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The Golden Shovel Anthology: New Poems Honoring Gwendolyn Brooks
The Golden Shovel Anthology: New Poems Honoring Gwendolyn Brooks
The Golden Shovel Anthology: New Poems Honoring Gwendolyn Brooks
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The Golden Shovel Anthology: New Poems Honoring Gwendolyn Brooks

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“The cross-section of poets with varying poetics and styles gathered here is only one of the many admirable achievements of this volume.”
—Claudia Rankine in the New York Times


The Golden Shovel Anthology celebrates the life and work of poet and civil rights icon Gwendolyn Brooks through a dynamic new poetic form, the Golden Shovel, created by National Book Award–winner Terrance Hayes.

An array of writers—including winners of the Pulitzer Prize, the T. S. Eliot Prize, and the National Book Award, as well as a couple of National Poets Laureate—have written poems for this exciting new anthology: Rita Dove, Billy Collins, Danez Smith, Nikki Giovanni, Sharon Olds, Tracy K. Smith, Mark Doty, Sharon Draper, Richard Powers, and Julia Glass are just a few of the contributing poets.

This second edition includes Golden Shovel poems by two winners and six runners-up from an international student poetry competition judged by Nora Brooks Blakely, Gwendolyn Brooks’s daughter. The poems by these eight talented high school students add to Ms. Brooks’s legacy and contribute to the depth and breadth of this anthology.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateJun 7, 2019
ISBN9781610756648
The Golden Shovel Anthology: New Poems Honoring Gwendolyn Brooks
Author

Terrance Hayes

Terrance Hayes is the author of four collections including Lighthead, winner of the 2010 National Book Award in Poetry; Hip Logic, which won the National Poetry Series; and Muscular Music, winner of the Kate Tufts Discovery Award. He is a professor of creative writing at The University of Pittsburgh and lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with his wife, the poet Yona Harvey, and their family.

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    Book preview

    The Golden Shovel Anthology - Peter Kahn

    SECOND EDITION

    The cross-section of poets with varying poetics and styles gathered here is only one of the many admirable achievements of this volume.

    —CLAUDIA RANKINE in the New York Times

    Varied and dazzling.

    Kenyon Review

    A lovely tribute, as well as an excellent collection of new work by a wide range of many of our most exciting contemporary poets.

    New York Times Magazine

    Fresh and vital.

    Poetry

    A substantial and dynamic contribution to American literature.

    Booklist

    An expansive and extraordinary assemblage.

    Boston Globe

    Seesaws between the familiar and the strange, the comfort of received language and the shock of the never-before said.

    Broad Street Review

    The Golden Shovel Anthology

    NEW POEMS HONORING GWENDOLYN BROOKS

    SECOND EDITION

    Edited by Peter Kahn, Ravi Shankar, and Patricia Smith

    With a Foreword by Terrance Hayes

    The University of Arkansas Press

    Fayetteville

    2019

    Copyright © 2019 by The University of Arkansas Press

    All rights reserved

    Manufactured in the United States of America

    ISBN: 978-1-68226-095-1

    e-ISBN: 978-1-61075-664-8

    23    22    21    20    19        5    4    3    2    1

    Text design by Ellen Beeler

    The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials Z39.48-1984.

    Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

    Names: Kahn, Peter (Peter R.), editor. | Shankar, Ravi, 1975–  editor. | Smith, Patricia, 1955–  editor. | Hayes, Terrance, writer of foreword. | Brooks, Gwendolyn, 1917–2000, honouree. | Container of (work): Brooks, Gwendolyn, 1917–2000. Poems. Selections.

    Title: The golden shovel anthology : new poems honoring Gwendolyn Brooks / edited by Peter Kahn, Ravi Shankar, and Patricia Smith ; With a foreword by Terrance Hayes.

    Description: Second edition. | Fayetteville : The University of Arkansas Press, 2019. |

    Identifiers: LCCN 2019008580 (print) | LCCN 2019012108 (ebook) | ISBN 9781610756648 (electronic) | ISBN 9781682260951 | ISBN 9781682260951(paperback :alk. paper) | ISBN 9781610756648(e-ISBN)

    Subjects: LCSH: Brooks, Gwendolyn, 1917–2000. | Brooks, Gwendolyn, 1917–2000—Influence. | Poetry, Modern—21st century.

