April is National Poetry Month, and today we celebrate by remembering the work of poet Amiri Baraka.
Amiri Baraka (previously known as LeRoi Jones), was an American writer of poems, drama, fiction, essays, and music criticism. He received the PEN/Beyond Margins Award in 2008 for Tales of the Out and the Gone. Baraka’s career spanned nearly 50 years, and his themes range from black liberation to white racism. In the African-American community, some compare Baraka to James Baldwin and recognize him as one of the most respected and most widely published black writers of his generation. (via Wikipedia)
We honor the occasion with five excellent Amiri Baraka poems…
*** Books by Amiri Baraka
Way Out West
Amiri Baraka
Found in:
S.O.S. Poems 1961-2013
SNIPPET:
As simple an act
as opening the eyes. Merely
coming into things by degrees.
Morning: some tear is broken
on the wooden stairs
of my lady’s eyes. Profusions
of green. The leaves. Their
constant prehensions. Like old
junkies on Sheridan Square, eyes
cold and round. There is a song
Nat Cole sings . . . This city
& the intricate disorder
of the seasons.
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IMAGE CREDIT: David Sasaki. Creative Commons License via Wikimedia Commons.
C. Christopher Smith is the founding editor of The Englewood Review of Books. He is also author of a number of books, including most recently How the Body of Christ Talks: Recovering the Practice of Conversation in the Church (Brazos Press, 2019). Connect with him online at: C-Christopher-Smith.com
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