiku for My Brothers
● Bernard Keller / One Million Men Marching II.
● Bernard Keller / Keep a Good Thought
● Shara McCallum / What My Mother Taught Me
● Melanie Hope / Praise the Daughter
● Rachel E. Harding / Ezili Impending
● michael datcher / i am open
● Lorna Lowe / Sea Shells
● Matthew Watley / 100 Million
● Brandon D. Johnson / Storm
● Honorée F. Jeffers / Mary, Don’t You Weep
● Elaine Maria Upton / A Streetwalker Trying to Speak to Sojourner Truth
● mwatabu s. Okantah / the black experience
● mwatabu s. Okantah / African Morning
● mwatabu s. Okantah / market day
● James R. Lee / Stranger at Home
● Danielle Legros Georges / Anacaona
● Danielle Legros Georges / Another Ode to Salt
● Shara McCallum / Jamaica, October 18, 1972
● Jacqueline Joan Johnson / Saudades
● Jerry W. Ward, Jr. / Mississippi: Bell Zone 1
● Kenneth Carroll / For Brothas That Like to Holla
● Kysha N. Brown / a song for serpents
● Shara McCallum / Yu no send. Me no come.
● Pinkie Gordon Lane / Nuclear Peril
● Carletta Carrington Wilson / history of the quilt that heaved life into stars patched, circled, stitched and square
● S. Pearl Sharp / How to Build a Prayer
● Carole Boston Weatherford / From the Mouth of the Gxara
● Doreen Baingana / The Song to Come
● Lori Tsang / Lunching
● E. Juaguina Watkins-Cothran / The Beloved Ones
● esther louise / swinging doors of knocking-wood cowards
● Gigi Maria Ross / At the Threshold of the Moon
● Amitiyah Elayne Hyman / Surrender
● E. Ethelbert Miller / Morning Buddhism
Index
Contributors
Introduction
THE MEMORY OF LANDSCAPES
● Bruce A. Jacobs / After the 200th White Person Locks Her Car Door at Me
● Toi Derricotte / Exists from Elmina Castle: Cape Coast, Ghana
● Yao (Hoke S. Glover, III) / Born
● Monifa A. Love / Trying to Sleep After Studying Color Photos of Goma
● Joanne M. Braxton / Invisibles
● Ruth-Miriam Garnett / Barrage
● M. Eliza Hamilton / The Woman Who Jumped
● Odetta D. Norton / Bound
● Felicia L. Morgenstern / Soul Roots
● Gale P. Jackson / 1619. Virginia
● Gale P. Jackson / 1691. Tituba of Salem
● Karen Williams / From the Spirit of Phillis Wheatley to the Spirit of Thomas Jefferson
● Calvin Forbes / Gone
● Verneda (Rikki) Lights / If Harriet Tubman Were Alive Today
● Mirlande Jean-Gilles / Circumcising Pandora
● Lenard D. Moore / Praisesong: From Son to Mother
● Stephen Caldwe Wright / Harvest
● Rohan B. Preston / Dream of Mango
● giovanni singleton / thermometer
● giovanni singleton / defensive driving
● Joy Dawson / Locks
● Pinkie Gordon Lane / Port Townsend Poems
● C. Yaphet Brinson / Haiku
● Charmaine A. Gill / Memorial
● Jabari Asim / Memory of Wings
● Angela Shannon / Returning the Water
● Keith Antar Mason / I Am a Creature of the Obvious
● Gideon Ferebee / Refugee
● André J. Baldwin / Moons…tides
● Sydney March / Legacy
● Jude Chudi Okpala / When Africa Speaks
● Wanda Winbush-David / African Sunrunner
● Odetta D. Norton / Senegal Sestina
● Odetta D. Norton / Tattoo, or Henna
● Duriel E. Harris / Meditations I
● Ronaldo V. Wilson / white
● Carl Phillips / Blue
● Yao (Hoke S. Glover, III) / Passing Through This House
● Monifa A. Love / Objects of Desire