    Classification: LCC PS3503.R7244 (ebook) | LCC PS3503.R7244 Z655 2019 (print) | DDC 811/.608—dc23

    LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019008580

    Contents

    Foreword by Terrance Hayes

    Acknowledgments

    Preface to the Second Edition

    Introduction

    The Golden Shovel Terrance Hayes

    Selected Poems by Gwendolyn Brooks

    A Sunset of the City

    kitchenette building

    Boy Breaking Glass

    a song in the front yard

    The Bean Eaters

    The Anniad

    ARACELIS GIRMAY

    After

    HAILEY LEITHAUSER

    What There Is to Spend

    Appendix to the Anniad

    PAUL MARTINEZ-POMPA

    Next Time Honey

    RACHEL RICHARDSON

    A Halo for Her Invisible Hair

    The Artists’ and Models’ Ball

    ANNE SHAW

    Weather Report

    An Aspect of Love, Alive in the Ice and Fire

    PATTIANN ROGERS

    First Summer Song

    RENÉE WATSON

    An Aspect of Love

    Ballad of Pearl May Lee

    SUSAN WHEELER

    Stay, Dear

    The Ballad of Rudolph Reed

    ANDREW MOTION

    Conjunction

    The Bean Eaters

    BONNIE JO CAMPBELL

    Resurrection

    CAITLIN DOYLE

    The Parrot Man

    SANDRA M. GILBERT

    The Fava Bean-Eaters

    NIKKI GIOVANNI

    At the Evening of Life

    DIANE GLANCY

    Evening

    JACK POWERS

    Roadside Diner: Fairfield, Maine

    CHRISTIAN ROBINSON

    Next to the Flatware

    PHILIP SCHULTZ

    New Year’s Eve in Times Square

    Beverly Hills, Chicago

    DIDI JACKSON

    Golden Shovel Buddha

    MAJOR JACKSON

    Stand Your Ground

    ANGELA NARCISO TORRES

    September, Chicago

    The Birth in a Narrow Room

    JENNY BOULLY

    Child Tipping Forever

    The Blackstone Rangers

    JUDY BLUNDELL

    What is betrayal but a construct?

    CHELSEA DIXON

    The Ache

    RANDALL HORTON

    A Love Jones in a Booming Economy

    QURAYSH ALI LANSANA

    1972 ford ltd

    MIKE PUICAN

    FUNERAL Sign

    KELLY REUTER

    After the Eulogy

    NATALIE RICHARDSON

    Cure and Curry

    DEBRIS STEVENSON

    i. Cecil Park—High as the Swings ii. Dutch Pot Dancing

    Boy Breaking Glass

    MEENA ALEXANDER

    Imagine This

    CATHERINE BROGAN

    Boys Breaking Glass

    HANNAH GAMBLE

    Asked why I always have to be so negative I

    M. AYODELE HEATH

    Ornithology

    PAM HOUSTON

    Behind in the Count

    TROY JOLLIMORE

    Sleeping under Stars

    PHILIP LEVINE

    The Second Going

    ERIKA MEITNER

    Meadowlands

    MICHAEL MEYERHOFER

    Opening Ceremonies, 2012

    DEB NYSTROM

    When He Doesn’t Come Home

    CLARE POLLARD

    Boy Breaking Glass, Peckham

    EMMETT, JIM, AND KAREN SHEPARD

    Vagrant

    DAVID WAGONER

    That Boy Is Still Breaking Glass

    JOHN COREY WHALEY

    So There

    A Bronzeville Mother Loiters in Mississippi. Meanwhile, a Mississippi Mother Burns Bacon

    TERRY BLACKHAWK

    Tallahatchie

    KWAME DAWES

    Grown Up

    RAVEN HOGUE

    Yazoo City

    Bronzeville Woman in a Red Hat

    LATASHA N. NEVADA DIGGS

    Cling

    EUGENE GLORIA

    The Maid

    MAXINE KUMIN

    At the Capitol Hill Suites, 1985

    STEPHANIE STRICKLAND

    In a Red Hat

    The Chicago Defender Sends a Man to Little Rock

    SHARON DRAPER

    Bleeding Brownish Boy

    RITA WILLIAMS-GARCIA

    Meanwhile in the Henhouse

    JAKE ADAM YORK

    In Little Rock

    The Chicago Picasso

    MAURA STANTON

    The Seahorse

    KEVIN STEIN

    Ars Poetica Composed While Dressing in the Dark

    LIANE STRAUSS

    Tender Visits

    The Children of the Poor

    SIOBHAN CAMPBELL

    The Climb

    BRENDA CÁRDENAS

    What Will We Give Our Children?

