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Authors, sign in!April is always as strange month for me because it is Nation Poetry Month (NaPoMo), Nation Jazz Appreciation Month (JAM), ahem... Fred Joiner Appreciation Month (FAM); with all the reason to celebrate I often find myself not in the mood until after this day passes. This day begins the reflective moment that I usually find myself in when my birthday arrives. I was born three months premature on April 14th 1975. 10 days from now I will turn 33. Although it's hard for me to think about that because of the significance that this day holds in our lives as Americans. April 4, 1968 is a day that changed life in many American cities indefinitely, in the fallout of Dr. King's assassination; including the city I currently live and love in, Washington DC.
I try to imagine the streets of the Washington before the riots, sometimes my mind wanders even further back to when Alain Locke, Sterling Brown, Langston Hughes, Jean Toomer, Georgia Douglas Johnson and so many of the other great writers lived and worked in around Washington. I try to think out what their thoughts would be like on a day like this and what their responses not only as human beings would be but also as artists ...
Anyway, as I move through the remainder of this day I will be thinking of not only my new year to come on the 14th, but also how will I move through this month (and indeed my coming year) and honor all that inspires me. I will start with this fragment of a poem that I started while ruminating on Dr. Martin Luther King's life and NaPoMo, JAM and how, as Trane would say "get it all in"...
for DC
this city of vibrant
brown - raged
to a pile smoldering ash,
our dream reduced
to the spawn of buckshot
and flesh struggling
for breath
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Comments (2)
So much feeling is so few words. You are an artist. Yes, I think you captured what many felt that day (and feel again on this anniversary). Thank you so much for sharing this with us!
Posted by Nora Thomason
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April 5, 2008 11:02 AM
Posted on April 5, 2008 11:02
So glad that you're here.
Zola J.
Posted by Zola Jones
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April 5, 2008 11:43 AM
Posted on April 5, 2008 11:43