● Allison Joseph / Poem for the Purchase of a First Bra
● Afaa Michael S. Weaver / Michele
● Oktavi / At Five
● Rosamond S. King / HELP
● Rosamond S. King / another day
● Maryland Nelson / Washboard Wizard
LANDMARKS: PEOPLE AND PLACES
● Marilyn Nelson / The Prayer of Miss Budd
● Marilyn Nelson / Drifter
● Sam Cornish / Love Song of a Red Cap
● Claude Wilkinson / Landmarks
● giovanni singleton / for my 27th birthday
● A. Van Jordan / A Debt is Paid
● Toi Derricotte / Boy at the Paterson Falls
● Saddi Khali / Walking On: A Declaration of Wholeness
● Sam Cornish / Something Terrible Something
● James E. Cherry / Pretty White Girls
● S. Brandi Barnes / Gentleman at the Barbershop
● mawiyah kai el-jamah bomani / Roots
● A. Van Jordan / Black Drag Queen
● Imani e. Wilson / fruitbowl 1
● Peter J. Harris / I Know I Aint Hip No More
● Crystal Williams / Revolutionary Thoughts
● Toi Derricotte / Christmas Eve: My Mother Dressing
● Crystal Williams / In Search of Aunt Jemima
● Mariahadessa Tallie / Raindrop Women
● Terrance Hayes / What I Am
● William Henry Lewis / To the People of a Small Town in Ohio, Who as I Approach Them on the Street, Are Afraid That This Black Man is Going to Do Them Harm
● Carole Boston Weatherford / The Tar Baby on the Soapbox
● Zak Robbins / Beaches
● Bruce A. Jacobs / Vivian, Take 57
● Janice W. Hodges / Annuals and Perennials
● Sam Cornish / Mississippi on the Doorstep
● Angela Jackson / The Love of Travellers
● reuben jackson / Smile
● Sam Cornish / Work to be Done
● Angela Jackson / The Fitting Room
● Charles Porter / Land of the Lost
● Michael Hill / City in You
● Esther Iverem / Peace Be Still
● Eli Goodwin / Untitled
● Wanda Coleman / American Sonnet (46)
● Bruce A. Jacobs / Black on Black
● Willie Abraham Howard, Jr. / Memorial Drive
● Angela Shannon / Sunday
● Toneka N. Bonitto Burwell / Going Home
● Toneka N. Bonitto Burwell / Leaving Winston-Salem
● Christopher Nickelson / charleston, south carolina
● Melvin E. Lewis / My Mother
● Janeya K. Hisle / We
● Melvin E. Lewis / Gullah Women
● Angela Shannon / JoNelle
● Opal Palmer Adisa / Things No One Told Me
● Angela Shannon / Integration
● Stacy Lynn / Dirt
● Eli Goodwin / After an All Day Skirmish with the Clouds
● Toi Derricotte / Black Bottom
● Afaa Michael S. Weaver / Baltimore
● Bruce A. Jacobs / Lost
● Garrett McDowell / Child in the New Delhi Sun
● Kalamu Ya Salaam / Threnody
● Yao (Hoke S. Glover, III) / Soledad
● Wendy S. Walters / Meridian Hill Terrace
● Erren Geraud Kelly / 7-30-96
● Rachel E. Harding / Brother is a Star
● D.J. Renegade / Call and Response
● Kimmika L.H. Williams / Snapshot: West Philly
● Rozell Caldwell / The Bible Buckle
● Lana C. Williams / Saints
● Yvonne A. Jackson / How to Make It
● John Frazier / Audre’s Son
● Bruce A. Jacobs / It’s a Dog’s Life
● Ronaldo V. Wilson / dungle sublime
● Joan Adams / Yellow is Me, But All the Same Are We
● Dorothy Phaire / An Irresistible Light
● George Elliott Clarke / April 19,19—: A Sonnet
● Janice W. Hodges / Bruised Children
● Allison Morris / Worry All the Time
● M. Eliza Hamilton / Midnight in Mississippi
● Matthew Watley / For the Man I Met on Georgia Ave.