    KYLE DARGAN

    Sustenance

    REGINALD GIBBONS

    A Neighborhood in Chicago

    LAURIE ANN GUERRERO

    Play the Song

    JANICE N. HARRINGTON

    Eve Wept

    RUTH ELLEN KOCHER

    If Divorce Were Our Concerto

    SASHA PIMENTEL

    At the Lake’s Shore, I sit with the sister, resting

    SHAZEA QURAISHI

    The Inconditions of Love

    DON SHARE

    On a Station of the L

    BRUCE SMITH

    Cry, Baby Garnet Mimms & the Enchanters sang & The Sky is Crying

    STEPHANIE LANE SUTTON

    Women of the Poor

    SPRING ULMER

    Slave Ship Captain’s Great-great Granddaughter

    RONALD WALLACE

    Lost softness softly makes a trap for us

    The Coora Flower

    JERICHO BROWN

    Stay

    Exhaust the Little Moment. Soon It Dies.

    KAREN VOLKMAN

    Two Collisions

    The Explorer

    ADRIAN MATEJKA

    The Explorer

    First Fight. Then Fiddle.

    LISA WILLIAMS

    First Fight. Then Fiddle.

    Garbageman: The Man with the Orderly Mind

    FRANNY CHOI

    INSTRUCTIONS: Say it like it is.

    OLIVER DE LA PAZ

    Blue Graffiti

    DENISE DUHAMEL

    Recycling

    DAVID GUTERSON

    The Occasioned Contrition of a Cynic

    LLOYD SCHWARTZ

    Is Light Enough?

    GRAEME SIMSION

    Truth and the Garbageman

    MATTHEW ZAPRUDER

    Is Light Enough?

    Gay Chaps at the Bar

    SANDRA BEASLEY

    Non-Commissioned (A Quartet)

    CM BURROUGHS

    Stillborn [In Memory Of]

    LAURA MULLEN

    Amen

    CHRISTINA PUGH

    Stand Your Ground

    DANEZ SMITH

    The 17 Year-Old & The Gay Bar

    LEWIS TURCO

    Omen

    Jessie Mitchell’s Mother

    JASWINDER BOLINA

    Jessie Mitchell’s Father

    MIRIAM NASH

    Greatgrandfather’s Woods

    UGOCHI NWAOGWUGWU

    Split Personality

    Kitchenette Building

    GREGORY DJANIKIAN

    Feather and Bone

    PETER KAHN

    Gray

    JOSÉ OLIVAREZ

    On My Eyelashes

    ALICIA OSTRIKER

    Dry Hours

    MAYA PINDYCK

    Close Memory

    BARBARA JANE REYES

    We pray, and

    SASHA ROGELBERG

    Who Has Given Us Life

    GEORGE SZIRTES

    We are things of dry hours and the involuntary plan

    ROBERT WRIGLEY

    Even If We Were Willing

    The Last Quatrain of the Ballad of Emmett Till

    CHRISTIAN CAMPBELL

    After the Burial: A Stanza

    MICHAEL COLLIER

    Len Bias, a Bouquet of Flowers, and Ms. Brooks

    MYRA SKLAREW

    Money, Mississippi 1955

    PATRICIA SMITH

    Black, Poured Directly into the Wound

    The Life of Lincoln West

    HONOR MOORE

    Variation, the Birth of Lincoln West

    A Light and Diplomatic Bird

    FIKAYO BALOGUN

    Birdie

    TRACI BRIMHALL

    Humbug Epithalamium

    STEPHEN DUNN

    I Do Not Want to Be

    LEONTIA FLYNN

    1982

    NIKKI GRIMES

    Storm

    DOROTHEA LASKY

    A Final and Unrepentant, Silent, Sorry Bird

    LISA GLUSKIN STONESTREET

    the little-known bird of the inner eye

    TERESE SVOBODA

    Bird Boy

    TANA JEAN WELCH

    Sanctuary

    JANE YOLEN

    Solitaire

    A Lovely Love

    NICOLE COOLEY

    Of Marriage: River, Lake and Vein

    REBECCA HAZELTON

    House With an X on the Door

    COLLEEN MCELROY

    Throwing Stones at the All White Pool

    The Lovers of the Poor

    NATHANIEL BELLOWS

    A Legacy

    ALISON HAWTHORNE DEMING

    Cartoon

    NATHAN HOKS

    The Empathy Nest

    AMY LEMMON

    Logistics for Thursday

    RACHEL MCKIBBENS

    Black Friday

    GREGORY PARDLO

    The Wedding Planners

    LEAH UMANSKY

    The Left-Hour

    A Man of the Middle Class

    ELISE PASCHEN

    Division Street

    TRACY K. SMITH

    Semi-Splendid

    Mentors

    SHARON OLDS

    Golden Nosegay

    BARON WORMSER

    Sentence

    The Mother

    JEHANNE DUBROW

    My Mother Speaks to Her Daughter, Not Yet Born

    RACHEL CONTRENI FLYNN

    Daughter-Mother

    ADAM M. LEVIN

    We were gonna go through with it, and then we lost it.

    GAIL MAZUR

    Believe That Even in My Deliberateness I Was Not Deliberate

    PATRICIA MCCARTHY

    Childless Woman

    PAULA MEEHAN

    The Ghost Song

    SHARON OLDS

    Missing Miss Brooks

    KEVIN PRUFER

    From the Hospital

    ALBERTO RÍOS

    Even-Keeled and At-Eased

    JOSHUA MARIE WILKINSON

    My Own Dead

    RICHARD ZABRANSKY

    The Single Neighbor Threatens My Family

    My Dreams, My Works, Must Wait till after Hell

    AMA CODJOE

    Body of a Woman, Tail of a Fish

    BILLY COLLINS

    I remember those long nights when I

    ANDREA HOLLANDER

    Her Mouth, His Eyes

    PATRICIA SPEARS JONES

    After Hell

    JOYELLE MCSWEENEY

    ASEA

    WILLIE PERDOMO

    The Best Thing to Do

    RICHARD POWERS

    So I Wait

    BOB SHACOCHIS

    Send Me Home

    AL YOUNG

    Key to the Dollar Store

    My Own Sweet Good

    RITA DOVE

    From the Sidelines

    The Near-Johannesburg Boy

    JACKIE WILLS

    Johannesburg 2013

    Negro Hero

    JOHN KOETHE

    The Killer inside Me

    DAVID LEHMAN

    Exact Change

    Of De Witt Williams on His Way to Lincoln Cemetery

    WESLEY ROTHMAN

    Incarceration Blues

    Of Robert Frost

    JON DAVIS

    Of Gwendolyn Brooks

    ISHION HUTCHINSON

    Homage: Gwendolyn Brooks

    ELIZABETH MACKLIN

    Some Glowing in the Common Blood

    MICHAEL RYAN

    No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.