● Nyere-Gibran Miller / My Family
● Patricia Elam / Mother’s Day at McDonald’s
● Bernard Keller / The Major
● Brian Gilmore / Hazing
● D.J. Renegade / Father and Son
● tyehimba jess / fathers shoes
● tyehimba jess / father country
● Arnold J. Kemp / 100 Times
● Imani Tolliver / those I love are sometimes white
● Willie Abraham Howard, Jr. / Paralyzed
● Yona Camille Harvey / The Museum Cashier
● Nzadi Zimele Keita / dedicated to the domestics
● Valerie Jean / Astrology?
● Artress Bethany White / Moon Daughters
● Carl Phillips / Passing
● Ronald D. Palmer / Sterling Brown
● Trasi Johnson / Matisse, Cut Outs
● Lorelei Williams / Stranger in the Village
● Carolyn Joyner / The Do Not Have to Nest in Your Hair
● Dana Gilkes / Rain Making
● Dana Gilkes / Thoughts From a 747
● Verneda (Rikki) Lights / Space
● Toi Derricotte / High School
● Monica A. Hand / Tattooed Girl
● Willie Abraham Howard, Jr. / Cross Burning Black
● Monica A. Hand / She-Ghosts of Tiresias
● Yao (Hoke S. Glover, III) / The Science of Forgetting
● Vicki- Ann Asservero / The Lock and Key
DANCING ON THE SHORE WITH SPIRITS, SINGERS AND MUSICIANS
● Lisa Elaine Johnson / Spirit of the Dancer
● Lisa Teasley / As Dancers
● Eddie Bell / Help is a Discotheque
● Reggie Timpson / for lester
● James E. Cherry / Bird
● Everett Goodwin / Mom Used to Listen to Erroll Garner
● Everett Goodwin / John Birks Gillespie: an appreciation and reflection
● Cornelius Eady / Chittlin’s
● Afaa Michael S. Weaver / Thelonius
● Gaston Neal / Monk
● Sydney March / Monk’s Misterioso
● Allison Joseph / The Fourth Supreme
● Lyn’elle Patrice Chapman / Stevie Wonder
● A. Anthony Vessup / The Mighty Blood
● Allison Joseph / Noon Talk at Georgia’s Coffee Shop
● Derrick X (Goldie Williams) / Burn Rubber on Me
● Cornelius Eady / Photo of Ron Carter, Playing His Bass
● Verneda (Rikki) Lights / Savannah Brass
● Houston A. Baker, Jr. / Set Piece
● Sydney March / A Thousand Marionettes
● Reggie Timpson / verbal gun shots
● Thomas Stanley / Dr. Jack
BLOOD AND DISAPPOINTMENT IN THE LAND
● James Coleman / Vipers, Flies, and Women of the Cloth
● John Frazier / Visiting Hours
● Ruth-Miriam Garnett / Concerning Violence
● Baba Lukata / Rehearsal
● Ira B. Jones / Alley Games 6/the ascension
● André J. Baldwin / Glass Box Puzzle No.1
● Zak Robbins / December 12th
● Stacy Lynn / Examination
● Kevin Simmonds / A White Man and the Judge
● Harriet Wilkes Washington / The Good Ole Days
● Dawn L. Hannaham / I Love You, Though You’re Unemployed
● Dawn L. Hannaham / If there’s no sugar
● Paul Jamal / The Edge
● asha bandele / the subtle art of breathing
● Gary Lilley / Who Sez Thunderbirds Can’t Fly
● Thomas Stanley / Imperialism-The Dancing Do Not Die
● Merilene M. Murphy / park mole
● Brandon D. Johnson / The Artifice of War
● Tammy Lynn Pertillar / Generation Gap
● Gary Lilley / Funeral
● Mbali Umoja / Say Something: A Change is Gonna Come
● William Henry Lewis / Some Solace, Some Yearning
● Toni Asante Lightfoot / In Oklahoma
● Nzadi Zimele Keita / black tax
● Nzadi Zimele Keita / what is left
● John Frazier / A Guard
● John Frazier / Sorrow Song
● Jabari Asim / 1st Lt. Vernon J. Baker: Hero on the Hill
● Jabari Asim / Staff. Sgt. Edward A. Carter, Jr.: There and Back
● Jabari Asim / 1st Lt. John R. Fox: Rain of Fire
● Harold L. Johnson / The Names of Summer: A War Memory
● Harold L. Johnson / At the Jackson Pollock Retrospective in L.A.