    Old Mary

    TARA BETTS

    Go

    One Wants a Teller in a Time like This

    BOB HOLMAN

    One Wants a Teller in a Time like This

    A Penitent Considers Another Coming of Mary

    AMANDA AUCHTER

    Mary

    Primer for Blacks

    DOMINIQUE CHRISTINA

    The Hunger

    AARON SAMUELS

    When Grandma Goes to the Moon

    Pygmies Are Pygmies Still, Though Percht on Alps

    AMY GERSTLER

    Cosmic Party Crasher

    JOHN HEGLEY

    Pygmalion Director Wishes to Enliven Production

    Queen of the Blues

    KIM ADDONIZIO

    Queen of the Game

    Riders to the Blood-Red Wrath

    JENNIFER PERRINE

    From Iraq, A Tattoo

    Riot

    DAVID BAKER

    Stolen Sonnet

    ASIA CALCAGNO

    Gravestones

    RACHEL DEWOSKIN

    Taunting the Turkey Vultures with Love

    HELEN FROST

    Softer Sounds

    LIZ LOCHHEAD

    Beyond It

    ROGER ROBINSON

    Brixton Revo 2011

    The Rites for Cousin Vit

    MONA ARSHI

    Blue Finch

    HOA NGUYEN

    Offbeat

    WILLIAM STOBB

    Cousin

    DAN SULLIVAN

    There Are Mornings

    Sadie and Maud

    FLORENCE LADD

    Sadie and Maud

    GAIL CARSON LEVINE

    Maud and Sadie

    The Second Sermon on the Warpland

    DANIELLE CADENA DEULEN

    Medics

    MARK DOTY

    Advice from Ms. Brooks, With Elaborations

    CHERISE A. POLLARD

    Reflections on Invictus

    MAUREEN SEATON

    Bigly in the Wild Weed

    The Sermon on the Warpland

    MALIKA BOOKER

    A Parable of Sorts

    A Song in the Front Yard

    JOHN BURNSIDE

    A Peek at the Back

    PETER COOLEY

    My Life Has Been No Smaller Than My Mind

    MARIAHADESSA EKERE TALLIE

    Gap-Toothed Woman

    AISLING FAHEY

    Walthamstow Central

    LINDSAY HUNTER

    Our Home

    ANGELA JOHNSON

    Troubled

    JACOB POLLEY

    Twelve Weeks

    JON SANDS

    Statue

    DIANE SEUSS

    back yard song

    EVIE SHOCKLEY

    song in the back yard

    JEANANN VERLEE

    Careful the Blood

    FRED WAH

    Somewhere where

    The Sonnet-Ballad

    NICK LANTZ

    Deployed

    JAMAAL MAY

    The Names of Leaves in War

    MICHELE PARKER RANDALL

    Breaking House

    VIRGINIA EUWER WOLFF

    Dusk

    TIMOTHY YU

    Moon

    Speech to the Young, Speech to the Progress-Toward

    MARILYN NELSON

    Bird-Feeder

    Still Do I Keep My Look, My Identity

    MONIZA ALVI

    I still don’t know

    RAYMOND ANTROBUS

    The Artist

    HANNAH SRAJER

    Third Infidelity

    Strong Men, Riding Horses

    ONI BUCHANAN

    Pasted to Stars Already

    TISHANI DOSHI

    Strong Men, Riding Horses

    DOUGLAS KEARNEY

    The Strong Strong Men Riding Strong Strong Horses after the West

    The Sundays of Satin-Legs Smith

    PATIENCE AGBABI

    Her Secret

    TERI CROSS DAVIS

    One Night Stand

    MARTY MCCONNELL

    note to the unconceived

    EILEEN MYLES

    Hot Water

    LAWRENCE RAAB

    Judas

    RAVI SHANKAR

    The Narcissist Breaks Up

    DARA WIER

    For Gwendolyn Brooks

    A Sunset of the City

    ELIZABETH BERG

    Yard Sale

    MAXINE CHERNOFF

    The sun had dimmed already

    DANIEL DONAGHY

    Somerset

    PERCIVAL EVERETT

    A circle finds its way and

    MARIA MAZZIOTTI GILLAN

    In Honor of Gwendolyn Brooks: A Shovel Poem

    FANNY HOWE

    Twang they. And I incline this ear to tin.

    LANGSTON KERMAN

    This Feels Permanent

    DORIANNE LAUX

    Lapse

    LEE MARTIN

    Twig by Twig

    E. ETHELBERT MILLER

    Just a Friend after Sunset

    KAMILAH AISHA MOON

    Golden Shovel

    NII AYIKWEI PARKES

    Awaiting Dawn

    LINDA PASTAN

    One Day Soon

    KATHLEEN ROONEY

    American Realness

    FIONA SAMPSON

    Travel Literature

    MARTHA SERPAS

    Funland

    LEE UPTON

    Already

    JULIE MARIE WADE

    Avow

    DANIELLE ZIPKIN

    Cold Sore

    Throwing Out the Flowers

    ELEANOR WILNER

    Over and Over and All

    To An Old Black Woman, Homeless, and Indistinct

    YONA HARVEY

    Necessarily

    To Be In Love

    JULIA GLASS

    Two Poems for Alec

    MAURA SNELL

    Hotel Lobby, April Evening

    TONY TRIGILIO

    To Be in Love

    To Black Women

    SHARON G. FLAKE

    She never saw life as hard

    To the Young Who Want to Die

    BOB HICOK

    Oath

    Truth

    CAMARA BROWN

    What I would ask of Manman Brigitte after seeing the African Burial Ground

    INUA ELLAMS

    No apps for sunlight

    CHRIS HAVEN

    The dark hangs heavily

    ELLEN DORÉ WATSON

    True & False

    INDIGO WILLIAMS

    Truth

    The Vacant Lot

    SUE DYMOKE

    The Way He Lived Now

    PHILIP GROSS

    Memento Mori

    FRANCINE J. HARRIS

    The Lot, Vacant Then

    We Real Cool

    MARY CALVIN

    1950: Norco, Louisiana

    STUART DISCHELL

    Parisian Shuffle

    CAMILLE T. DUNGY

    Because it looked hotter that way

    JOY HARJO

    An American Sunrise

    EDWARD HIRSCH

    As Young Poets in Chicago

    ELLEN HOPKINS

    How Cool Are We?

    GAHL LIBERZON

    The Old NZ

    TYLER MILLS

    Hansel in College

    DOROTHY MOORE

    Cool Kids

    SHARON OLDS

    Thanks to Miss Brooks

    HALEY PATAIL

    The Golden Shovel (to bury the ghost)

    KADIJA SESAY

    Kriolising Kulcha

    MAGS WEBSTER

    Jessie from the Golden Shovel

    SHOLEH WOLPÉ

    We, the Basij

    When You Have Forgotten Sunday: The Love Story

    BRENDA HILLMAN

    Orb-Weaver Spiders, In Early Spring

    ALYSSA KELLY

    Unforgivable

    MARCUS SEDGWICK

    Before That Sunday

    LEONA SEVICK

    A Love Story

    XV

    DAN BEACHY-QUICK

    Places Never Gathered

    You Did Not Know You Were Afrika

    WANG PING

    She Shall Not Be

    Young Afrikans

    DEXTER L. BOOTH

    Neo-Afronaut Anthem

    KIMIKO HAHN

    The Real Cool

    Non-Brooks Golden Shovels

    HANA BEACHY-QUICK

    Golden Shovel

    CURTIS CRISLER

    On the other side of that window

    PHIL DACEY

    Parenthood

    KENDRA DECOLO

    Last Night On Earth We Go to Wendy’s

    SHARON DOLIN

    It takes so little

    NICK FLYNN

    Sky Burial

    ANTHONY JOSEPH

    She threw verbs and arrows at my

    IAN KHADAN

    Death in Brain

    TONI ASANTE LIGHTFOOT

    Middle Dreams

    BILLY LOMBARDO

    At Johnnie’s after Basketball Practice

    NICK MAKOHA

    The Shepherd . . .

    BLAKE MORRISON

    The Road to Wales

    JOHN O’CONNOR

    Immigrant

    PASCALE PETIT

    Square de la Place Dupleix

    KEVIN SIMMONDS

    Social Security

    DOROTHEA SMARTT

    Headway

    LISA RUSS SPAAR

    Even a Broken Clock Is Right Twice a Day

    DAVID ST. JOHN

    Robert Johnson’s Double-Edged Shovel

    JEAN VALENTINE

    Poem with Endwords by Reginald Shephard

    KAREN MCCARTHY WOOLF

    Of Ownership

    AVERY R. YOUNG

    pedagogy of a whoopin

    Variation and Expansions on the Form

    RAPHAEL ALLISON

    Double Golden Shovel

    JULIA ALVAREZ

    Behind the Scenes

    ELLEN BASS

    Morning (a twisted shovel)

    MELISA CAHNMANN-TAYLOR

    Frijolero Ex-Pats

    MARILYN CHIN

    Sadie and Maud, Redux

    FRED D’AGUIAR

    Golden Shovel Borrowed from Derek Walcott and Gwendolyn Brooks

    CALVIN FORBES

    The Devil’s Own

    DAVID GILMER

    When a Grief Has Come

    KEITH JARRETT

    Outside St. Dominic’s Priory. Snapshot, July 2015.

    A. VAN JORDAN

    People Who Have No Children Can Be Hard

    AMIT MAJMUDAR

    Selected Psalms from the Book of Brooks

    CAROL MUSKE-DUKES

    Accident

    MOLLY PEACOCK

    The Art of the Stroke:

    TOM SLEIGH

    Net

    JACINDA TOWNSEND

    Father

    CATHERINE WAGNER

    A Chat with the Endwords

    BUDDY WAKEFIELD

    A Private Service Announcement

    TYRONE WILLIAMS

    That’s Mr. Robert Johnson to You

    The Golden Shovel Poetry Prize

    STEPHANIE YEN

    Knead

    ZOSY J. ARGUETA

    Figure It Out

    ISABELLA GONZALEZ

    (Not Actual) Strangers

    CORINA ROBINSON

    Royalty

    AMRITA CHAKRABORTY

    Cold Alchemy

    REUBEN GELLEY NEWMAN

    (B)Less(ed) Ground(ed) in Queer(ed) Sky

    MARLENA WADLEY

    Gemini

    CHLÖE MOBLEY

    Mad Boy / Sad Boy at School

    Afterword

    Title Index

    Author Index

    Foreword

    This project is first and foremost a tribute to Gwendolyn Brooks. Because where do poems come from if not other poems? Where do forms come from if not other forms? So when Peter Kahn brought up the idea an anthology, I may have said something like, Go for it: Honor Ms. Brooks. Yes, I did write a poem using her We Real Cool, as the spine, but otherwise, I have done little more than admire Kahn’s tireless work to make this anthology come into being. Peter Kahn is the kind of reader of poetry, teacher of poetry, and poet who makes the world easier for other readers, teachers, and poets. Along the way he enlisted the help of the brilliant poets, Patricia Smith and Ravi Shankar, and talked scores of poets into writing their own Golden Shovel poems. I didn’t doubt for a moment that he’d produce the marvels awaiting you. The work here, like my own poem, is a way of maintaining, or making material, a link to one of our great poets. (I could just about end this foreword with that.)

    When my son was five and my daughter eight, I decided they should each memorize a poem. I gave my daughter a copy of Luck by Langston Hughes and my son a copy of We Real Cool and had them write the poems out and then recite them to me every day until they had them memorized. As I write this, it sounds a bit like some weird style of parental abuse. I’ve had time to consider where the idea originated: at the funeral of my father’s mother a month beforehand. She was a woman of few words.

    Remember Brooks’s poem a song in the front yard? The speaker has stayed in the front yard all her life, but wants to peek at the back where it’s rough and untended and hungry. My father’s mother was a backyard woman. He was her only child, born when she was fourteen under conditions she never shared. She kept a switchblade folded between her breasts; her hair was a wild plumage as gray as her effusive cigarette smoke before she died of lung cancer. She was the kind of woman Brooks would have depicted in a poem. Sometimes I think of my father’s mother when I read The Mother, or A Bronzeville Mother Loiters in Mississippi. Meanwhile, A Mississippi Mother Burns Bacon, or Jessie Mitchell’s Mother, or Sadie [scraping] life with a fine toothed comb, even Winnie Mandela, the resolving fiction who sometimes would like to be a little girl again.

    Bear with me. I’m only thinking of Gwendolyn Brooks’s myriad portraits of women on my way to the postfuneral scene at the home of one of my father’s cousins. When Gwendolyn Brooks died in the winter of 2000, she did not receive, at least beyond Chicago and poetry, a worthy send-off. It should have been a day of national mourning. I don’t know about you, but I have been, since her passing, returning to her work again and again with the feeling not enough has been made of it or her. She was the first black writer to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Literature. She was also poet laureate of Illinois from 1969 to 2000, 29th Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, and recipient of the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contributions to American Letters. She was a poetry advocate, a poetry patron, a poetry champion. Perhaps we can never say enough about Brooks. Certainly, poets like Elizabeth Alexander, Haki Madhubuti, and anyone graced by Brooks’s friendship, teaching, and presence continue to celebrate her. Still there have never been enough tributes, enough parades, enough Association of Writers and Writing Programs panels, enough statues and memorials.

    The house, when my father’s mother passed, was full of people who were strangers to me. My father is technically my stepfather. His mother never approved of his marriage to my mother when I was four. The sum total of my conversations with her wouldn’t fill a page. But that’s probably true of everyone she spoke with, maybe even her son. She died a mystery. No one shared stories and recollections as they had when, just a few years before, her sister died. And with no consoling stories to tell about the deceased, they turned inevitably to Bible verses and prayer. I’ve forgotten which verses were shared, but at some point someone pushed a three-or four-year-old boy into the center of the living room. We were spellbound as he recited the 23rd Psalm from memory with two big clear eyes set in a big freshly barbered head. Then he recited Psalm 24, and then, maybe Psalm 25. It seemed he could have gone on reciting verses by heart all night. When he was done, there was an explosion of applause. A blinding, radiant pride issued from his father’s face. Mildly appalled, I said to myself, Damn, you can fill a kid’s head with just about anything. Then mildly awestruck,

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