● Viki Radden / Our Second NIght
● Lenard D. Moore / Letter from Kuwait
● Lenard D. Moore / a black soldier
● S.P. Shephard / Four and Twenty Soldiers
● S.P. Shephard / Come and See My Little Toys
● S.P. Shephard / Homeless Vets
● S.P. Shephard / Suicides and Fools
● Garrett McDowell / Lights of the Bigtop
● Robert Fleming / this mortal coil
BEYOND THE FRONTIER
● Calvin Forbes / The Plea
● Lori Tsang / Girlfriend
● Honorée F. Jeffers / To Keep from Shouting Something
● Melanie Hope / Our Mothers
● Cherryl Floyd-Miller / she kneels at the wailing wall
● Afaa Michael S. Weaver / Color-Struck
● Duriel E. Harris / For My Mother
● Gideon Ferebee / For My Mother
● Gideon Ferebee / Fallen Bodies
● Robert Fleming / The Long Walk Home
● Nzadi Zimele Keita / back road
● Thandiwe Shiphrah / Grand Diva
● Thandiwe Shiphrah / to adam
● Thandiwe Shiphrah / Grandma
● M. Eliza Hamilton / While Communing with a Tree Near My Home
● Bruce A. Jacobs / Friendly Skies
● Janeya K. Hisle / And all the sisters said …
● Christopher Nickelson / angry sisters
● Christopher Nickelson / threemen
● Christopher Nickelson / Untitled
● Janeya K. Hisle / For Fatima and Her Co-wives
● Jacqueline Joan Johnson / What is There for Us?
● Pat Russell / Be Careful When You Go Looking For a Madonna Cuz You Just Might Find a Woman
● Nzadi Zimele Keita / Rising
● Nzadi Zimele Keita / Cycles
● Gary Lilley / Meetin the Conjure Woman
● Angela Shannon / Wet Oak
● Angela Shannon / Hands
● Artress Bethany White / The Beelzebub Chronicles
● Kay Lindsey / Stringbeans
● Clyde A. Wray / The Star
● Clyde A. Wray / Private Thoughts
● Afaa Michael S. Weaver / Sin, 1969
● Afaa Michael S. Weaver / Lines
● Terrance Hayes / Midnight
● Baba Lukata / Ashy Gal
● tyehimba jess / what does man do
● Kalamu Ya Salaam / Why I Don’t Leave the Apartment Until After Ten Some Mornings
● Kalamu Ya Salaam / haiku #135
● Estelle E. Farley / Grand Canyon
● Estelle E. Farley / Home Cookin
● Niama Leslie Williams / Daniel’s Hands
● Vincent Woodward / cornbread blues
● Laini Mataka / Licorice
● Laini Mataka / Can We Talk?
● Baba Lukata / Interpretations
● Carletta Carrington Wilson / kiss her that she don’t know how
● Imani Tolliver / fisher king
● Darrell Stover / Fire/Water Blues
● Dawn L. Hannaham / To a Flasher
● Michelle Calhoun Greene / Finished Poem
● Michelle Calhoun Greene / For My D.C. Girlfriends
● Lisa Pegram / Perspective
● Kevin Simmonds / The New Sestina
● Jennifer Lisa Vest / In This, the Fifth World
● Melvin E. Lewis / Hearts
● Tracie Morris / Why I Won’t Wear a Tatoo
● Tracie Morris / Lover’s Total Recall
● Tracie Morris / Just Say No Blues
● Tracie Morris / Prelude to a Kiss
● Lisa Pegram / yet another epiphany
● John Frazier / Deposed
● Lauren Anita Arrington / Untitled
● Nadir Lasana Bomani / (1/vacant)
● Kimmika L.H. Williams / I Watched
● Nzadi Zimele Keita / my sleeping husband
● Sybil J. Roberts / Poem #3
● reuben jackson / Love #49
● michael datcher / soul gestures in spring
● Charlie R. Braxton / Word/Life
● C. Yaphet Brinson / Sextet
● S. Brandi Barnes / Back to the Blues
● Merilene M. Murphy / when you say no
● mawiyah kai el-jamah bomani / Voudou Mama
● Cherryl Floyd-Miller / roots I: big momma speaks to jimmy’s wife
● Cherryl Floyd-Miller / roots II: the conjure woman replies
● Cherryl Floyd-Miller / taboo
● Nzadi Zimele Keita / lessons in lying
● Tisa Bryant / Stranger
● Doreen Baingana / More Than Anything
● reuben jackson / One More Once
● Janice W. Hodges / Control
● Alison Morris / Imani’s Song
● Stacy Lynn / Crushin
● Primus St. John / Obessions are Important
● David Earl Jackson / Nice SIster-Scholars Need Loving, Too
● Felicia L. Morgenstern / Temple of Your Familiar
● Felicia L. Morgenstern / Ride Me Baby, Ride Me
● Felicia L. Morgenstern / Hues of Electric Blue
● James Coleman / Black Women with Jewish Names
● Angela Jackson / Loving
● Viki Radden / Sex
● Viki Radden / When You Talk That Talk
● Viki Radden / Blood
● esther louise / jesus’ song
● Angela Jackson / Moment
CULTURAL WEBS AND NETS
● Joanne M. Braxton / Zoning
● Brian Gilmore / coming to the net
● Kwan Booth / Untitled One
● Matthew Watley / Negroes
● Peter J. Harris / The Next Malcolm Poem
● Allison Joseph / Shame of the Writers Conference
● Ta-Nehisi Coates / Gale Sayers
● Sam Cornish / Brown Bomber
● Sydney March / The Knockout
THE SONG TO COME
● Stephen Caldwell Wright / And the Birds Sing of Life
● Eli Goodwin / Confession
● Carl Hancock Rux / Just Asking
● Stacy Lynn / look in good
● Rohan B. Preston / When I Leave My Body
● Carl Phillips / As from a Quiver of Arrows
● Kiamsha Madelyn Leeke / october death
● Zak Robbins / October 7th
● Ira B. Jones / Haiku for My Brothers
● Bernard Keller / One Million Men Marching II.
● Bernard Keller / Keep a Good Thought
● Shara McCallum / What My Mother Taught Me
● Melanie Hope / Praise the Daughter
● Rachel E. Harding / Ezili Impending
● michael datcher / i am open
● Lorna Lowe / Sea Shells
● Matthew Watley / 100 Million
● Brandon D. Johnson / Storm
● Honorée F. Jeffers / Mary, Don’t You Weep
● Elaine Maria Upton / A Streetwalker Trying to Speak to Sojourner Truth
● mwatabu s. Okantah / the black experience
● mwatabu s. Okantah / African Morning
● mwatabu s. Okantah / market day
● James R. Lee / Stranger at Home
● Danielle Legros Georges / Anacaona
● Danielle Legros Georges / Another Ode to Salt
● Shara McCallum / Jamaica, October 18, 1972
● Jacqueline Joan Johnson / Saudades
● Jerry W. Ward, Jr. / Mississippi: Bell Zone 1
● Kenneth Carroll / For Brothas That Like to Holla
● Kysha N. Brown / a song for serpents
● Shara McCallum / Yu no send. Me no come.
● Pinkie Gordon Lane / Nuclear Peril
● Carletta Carrington Wilson / history of the quilt that heaved life into stars patched, circled, stitched and square
● S. Pearl Sharp / How to Build a Prayer
● Carole Boston Weatherford / From the Mouth of the Gxara
● Doreen Baingana / The Song to Come
● Lori Tsang / Lunching
● E. Juaguina Watkins-Cothran / The Beloved Ones
● esther louise / swinging doors of knocking-wood cowards
● Gigi Maria Ross / At the Threshold of the Moon
● Amitiyah Elayne Hyman / Surrender
● E. Ethelbert Miller / Morning Buddhism
Index
Contributors
Item Number
A0359